Knight Funds Information Initiatives
April 28, 2008
 The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has pledged up to $25 million over the next five years to create the Knight Center of Digital Excellence to accelerate digital access projects in the 26 U.S. communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers, including St. Paul and Duluth. Knight has also contributed $25 million to the national Newseum in Washington, D.C.; awarded a $500,000 grant to Duluth LISC; and launched a commission to study whether the information needs of 21st century citizens and communities are being met and make recommendations for public policy and private initiatives.
Knight Center of Digital Excellence
The nonprofit Knight Center of Digital Excellence will collect and share
international best practices online with communities everywhere. It will provide
on-the-ground aid to the Knight communities to develop technology strategies and
enable citizens to connect with each other and the world. Knight’s initiative
includes a $10 million Digital Opportunity fund offering challenge grants to
Knight communities.
Duluth LISC
The $500,000 grant will make five Duluth neighborhoods (Central and East
Hillside, Lincoln Park, Morgan Park, and West Duluth) significant participants
in a national effort to involve residents in long-term planning physical
improvements and comprehensive community development. The neighborhoods are
already targets of LISC’s Creating Neighborhoods That Work – At Home in
Duluth Sustainable Community strategy to transform distressed areas into
healthy communities of choice and opportunity. LISC, the nation’s leading
community development support organization, has been working in Duluth
neighborhoods since 1997 and was selected as one of 10 LISC Sustainable
Community demonstration sites in 2006.
Newseum
The new 250,000-square-foot, interactive museum of news will remind
generations of Washington visitors of the importance of the First Amendment,
free speech and the role of the media in a free society. The grant gives the
Knight name to two broadcast studios and a conference center at the Newseum, the
largest single project ever devoted to journalism and the free flow of news.
Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy
"The Commission will look at the issues of information, news and society from
the perspective of communities across the nation," said Alberto Ibargüen, Knight
Foundation president and CEO. "We want to assess their information needs, then
take a snapshot to see how they are being met. The Commission will offer
creative recommendations to improve democratic problem-solving at the local
level through more and better engagement with relevant news and information."
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