URL Media and the NCRC Community Development Fund plan an expansion of their pilot program, the Media Resilience Fund, to provide low-interest financing to community media, particularly those meeting critical information needs in underserved and underestimated populations. Rebuild Local News, which advocates for public policy changes to support and strengthen local journalism, also serves as partner consultant on the project.
The expansion is made possible by a grant from Press Forward’s Open Call on Infrastructure, which is providing $22 million to 22 projects that address the urgent challenges local newsrooms face today. URL and the NCRC Community Development Fund will receive $1.25 million to strengthen the financial infrastructure behind trusted local journalism. The funding enables local newsrooms to hire staff who can strengthen revenue, pursue business partnerships that grow revenue, or implement technological upgrades that enhance revenue. By offering flexible loans and tailored financial guidance, this initiative helps independent outlets stabilize operations and invest directly in those revenue-generating strategies.
“There’s real challenges across the board for our industry,” says Sara Lomax, the co-founder and president of URL Media and the CEO of WURD Radio in Philadelphia. “When you compound that with the historic challenges that multicultural organizations have faced… the problem requires out-of-the box solutions.”
Access to financing has long plagued minority businesses and media organizations, and that can make it harder for newsrooms to grow, whether cultivating new ad deals or increasing their audience size. “They can’t get loans,” says Steven Waldman, the founder and president of Rebuild Local News. “Even when they have an idea for growing their revenue or serving their audience better, they can’t get financing. This program is very important and very innovative. We hope this becomes a model for the whole country.”
The NCRC Community Development Fund has long worked with community organizations to create opportunities for people to build wealth. After championing fairness in banking, housing, and business, it now includes the media sector as a vital layer in community building. “This fund has a product to drive revenue to newsrooms and local media across the country,” says Mac McNeil, executive director of NCRC’s Community Development Fund. “We want to help these businesses stay in business and we also want to increase their capacity. The ultimate goal? To power local media economic revolutions.”
You can read more about the project in a white paper from Rebuild Local News here and a panel discussion at NCRC’s Just Economy Conference. Notably, the coalition of the three organizations was originally convened in the spring of 2021 by former NCRC chief communications and marketing officer Andrew Nachison for a discussion about the role of journalism in a more just economy. In a poignant essay penned in May, he revealed: “There is no good day or way to say it: I am dying.” The Media Resilience Fund becomes one of Andrew Nachison’s many legacies.
The full list of Press Forward recipients is available online at https://pressforward.news/infrastructure25.
Several URL Media partners are among them:
Immigrant News Coalition, $1.5 million; partners include Documented and Sahan Journal
Latino Media Consortium, $750,000; partners include Luz Media, Pulso, El Tecolote and Enlace Latino NC
Meedan, $1 million; partners include Epicenter NYC
