In yet another sign that even the nation's most robust newspapers continue to struggle to stay profitable, The Washington Post has turned to the Ford Foundation to finance four new reporters.
Editors at The Post announced the $500,000 foundation grant in a memo to the staff on Monday, saying that the money would be used to develop “special projects related to money, politics and governmentâ€; the journalists would report to the head of the paper's investigative unit, according to the memo.
A Ford Foundation spokesperson confirmed that this one-year grant had the potential to be renewed for two more years.
“The Foundation's support enables us to build on one of our central missions, and the terms of the grant give us complete editorial independence,†according to the memo.
In May, The Los Angeles Times announced that the Ford Foundation awarded the paper a $1 million, two-year grant to support f ive new reporting slots. The Times announced in a memo at the time that it planned to use the money to support coverage of immigration, the prison system and a slot in Brazil.
A Ford Foundation spokesman would not discuss future announcements about other papers receiving grants. But he did say that the foundation was having conversations with other media outlets about providing financing - and that those outlets were not only newspapers.
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