Facebook Invests $100M To Help Journalists And Media Outlets Hit By Coronavirus.
On Monday morning, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Facebook in a post that we are investing $100M to help journalists especially focused on local news and media outlets around the world that have been impacted by the coronavirus. The money announced Monday will come on top of $300 million that Facebook, one of the world’s largest tech platforms and a critical digital news gatekeeper, pledged last year to invest in local news by the end of 2021.
Mark Zuckerberg says:
https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10111734655907291
Campbell Brown, VP Global News Partnerships) wrote in a blog post:
Facebook announced an additional $100 million investment to support the news industry—$25 million in emergency grant funding for local news through the Facebook Journalism Project, and $75 million in additional marketing spent to move money over to news organizations around the world.
Through the COVID-19 Community Network grant program, direct funding is helping journalists cover important stories when we all need them most. We’re building on this work and will direct a portion of these funds to publishers most in need in the hardest-hit countries. The first round of these grants went to 50 local newsrooms in the US and Canada. Here are some examples of how they’ve used the funding to support their COVID-19 news coverage:
- The Post and Courier, South Carolina
- Took down its paywall for coronavirus stories. The grant will be used to cover travel costs and remote work capabilities to extend coverage to rural and new desert portions of the state.
- Southeast Missourian, Missouri
- Published email newsletters highlighting coronavirus coverage. The newspaper will use its grant to bolster remote work technology and on contingency plans for reaching elderly readers should print distribution be disrupted.
- El Paso Matters, Texas
- A new local online news organization was launched earlier this year by former El Paso Times editor Bob Moore. The team will use their grant to hire freelance reporters and translators to expand coverage of the coronavirus in El Paso and across the border in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
“This money will not only help keep journalists reporting right now amidst the crisis, but the funding will also fuel opportunities for local media to accelerate the business transformation toward a more sustainable digital footing,” said Nancy Lane, CEO of the Local Media Association.
“Local news organizations, especially hyper-local news organizations including those serving black and other underserved communities, have experienced challenges with the sustainability and distribution of news and information in the current media environment. COVID-19 has exacerbated an already existing crisis and our jobs have just gotten tougher. With such a sizable infusion from Facebook, local news organizations across the country will benefit as will our readers, our viewers, and our listeners,” said Janis Ware, publisher of The Atlanta Voice.
This commitment builds upon the $300 million we’ve committed already to serving journalists around the world through diverse and inclusive news programs and partnerships, including Report for America, the Pulitzer Center, the Community News Project, and the Facebook Journalism Project’s Local News Accelerator training program.
If people need more proof that local journalism is a vital public service, they’re getting it now. And while almost all businesses are facing adverse financial effects from this crisis, we recognize we’re in a more privileged position than most, and we want to help.
Read about Facebook invests $5.7 billion in Jio https://about.fb.com/news/2020/04/facebook-invests-in-jio/
Read https://emeatribune.com/twitter-data-cache-on-mozilla-firefox-vulnerability/
