Susan Smith Richardson, former managing editor of Guardian US and CEO of the Center for Public Integrity, has joined The Pivot Fund as managing director, as the fund expands to support hyperlocal news outlets serving communities of color nationwide.
The Pivot Fund also announced that foundations and major donors have invested more than $2 million so far this year in the Fund’s unique approach to rebuilding local news: Begin by asking communities who they trust for news and information; give outlets enough money to hire at least one staffer so they can make transformational change; and support them with culturally competent, wraparound services.
“The Pivot Fund has developed a way to support BIPOC local publishers at scale, which is key to building vibrant and inclusive local news,” said Tracie Powell, Pivot founder and CEO. “Susan will ensure our organization is as strong as our mission as we expand, operating with transparency and accountability for both our grantees and funders.”
“I am thrilled to join The Pivot Fund, which was one of the first organizations to recognize that a revolution is taking place in local news, and journalism funders need to adapt to support it,” said Richardson. “The outlets supported by The Pivot Fund inform and engage communities of color, strengthening our multicultural democracy.”
In recent years, tens of thousands of hyperlocal and topic-based news outlets have sprung up nationwide, many publishing solely on social media. Millions of Americans, especially in communities of color, turn to them for news and information. Many don’t look like traditional news organizations, but the Pivot Fund invests in the ones that share journalistic values. With support tailored to their unique needs, they can grow exponentially.
The Pivot Fund’s first cohort of grantees are from central and South Georgia; several quickly expanded revenues and added new revenue streams. Pivot subsequently invested in Baltimore Beat, the city’s Black-led-and-serving news outlet and 285 South, which focuses on immigrant communities in suburban Atlanta.
“We invest in local publishers who know the value of a dollar and have something that money can’t buy — the trust of their communities,” Powell said. “We’re not surprised at the extraordinary impact of these investments.”
In the coming weeks, The Pivot Fund will announce its next cohort of direct grantees across the country as part of its strategy to support BIPOC-led (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) local publishers at scale.
To identify more of those publishers, Pivot is conducting landscape analyses in several Midwestern states, starting with Minnesota and Michigan, this year with support from the McKnight and Joyce foundations, founding members of the Press Forward local news initiative.
Richardson is the ideal leader to manage Pivot’s expansion, having led or played key roles at several news organizations committed to stronger, more inclusive journalism.
An award-winning editor with more than three decades of experience in news, including nearly a decade as a senior executive, Richardson joined Guardian US in 2021. Previously, she was CEO of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Center for Public Integrity, one of America’s oldest nonprofit investigative journalism organizations.
Before that, she was editorial director at Solutions Journalism Network, a nonprofit focused on civic engagement and strengthening democracy. When she was editor and publisher at nonprofit news outlet The Chicago Reporter, the organization won an Investigative Reporters and Editors award and a Livingston Award.
The Pivot Fund’s growth is powered by foundations and individual donors who recognize its unique mission and see how it aligns with their goals. Among those is the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), which contributed $750,000 to the more than $2 million committed so far this year. RWJF recognizes that trusted outlets are essential to delivering potentially lifesaving information to communities of color.
“We all want to realize a future where health is no longer a privilege, but a right. Yet, this vision is only a fantasy if we don’t support communities in telling their own stories, in their own voices, about the future they see for themselves and for our nation,” said Allyn Brooks-LaSure, RWJF’s vice president for communications. “The Pivot Fund fortifies these voices through partnerships that broaden and amplify community stories, wisdoms, and aspirations.”
Other philanthropic investors supporting local news through the Pivot Fund include Atticus Fund, Avis Family Foundation, Democracy Fund, Foundation for a Just Society, the Henry Luce Foundation, Humanity United, JPB Foundation, Lumina Foundation, New Profit, Open Society Foundations, Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Rural Democracy Initiative, the Tides Foundation and World Education Services (WES) Mariam Assefa Fund.
“Supporting The Pivot Fund means more people in rural communities will have trusted news organizations providing timely, accurate, and engaging information on critical local issues, said Sarah Jaynes, Rural Democracy Initiative executive director. “Their grants and mentorship to news organizations in Georgia and across the South have demonstrated a successful model for reinvigorating local news, and we’re pleased to help The Pivot Fund expand.”
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