Lenfest Institute and Google News Initiative award community listening grants to 13 news organizations

The partnership supports Lenfest Community of Practice members with multiple grants ranging from $5,000-$25,000 and access to the Google News Initiative’s suite of tools

June 24, 2025

The Lenfest Institute for Journalism and the Google News Initiative are today announcing the 13 news organizations receiving support to experiment with community listening as part of the Lenfest-Google News Initiative News Catalyst Grant program.

All 13 of the participating news organizations are part of The Lenfest Institute’s Communities of Practice, an industry-wide support network serving hundreds of news organizations and thousands of professionals nationwide. The organizations will receive funding to proactively engage with new audiences in-person and online, along with access to the Google News Initiative’s suite of tools, such as News Consumer Insights 3.0 and Pinpoint, which help news organizations research and report local news, grow revenue, and better understand their audiences.

In an era of rapidly changing news habits and widely felt distrust in the news media, the experiments supported by the grants will help organizations better understand community needs, build brand recognition, and meet audiences where they are — while boosting their impact and their businesses.

The Lenfest-Google News Initiative News Catalyst Grants are made possible through generous support from the Google News Initiative.

“As social platforms send fewer referrals to news organizations, mission-driven outlets can no longer rely on algorithms to reach their communities. This shift hurts not just discovery for new consumers, but also limits access for regular readers. This grant acknowledges that audience development now requires proactive, often offline engagement — showing up in person, investing in relationships, and building trust one conversation at a time,” said Lenfest Institute Head of National Programs Tristan Loper. “With this investment from the Google News Initiative, grantees will test and demonstrate new ways of connecting with the people they serve.”

“We’re thrilled to support The Lenfest Institute and these 13 innovative news organizations as they deepen their engagement with local communities,” said Tiffany Proscia, Google News Initiative, Partner Manager. “These grants empower newsrooms to experiment with new approaches, helping them build trust, foster growth, and continue to build their audiences.”

Learn more about the grantees and their projects:

• Arizona Luminaria will launch an Education Solutions Advisory Group consisting of diverse community stakeholders that will help shape its education coverage based on gaps and monitor audience growth.
• CalMatters will work with trusted community messengers to improve existing digital resources and create physical versions of those same resources to deepen its reach among and engagement with audiences that may not be consistent news consumers.
• To deepen engagement with existing audiences and attract new, younger followers, Enlace Latino NC will increase its interactive live events via WhatsApp and Facebook and adapt content from those streams into shorter forms for TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
• In response to the growing news deserts in the Kauaʻi and Hawaiʻi Islands, Honolulu Civil Beat will launch a digital survey and conduct in-person focus groups across both islands to understand residents’ information needs, news consumption habits, and media literacy.
• As technology becomes more readily available and communities are less reliant on radio, the Alaska-based KCAW – Raven Radio will conduct various community engagement efforts in the rural communities of Kake and Yakutat to understand how people, especially younger generations, are engaging with media.
• To increase memberships and deepen financial support, Minnesota Women’s Press will host online discussions for its members featuring its writers on social issues like gender-based violence, housing, transformative justice, and feminist leadership.
• San José Spotlight will partner with local affinity groups to host listening sessions focused on the needs of Black, Latino, and Asian American communities in Silicon Valley. These insights will inform the organization’s editorial direction, audience engagement strategy, and product development and will be followed up with an additional survey to ensure community priorities are met.
• Santa Cruz Local will lead an events series in collaboration with a local college and other partners to help students connect on local issues, understand local government, and increase its own brand awareness.
• Spotlight PA’s State College bureau will host in-person and virtual listening sessions, promoting them through social media, direct mail, and local advertising. The goal is to increase attendance for the listening sessions, uncover critical story tips, and broaden Spotlight PA’s overall audience in the region.
• To better reach Latino audiences, The Local Journalism Initiative of Delaware, which owns Spotlight Delaware, will conduct in-person community engagement activities — including canvassing local business and events at community centers — to build trust and spread the word about its video news content in Spanish.
• The Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, which publishes The Maine Monitor, will conduct a listening tour across the state to understand how audiences are being served by the news, how they prefer to consume it, and what the organization can do to ensure Mainers get the news they need
• The Santa Barbara News-Press, which was recently relaunched by NEWSWELL, will host listening sessions and distribute Spanish-language surveys across Santa Barbara, especially in low-income, majority-Latino areas. The findings will be used to inform its editorial strategy, language accessibility, and platform decisions.
• After survey results show a need to engage younger and geographically diverse audiences more deeply, VTDigger will launch informal “News & Brews” events in rural gathering spots to offer Vermonters a chance to eat and chat directly with its reporters. It will also spread its surveys more widely through trusted community ambassadors.

To help the broader journalism community, the grantees will work with The Lenfest Institute upon conclusion of their experiments to publish case studies on lessons learned.

These 13 projects were chosen from a pool of applications across the Statewide News Collective, the Lenfest Audience Community, and the Engaged Cities community. Learn more about how you can join a Community of Practice here and sign up for The Lenfest Institute’s Solution Set newsletter to be notified about future opportunities.