Under pressure: building journalism funds for a hostile world

The shrinking of international funding for public interest journalism comes precisely when accurate, reliable news and information is under brazen attack from some of the richest and most powerful people on the planet. This asymmetrical and increasingly dangerous environment is forcing another rethink of how independent journalism sustains itself - and attention is turning, with real urgency, to local and regional financing.
The picture is nuanced. While some institutions are more cautious than ever about directing money towards journalism specifically, concern about the wider information environment - about misinformation, the concentration of platform power, and the integrity of public discourse - is growing. But can that concern can translate into the kinds of sustained, structural investment that public interest journalism actually needs? New funds are being established across countries, regions and cities around the world - and the question is shifting: not only whether to build financial structures for healthier information environments and public interest media, but how to build them well, and how to make them last.
This conversation brings together three figures working across the full spectrum of journalism finance: Dale Anglin of Press Forward in the USA, Nishant Lalwani of the International Fund for Public Interest Media, and Saša Vučinić of North Base Media - moderated by Sameer Padania. Together, they will ask: What financial vehicles and structures are being built, where and how? What should the funds that already exist be thinking and doing, both individually and together? And where are the real barriers, pitfalls, and opportunities to build structures that can withstand pressure and attack, and that can help independent media, data, and AI businesses with a genuine public interest role to emerge and thrive?
The Press Forward initiative, led by Dale Anglin, has brought scale, momentum and common purpose to the funding of news and information across the USA, and has inspired international versions, including the Media Forward Fund in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. Press Forward is now supporting emerging collaborative funds elsewhere, such as the UK, “to share information and best practices on ways to position news for a broad range of financial support and help the industry manage the various changes it faces.”
The International Fund for Public Interest Media (IFPIM), led by Nishant Lalwani, is the first pooled collaborative fund in media with international organisation status. IFPIM has supported local partners to develop and launch locally-led, locally-owned journalism funds from Latin America to South East Asia. At last year's Festival, IFPIM supported steps towards an international peer network of journalism funds, and will shortly publish a position paper on what this growing wave tells us about the future of funding with international financing in decline.
Saša Vučinić is co-founder and Chair of the Investment Committee of North Base Media, a boutique investment firm specializing in journalism-related media and technology companies serving growth markets, especially in emerging markets. Saša co-founded the Media Development Loan Fund (now called MDIF), and continues to pioneer innovative ways to finance accurate, quality information worldwide.
Moderator Sameer Padania is the co-author of a new guide on how cities can support healthier local information environments, including by creating arm’s-length funding initiatives, and lead author on Demos' report on how to increase the independence and accountability of the BBC.