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Britain’s Independent Media Group has secured funding from Bill and Melinda Gates’ foundation to invest in new reporters and investigative stories.
Independent editor-in-chief Geordie Greig confirmed that the Gates Foundation had given the UK-based group more than $700,000 for the next 18 months to fund journalism in “under reported” parts of the world.
The financial tie-up is positive news for an industry facing financial pressures from waning advertising revenues and the shift away from news on social media sites.
In the US, where staff at The Washington Post have questioned the strategy of owner Jeff Bezos, another tech billionaire, media commentators have warned the incoming Trump administration poses challenges for independent journalism.
There is also an increasing focus on pushing traffic to news stories in some newspapers, sparking concerns about “clickbait” journalism designed to drive audience numbers.
This week, staff of the Mirror, a British tabloid, wrote to the editor expressing anger about new targets for the minimum number of page views a reporter must hit.
The money from the Gates Foundation comes with a guarantee of creative and editorial independence. The foundation has been a long-term funder of journalism, focused on areas such as global health and development.
The foundation says that such journalism can be costly, often requiring extensive travel, additional time and experienced journalists at a time when news organisations have cut budgets in the face of rapidly shrinking revenue from advertising and subscriptions.
It sees media organisations as playing a vital role in keeping the public informed and engaged about issues that matter to them and their communities.
The Independent went digital-only in 2016, which Greig says led to criticism about “a sad day for Fleet Street newspapers” given the end of the print run.
But he said this was also when the news group started to turn a profit, and it had been consistently profitable since. The acquisition of BuzzFeed has given it a younger audience among Gen Z and millennials, he added.
The Independent is owned by a group including Evgeny Lebedev, Justin Byam Shaw and Saudi investors, as well as its management.
In a memo to staff seen by the Financial Times, Greig said the Independent had become the UK’s biggest commercial news website for the first time last year. Ipsos data shows that its UK audience in November was 19.6mn, ahead of the Mail Online, Mirror, Sun and Guardian.
Greig also said that it had become the largest British-based brand in the US in September, according to Comscore data, and the fifth-largest digital publisher behind The New York Times, USA Today, New York Post and The Washington Post.
Greig said the group would continue to invest this year in AI initiatives in the newsroom, as well as expanding its team in the US as Donald Trump enters the White House.
