02/16/2018

Foundation unveils journalism grant program for ONMA members

By Dennis Hetzel, Executive Director

The Ohio News Media Foundation will make grants available to ONMA members for local journalism projects and assignments that wouldn’t be otherwise be funded or executed as well without financial support.

We were excited to unveil this new program at the annual convention last week after our trustees voted unanimously to approve the program a day earlier.

Watch for an announcement as soon as we are ready to launch our online application form. We anticipate making grants in the range of $250 to $1,500 for worthy projects until budgeted funds are exhausted each year.

For example, many small newspapers have no budget for out-of-state travel. Perhaps you need to travel to Washington to do interviews or check records. Or, maybe you need to hire outside experts to analyze evidence in an unsolved criminal case or how a local governmental body is spending money. Perhaps you need support from a free-lance reporter or photographer to complete work on a story important to your readers.

The bottom line for our panel of reviewers will be the importance of the story to your community and your explanation of why the funds are necessary. The review panel will respond as quickly as possible to grant requests and will be made up of ONMA trustees and others with journalism credentials such as editors and journalism professors.

In the meantime, start thinking now about ways your newsroom can take advantage of the Ohio News Media Foundation Journalism Grant program.