MacArthur Foundation Donates $500K To URL Media To Expand Editorial Support And Formation Of Non-Profit

The MacArthur Foundation is paying it forward in media in the form of a $500k grant aimed at amplifying editorial efforts of URL Media.

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is paying it forward in media in the form of a $500k grant aimed at amplifying editorial efforts of URL Media.

On Monday, Dec. 18, URL announced the one-year $500,000 grant it received from the MacArthur Foundation to support the expansion of its editorial capacity and the formation of URL’s non-profit arm, URL Collective. As part of the grant, URL Media partners – Outlier Media and Documented – will also receive funding and add to URL’s growing media partners from eight to 25.

“We are excited to be one of MacArthur’s grantees at this critically important time,” Sara M. Lomax, co-founder and president of URL Media and president and CEO of WURD Radio, said. “URL’s network of more than 25 Black and Brown newsrooms will be pivotal in informing and engaging our communities while addressing misinformation and disinformation in the upcoming presidential election. Having the resources to expand our collaborative reporting initiatives across this powerful network will be transformative.”

Other media partners impacted by the grant include Black Girl Times, Black Voice News, Epicenter-NYC, Immigrantly Podcast, La Noticia, Native News Online, Our Body Politic, palabra., Pulso, Prism, PushBlack, Sahan Journal, Scalawag, Scroll Stack, TBN24, The Haitian Times, The Oklahoma Eagle, Watch the Yard, and WURD Radio.

In addition to the formation of the nonprofit, URL Media, which operates as a network of media organizations that serve, support, and center communities of color, will use the grant to expand the editorial capacity of its partner platforms, increase collaborations, and grow URL and its partners’ audiences with a focus on eliminating prejudice and discrimination in the media while raising public awareness and visibility on topics that impact BIPOC communities.

“This grant is a recognition of our collective success,” S. Mitra Kalita, co-founder and CEO of URL Media, as well as the co-founder and publisher of Epicenter-NYC said. “We will continue to advocate for the mutual uplift of our organizations and communities we represent. We are grateful to invest in and continue to build an interdependent, sustainable local news ecosystem. It’s the kind of multiplatform network of multicultural outlets that URL represents that is key to saving democracy. It will take a full-court press that leverages philanthropy, advertising services, collaboration – all of it to meet this moment.”