Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Knight Foundation offers grants

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is offering $5 million in the "Knight Brothers 21st Century News Challenge" contest, the first part of a planned $25 million investment over the next five years in "community news projects."

The contest wants ideas that combine new media with news values to help connect and build communities: "Newspapers have long defined the communities we live in. They shape how we think about community and how we understand what's happening on our block or around the world. But as digital media increasingly becomes the way we receive and share news, who will perform this community function? Who will do in the 21st century what our founders, the Knight brothers, did with their newspapers in the last century?"

The Challenge's Web site, with an online application form, is at www.newschallenge.org. The competition will accept applications through Dec. 31, and expects to begin announcing winners in the spring of 2007. "Anybody, anywhere around the world can enter. Just as long as you've got an innovative idea that uses the digital world to connect people in the real world. That's the only rule," according to a Knight press release.

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