A moment of truth for public interest media

New $2 million grant from Luminate will support IFPIM to create fair value exchange between Big Tech and public interest journalism

By Alexandra Buccianti and Stephen King

Public interest media faces a perfect storm. Brutal repression, AI-fuelled disinformation, and systemic revenue losses worsened by Big Tech’s dominance: around the world, protecting our shared reality is getting harder by the day.

Nicaragua's Confidencial operates in exile, publishing online after police raided their newsrooms.

Georgia's Batumelebi and Netgazeti bravely drew attention to a Russia-backed 'foreign agent' law, but face dwindling local financial support ahead of crucial elections.

Journalists at Nepal's Himalmedia endure physical attacks and imprisonment, struggling to keep staff under harsh conditions.

Meanwhile in Lebanon, reporters at Daraj are fearlessly reporting on the war’s devastating impact on civilian lives.

Public interest media outlets like these are struggling to survive, and these threats are further enabled by the economics of media collapse. The sector’s foundations are undermined by the digital age and financial downturns, shifting advertising revenue away from news. 

This has severely impacted news organisations, with the global newspaper advertising market dropping 39% from 2019 to 2024. The pandemic accelerated closures, such as 942 news outlets in Brazil and 254 newspapers in Bangladesh.

The media landscape is now dominated by Big Tech companies that focus on content distribution and monetising user data, putting public interest media at a disadvantage. Digital advertising revenue has not grown enough to compensate for print losses. The survival of independent journalism is at stake, especially in low- and middle-income countries. 

What we are witnessing is not a crisis of journalism, but a crisis of democracy itself. Societies without trustworthy news sources are defenseless against misinformation, corruption, and authoritarianism.

Meanwhile, the number of journalists killed last year — often deliberately by states or other actors who wish to silence them — has never been higher, a majority of them in Gaza.

Last month, the United Nations General Assembly acknowledged the scale of the threats to our information ecosystem with its new Pact for the Future, which pledges to protect journalists and freedom of expression while fighting disinformation.

But a new crisis is looming that will test the strength of that commitment.

While artificial intelligence holds promise for advancements in numerous fields, it also accelerates the spread and sophistication of disinformation. Generative AI, deepfakes, and algorithmic recommendation systems are further entrenching digital propaganda, making it nearly impossible for the public to discern fact from fiction. Moreover, as AI becomes integrated into search engines, tech platforms will siphon valuable clicks away from independent media, further centralising the power of distribution in the hands of Big Tech.

The situation is critical but not hopeless. The International Fund for Public Interest Media (IFPIM) was created to address these systemic challenges. It offers more than just unrestricted funding: it employs an ecosystem approach that aims to rebuild and sustain media landscapes under threat.

Accurate reporting from trusted media is a bulwark against digital propaganda, such as social media used to ‘cleanse’ damaged reputations. With the coming ubiquity of AI-generated propaganda, high-quality journalism will be indispensable in countering these distortions in real-time. IFPIM is uniquely positioned to support this critical role to support independent journalism through a holistic approach.

With over $50 million raised from governments, philanthropic organizations, and corporations — including substantial support from France, the United States, Ghana, and Taiwan — the fund represents a global acknowledgment of the media crisis and the abysmal capital investment to date. As IFPIM’s CEO Nishant Lalwani points out, less than 10% of donor support to news media reaches organisations in middle- and low-income countries.

Luminate, the foundation where we work, played a pivotal role in bringing IFPIM to life. Our continued commitment, in the form of a new $2 million grant will further support its work to create fair value exchange between Big Tech and public interest journalism, and also help media outlets adapt to the rapidly changing tech landscape. This builds on Luminate’s $1 million seed funding to IFPIM, which has helped it to hone a unique approach: funding both Global South media outlets as well as resources for the global media sector, with a focus on both local solutions and the needs of underrepresented groups. This new grant includes a strong research and policy component which will produce insights on how to fund better information in the age of AI disruption.

We hope to bring further funding to tackle this problem – and safeguard information integrity from dangers amplified by Big Tech – at a key strategic moment.

So far, it’s working: Confidencial, Batumelebi, Netgazeti, Himalmedia, Daraj and many other media outlets around the world received IFPIM support to not only survive but to deepen their impact with trustworthy news and information. You can learn their stories here.

This funding isn’t just a financial lifeline; it’s an investment in democracy.