All posts in the topic Knight Foundation Competition Will Award Millions To Innovative Community News Experiments (Short link)

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Dear New Media Leader,

I want to alert you to the fact that Knight Foundation President Alberto
Ibarguen has announced a $5 million competition that we are calling the Knight
Brothers 21st Century News Challenge.

In your position, you might hear people talking about this or receive questions
about it, so we wanted to make sure you knew our schedule, and some basics
about our plan.

The purpose of the challenge is to fund new community news projects that use
the digital world to connect people in the real world.

The communities were concerned with are those that help people where they live
and work. Online communities dont need our help. Virtual communities spring up
every day. But the idea of turning the web on its head to help people connect
in real life does need our help.

In the 20th Century, the Knight Brothers owned newspapers that were the glue
that held communities together. We'd like to know who or what will do that in
the 21st Century?

What do we mean by "glue"? Great newspapers help communities become aware of
their real situations. They inspire people to come up with new ideas to improve
things. And they bestir people to pursue their true interests.

We want to help news organizations create products that engage a new generation
of users, particularly because other companies already have. We want to make
sure that innovative products are created that continue to serve the fair,
accurate, contextual search for truth.

The competition will make awards in the following categories:

Ideas
Pilot projects and field tests
Leadership projects
Commercial investments
Open submissions

The Challenge web site, with an online application form, is at
www.newschallenge.org.

We will accept applications through Dec. 31, and hope to begin announcing
winners in the spring of 2007. We will be assisted by outside reviewers, using
a similar process as was used to select Knight Chairs.

We hope you will pass this information along to anyone who might have an idea
or project that would qualify. This competition is open to anyone, not just the
journalism community.

If you get questions about this, please refer them to
<email obscured>.

 Here is the news announcement:




Knight Foundation Competition Will Award Millions
To Innovative Community News Experiments
$5 Million Knight Brothers 21st Century News Challenge
to Fund New Forms of Community Journalism in Cyberspace

MIAMI  The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation today launches the Knight
Brothers 21st Century News Challenge, investing as much as $5 million in its
first year in community news projects that best use the digital world to
connect people to the real world.

The News Challenge is looking to fund new ideas, prototypes, products and
leadership initiatives that use innovative news methods to help citizens better
connect within their communities.

The competition is open to anyone, not just the journalism community.

News and information are the glue that binds communities. We want to help
todays high-tech news do in the 21st century what the Knight brothers
newspapers did this past century, said Alberto Ibargen, president of Knight
Foundation.

Through their newspapers, the Knight brothers helped build a sense of community
in cities and towns across the country. They did it by providing news,
information and commentary that helped citizens understand their common
interests and opportunities. The Knight brothers helped define the geography
where people lived. We want to continue that tradition using new media to do
what the brothers used to do with ink on paper, said Ibargen.

If the quality of entries warrant it, the foundation may spend as much as $25
million during the next five years in the search for bold community news
experiments.

Wed like to encourage the newest ways for people to pursue a great American
tradition: the fair, accurate, contextual search for the truth, said Eric
Newton, Knights director of Journalism Initiatives. We want to help the
citizens of this new century get the news they need to run their governments
and their lives.

The Challenge 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.

The foundation and its special panel of new media advisors will look for
innovative proposals that contain a unique combination of vision, courage and
know-how in their ability to use cyberspace to better connect people to the
physical space where they live and work.

Cell phone documentaries? New operating software for news collectors?
Journalism games? Nothing is too far out to qualify.

We hesitate to set too many rules, said Knight journalism program officer Gary
Kebbel, because we expect the best entries will be ideas that totally surprise
us.

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation promotes journalism excellence
worldwide and invests in the vitality of U.S. communities where the Knight
brothers owned newspapers. Since its creation in 1950, the foundation has
invested nearly $300 million to advance journalism quality and freedom of
expression. For more on Knights work, visit www.knightfdn.org

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Contact:
Larry Meyer, Vice President of Communications, John S. and James L. Knight
Foundation, (305) 908-2610, <email obscured>.