Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/non-profit-groups-financing-independent-journalism Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript A rise in the number of non-profit organizations funding journalism projects is changing how newsrooms gather independent content. Two media experts discuss the shift in foreign and investigative reporting. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JEFFREY BROWN: When "60 Minutes" correspondent Scott Pelley introduced a report on Sunday about the U.S.-funded al-Hurra network, he told viewers that the story was a collaboration with a new news organization called ProPublica.The al-Hurra story was, in fact, the debut of ProPublica, an independent, nonprofit newsroom supported by private philanthropy and aimed at providing three in-depth investigative news stories to a variety of media organizations.ProPublica's Web site lists its funders. The Sandler Foundation, started by former bankers Herb and Marion Sandler, has made a major multi-year commitment and states as its mission to produce stories with moral force that shine a light on exploitation of the weak by the strong and on the failures of those with power to vindicate the trust placed in them.The effort comes at a time of upheaval in the news business amid advertising revenue losses, fewer readers and viewers, and resulting cuts in staffing that threaten traditional areas of coverage, including in-depth investigations and foreign reporting.Cable television, for example, has in many cases turned to less expensive opinion journalism. In response, the journalism world is seeing a rise in independent nonprofit efforts.Some, like the Center for Investigative Reporting, have been at it for years, providing stories to network and cable TV, as well as PBS's "Frontline" and national newspapers, magazines and radio.More recent projects include the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University in Washington and the Global News, which plans to be the first fully Web-based news organization to provide daily coverage of international news, building a team of 70 correspondents in 53 countries. REPORTER: After nearly two decades of bitter conflict over Kashmir… JEFFREY BROWN: The Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting also has an international focus, looking at stories it believes have been underreported, misreported, or not reported at all.In addition, there are now many regional and city-based Web sites that focus on critical underreported stories in their area, such as the Center for Independent Media's six spin-off sites in New Mexico, Minnesota, Michigan, Iowa, Colorado, and Washington, D.C.