Press Forward Blue Grass Invests $100,000 in 10 Kentucky Newsrooms

Grants from the Sustainable Newsroom Innovation Grant program support projects in revenue, audience growth and reporting capacity

 

Press Forward Blue Grass has awarded $100,000 in Sustainable Newsroom Innovation Grants to 10 local news organizations across Kentucky. The grants invest in projects that strengthen local journalism’s long-term sustainability and expand access to reliable, community-centered news and information.

The grants, administered through Blue Grass Community Foundation, support innovative projects that help local newsrooms diversify revenue, grow audiences, build reporting capacity, develop the next generation of journalists and deepen community trust.

The 10 grant recipients represent a diverse cross-section of Kentucky’s local news ecosystem, including nonprofit and for-profit news organizations, digital publications, student journalism organizations, arts publications and community media outlets.

“Our goal isn’t simply to help newsrooms survive,” said Melissa Newman, executive director of Press Forward Blue Grass. “Our goal is to help them build sustainable futures. We were encouraged by the quality of proposals we received. These newsrooms are developing new business models, training the next generation of journalists and finding creative ways to serve their communities.”

Grant Recipients

The 2026 Sustainable Newsroom Innovation Grant recipients are:

• CivicLex – Expanding civic journalism through innovative print products and new earned revenue strategies.
• The Edge – Launching the Kentucky Land Use News Desk, a statewide reporting collaborative focused on land use
• Kentucky Student Voice Team – Establishing a Rural Journalism Satellite Bureau to train and support the next generation of student journalists.
• MEDIALEX – Creating a multilingual Community Reporter Program to expand trusted reporting across Lexington’s diverse communities.
• Queer Kentucky – Building a network of Central Kentucky community reporters to increase representation and strengthen local journalism.
• Kentucky Lantern – Developing the UK–Kentucky Lantern Policy Pipeline to prepare future statehouse reporters through hands-on public policy reporting.
• UnderMain Arts – Expanding arts journalism through strategic audience development, sponsorship growth and long-term sustainability planning.
• WinCity Voices – Investing in professional reporting equipment to strengthen newsroom infrastructure and community storytelling.
• The Winchester Sun – Launching a Community Newsroom Project that trains neighborhood correspondents to report on the communities they know best.
• The Woodford Sun – Supporting the newspaper’s transition to nonprofit ownership by funding a modern digital publishing platform that will strengthen audience growth, sponsorship opportunities and long-term sustainability.

Each organization received up to $10,000 to support projects that will be implemented over the coming year.

Building Sustainable Local News

The Sustainable Newsroom Innovation Grants are part of Press Forward Blue Grass’s broader mission to strengthen local news across Central and Appalachian Kentucky through its three strategic pillars: Invest, Convene and Educate.

Since its launch, Press Forward Blue Grass has worked alongside local news organizations by providing grant funding, technical assistance, newsroom convenings, journalism education, internship programs, policy leadership and collaborative initiatives to strengthen the local news ecosystem.

Grant recipients will participate in technical assistance, peer learning and project evaluation throughout the year. This work will help identify successful models that can be replicated in other newsrooms.