Streng­thening Journalism

Dear readers

It is precious, essen­tial and endan­ge­red: the infor­ma­tive public discourse. 

Phil­an­thropy in parti­cu­lar needs this: those who engage in nonpro­fit work derive their legi­ti­macy from public, fact-based debate. Nonpro­fit acti­vi­ties are not some­thing that can be deter­mi­ned within small circles of people; they concern ever­yone to some extent. With the media crisis, all social actors, inclu­ding foun­da­ti­ons and phil­an­thro­pists, must incre­asingly ques­tio­ning their role.

Media promo­tion is chal­len­ging. The indus­try is in a state of uphe­aval – or, in many places, collapse. Digi­ta­li­sa­tion has eroded the finan­cing model of many media compa­nies. Tech­no­lo­gi­cal change is chan­ging the work of jour­na­lists and media consump­tion in equal measure. A funda­men­tal change in the way infor­ma­tion is hand­led, combi­ned with tech­no­lo­gi­cal advan­ces, is driving the produc­tion and distri­bu­tion of fake news. What the media land­scape of tomor­row will look like remains to be seen. There is no recipe (yet), not even from the poli­ti­cal side. How the state should promote the media is an open ques­tion. Discus­sions have stal­led. Phil­an­thropy, on the other hand, has a clear path: our grand survey shows that phil­an­thro­pists have been working hard on the media land­scape of the future for a long time, with incre­asing enthu­si­asm. Spon­sors are faced with the exci­ting task of how they can streng­then the inde­pen­dence of the media – without making it depen­dent on themselves.

Phil­an­thropy has some convin­cing advan­ta­ges: it is faster and more direct than state support. Phil­an­thropy can expe­ri­ment with models and deve­lo­p­ments that may never make a breakth­rough, but even if they fail, they make an important contri­bu­tion to advan­cing the market as a whole. In doing so, phil­an­thropy streng­thens inde­pen­dent jour­na­lism and demo­cracy – a contri­bu­tion whose value can hardly be overe­sti­ma­ted in the current climate. 

The Philanthropist-Team