US: Knight News Challenge deadline November 1

Posted by Lauren Drablier on October 13, 2008 at 1:24 PM

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation announces its third annual Knight News Challenge, a contest that will grant up to US$5 million for ideas that transform local community news with the help of digital tools like social media, Web 2.0 or multimedia content.

A new "incubator" site, the News Challenge Garage, was created in order to offer online criticism and advice for applicants.

"We have committed $25 million over five years to the Knight News Challenge because we believe in media innovation through experimentation," says Alberto Ibargüen, Knight Foundation's president and CEO. "Each winning project is an experiment with the potential to transform how we practice journalism in the digital age."

The incubator will offer counseling from 50 mentors who may be online journalists, video bloggers, social media experts and developers. Examples include Spot.us' David Cohn, Placeblogger's Lisa Willians and Contentious editor Amy Gahran.

Previous winners include ChiTownDailyNews.org, Everyblock.com and Spot.us.

The deadline for applications is coming up on Novemebr 1, 2008.

Applications for the 2008-09 Knight News Challenge must follow three simple rules:

   1. Use or create digital, open-source technology as the code base.
   2. Serve the public interest.
   3. Benefit one or more specific geographic communities.

More information is provided on the following websites: