Press Forward South Florida Event Bolsters Local Media with Nearly $1M in Support

Posted by The Miami Foundation on September 23, 2026 in News.

Grantees smile on the Press Forward South Florida Building for Tomorrow stage on September 22, 2026.

Press Forward South Florida announced grants to more than a dozen outlets to strengthen and sustain local journalism – as local funders stepped in with additional funding in the wake of Miami Herald layoffs

SEPTEMBER 24, 2026 – MIAMI

Nearly $1 million in funding was awarded on Tuesday by Press Forward South Florida to more than a dozen newsrooms and media partnerships — an investment in local news that will help outlets build more sustainable business operations and increase access to critical information for residents across Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties.

The funding comes in two parts: a rapid-response grant addressing layoffs at the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald, and a second allocation through Press Forward South Florida’s Newsroom Collaboration and Strength grant, designed to elevate local journalism more broadly.

 

Rapid Response Grants

The Miami Foundation announced a rapid-response challenge grant in response to the mass layoffs, which cut staff at the Spanish-language el Nuevo Herald and eliminated reporting positions for the City of Miami. The Community Foundation of Broward also committed funding to support news providers in Broward, which was impacted by the Herald cuts as well. The total support shared at Tuesday’s event:

  •  $100,000 from The Miami Foundation and $50,000 from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to support Spanish-language coverage through nonprofit newsrooms elTOQUE and City of Miami coverage through The Florida Trib, in partnership with the Coconut Grove Spotlight
  • Up to $30,000 from Report for America to help fund the salary of the City of Miami beat reporter through the same partnership, with subsequent support for up to two additional years
  • $25,000 from The Wolfson Family to support local municipal coverage
  •  $50,000 from the Community Foundation of Broward to support Broward coverage
  • Miami Foundation Board Vice-Chair Ken O’Keefe will donate $75,000 to the Miami Herald to support its economic mobility coverage

Press Forward South Florida is calling on philanthropic donors and other funding partners to support this initiative, ensuring civic engagement and an informed region.

The energized response committing resources to local news came during Press Forward South Florida’s Tuesday event at Miami Dade College’s Freedom Tower, where more than 100 guests had already gathered to celebrate additional good news for South Florida media: the announcement of the initiative’s first round of local journalism grantees.

 

Newsroom Collaboration and Strength Grants Announcement

From digital start-ups to the region’s oldest Black-owned newspaper, a legacy newsroom to South Florida’s public radio station, and nonprofit outlets serving both English- and Spanish-language audiences, these first round of Press Forward South Florida grantees represent the range of the region’s news ecosystem.  

“Local news boosts civic engagement, it decreases polarization and is a powerful antidote to misinformation. And in times of crisis, it is a community lifeline,” said The Miami Foundation’s President and CEO Rebecca Fishman Lipsey at the Freedom Tower, once home to Miami’s first major daily, the Miami News. “We need local news to not just survive but to thrive.”

The local initiative is fueled by the Community Foundation of Broward, Coral Gables Community Foundation, Key Biscayne Community Foundation, Ocean Reef Community Foundation and The Miami Foundation. Press Forward South Florida is also made possible with support from Knight Foundation, the national Press Forward initiative, and other donor partners. 

Press Forward South Florida’s Newsroom Collaboration and Strength grants are grounded in the findings of the coalition’s report, The State of South Florida Local News: Community Needs and Opportunities. The report found that the local media ecosystem is vibrant, but also fragmented, hard to navigate, and — like other communities across the country — increasingly strained by industry pressures. Research showed that whether residents find trusted, relevant information often depends on the language they speak, the neighborhood they live in and the digital access they have.

 

Meet the Grantees:

Newsroom Collaboration grants support partnerships that allow local news organizations to expand their reach, share resources, and serve communities more effectively:

  • WLRN, South Florida’s NPR affiliate, will use its funding to create a central audio production hub serving a collaborative journalism network that includes the Key 


Biscayne Independent, Florida Trib, UM Community News, Caplin News–FIU, Miami Times, Edible South Florida, and other partners. ($100,000)

  • Florida International University’s Lee Caplin School of Journalism & Media will create the Caplin Initiative for Civic Journalism, a university-based support network for local newsrooms in partnership with The Biscayne Times, el Toque, Coconut Grove Spotlight, The Miami Times, and other news outlets. ($100,000)
  • Hy-Lo News, an online outlet engaging Millennial and Gen Z audiences of color, and The Miami Times, a century-old Black-owned newspaper with deep community roots, will produce collaborative coverage of the voices and issues shaping Overtown, Liberty City, Miami Gardens, and Opa-locka. ($75,000)
  • The Florida Trib, a statewide nonprofit news outlet, will increase coverage of the Florida Legislature’s impact on South Florida communities by creating data tools, providing training and collaborating with Coconut Grove Spotlight, WLRN Public Media and other local outlets. ($75,000)
  • Sun Sentinel and the nonprofit Florida Bulldog will collaborate on investigative projects that examine the stability and structure of Broward’s public health systems. ($75,000)
  • BOMA (Black Owned Media Alliance), a Miami-based consortium of more than a dozen media outlets including, will use funds for strategic planning and staffing to jointly develop, distribute, and amplify news across South Florida. ($75,000)

    Newsroom Strength Grants offer resources to improve business operations and long-term planning: access to LION (Local Independent Online News) Publishers sustainability audits, a year of monthly LION coaching sessions, and a $20,000 stipend to implement audit recommendations.

    • Browardist
    • Coconut Grove Spotlight
    • Edible South Florida
    • elTOQUE News
    • Hy-Lo News
    • Impact Edition
    • Islander News
    • Key Biscayne Independent
    • Key West Newswire
    • Miami New Times
    • The Miami Times
    • OutSFL
    • WLRN Public Media

    Press Forward South Florida will continue to track the impact of these investments as part of its broader commitment to a healthy local news ecosystem across Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe Counties.