MacArthur Foundation awards $4 million to LION Publishers

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has awarded a $4 million, three-year grant to LION Publishers as part of the national Press Forward $500 million philanthropic project, the foundation has announced.

“We at LION see our work as infrastructure. This funding will provide a strong and stable base for that work over the crucial next few years, helping stabilize a number of news organizations directly while also providing more resources for our entire membership,” said Chris Krewson, executive director of LION Publishers. “We’re incredibly grateful to the MacArthur local news team for this vote of confidence in our work, and for providing essential support for our members’ contributions to the local news ecosystem.” 

$1.5 million of the grant will be regranted through a program supporting 15 LION members over two years in a program LION will develop and announce in 2025.

The grant also supports the Sustainability 360 program, which launched earlier this year as a pilot and is dedicated to helping 100 members reach the growth stage of LION’s independent news maturity model within the next five years. Throughout the program, participants will work with expert coaches to strengthen their financial health, expand their audiences, and bolster operational resilience.

This new grant will also allow LION to begin offering one year of back-office support in accounting and human resources to an additional cohort of members.

This investment from the MacArthur Foundation is part of a $19.2 million grant package in support of the local news sector. Other journalism support organizations that are a part of the announcement include the Listening Post Collective, the Tiny News Collective, URL Collective and the National Trust for Local News. MacArthur is also supporting several legacy news organizations directly, including LION members The New Amsterdam News and the Chicago Reader, as well as the Oklahoma Eagle and El Tecolete.

“Our grantmaking supports a range of organizations working to strengthen nascent and emerging local news ecosystems and their leaders, who innovate in these spaces, with tools, resources, and funding. This includes a cohort of legacy newsrooms pioneering new paths,” said Silvia Rivera, MacArthur’s Director of Local News. “These investments are part of a collective effort to ensure that local communities have steady access to reliable and trustworthy information.”

About the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

The MacArthur Foundation boldly invests in creative solutions to urgent challenges, sparking hope for our future. We work on a few big bets that strive toward transformative change in areas of profound concern, including the existential threats of climate change and nuclear risk, the challenges of criminal justice reform and revitalizing local news in the U.S. and corruption in Nigeria.

In addition, we maintain enduring commitments in our hometown Chicago, where we invest in people, places, and partnerships to build a more inclusive Chicago and in journalism and media, where we invest in more just and inclusive news and narratives.

We also make awards to extraordinarily creative individuals through the MacArthur Fellows program and for solutions to critical problems of our time through 100&Change.

Learn more about LION here.