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** OPINION
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Good morning, everyone. Tom Jones is away from the newsletter today, but the team at Poynter is keeping tabs on the latest media news and analysis.


** What The Houston Landing’s closure says about the state of nonprofit news
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(Shutterstock)

By Angela Fu, media business reporter

On Tuesday, the for-profit Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington, reported ([link removed]) it would convert to a nonprofit. Hours later, the nonprofit Houston Landing had its own announcement ([link removed]) : It would shut down after less than two years of operation.

The diverging announcements reiterated a central truth in the news business — nonprofit status is not a silver bullet. It is not a substitute for a sustainable business model, and it will not shield outlets from the escalating financial pressures that have roiled the media industry for decades.

Nonprofit journalism has exploded in popularity in recent years, propelled in part by the success of investigative giant ProPublica ([link removed]) . The enthusiasm has led some to proclaim nonprofit journalism as a savior for the media industry, which has been wracked by consolidation and cutbacks. The U.S. now has hundreds of nonprofit newsrooms that are betting on philanthropic and reader support to help them achieve sustainability.

But while many startups — and legacy papers, in the case of The Spokesman-Review — are still embracing nonprofit status, the high-profile failures of the Landing and other nonprofits reveal that the sector still faces challenges.

Though the Landing launched with $20 million in funding, it never developed the additional revenue streams it needed to sustain its rapid growth. Its subscriptions and the revenue they generated amounted to a “pittance,” according to Columbia Journalism Review ([link removed]) , and a major funder’s decision to pull back earlier this year further set the outlet back.

Last month saw the closure of another major nonprofit. The Center for Public Integrity, a national investigative newsroom founded in 1989, officially shuttered after years of leadership turnover and what former ProPublica general manager and president Richard Tofel called “repeated strategic missteps ([link removed]) .” By 2023, the outlet faced ([link removed]) a significant budget shortfall, and it laid off virtually all of its staff last year.

At the local level, state projects run by the National Trust for Local News have suffered ([link removed]) leadership turnover and organizational issues amid “great stress.” The Chicago Reader, an alt-weekly that transitioned into a nonprofit in 2022, narrowly avoided closure in January. Budget shortfalls caused in part by a decline in philanthropic contributions forced the Reader to restructure and lay off staff ([link removed]) .

Still, some remain bullish on nonprofits. For-profits have their own issues, and this year has already seen several mass layoffs at places as diverse as MSNBC and Quartz. A successful nonprofit requires “strong leadership, a clear strategy, and deep engagement from the community,” according to Michael Ouimette, the chief investment officer of the American Journalism Project, which provides grants to nonprofit newsrooms.

Ouimette said he does not believe the Landing, which AJP gave seed funding to, is indicative of a larger trend, adding that more than 80% of AJP’s grantees increased their revenue last year.

A MESSAGE FROM POYNTER
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** Tampa Bay Event: The Future of Facts Online
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Can you trust what you read? Join Poynter in person for The Future of Facts Online: A Community Conversation at 6 p.m. May 6, as we explore how forces such as AI and the tech platforms’ rejection of fact-checking are shaping the information landscape. Hear from leading journalists working to protect facts in the digital age and learn how not to be deceived.

Get tickets now ([link removed]) .


** About Gayle King’s space trip
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By TyLisa C. Johnson, audience engagement producer

Gayle King is no stranger to asking tough questions. But this week, she faced a few herself after joining a six-woman crew on a space flight on a suborbital rocket made by Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ aerospace company.

King, a well-known journalist and “CBS Mornings” co-host, traveled alongside Bezos’s fiancée, journalist Lauren Sánchez; musician Katy Perry; former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe; civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen; and film producer Kerianne Flynn.

In the days since, social media users and some celebrities — including Olivia Munn, Olivia Wilde and Emily Ratajkowski ([link removed]) — have loudly criticized the mission, calling the flight a “wasteful,” “performative,” “gluttonous” endeavor prompted by billionaires that was tone-deaf to the current political climate. In other words, space tourism isn’t helping anyone.

“What’s the point? Is it historic that you guys are going on a ride? I think it’s a bit gluttonous,” Munn said. “Space exploration was to further our knowledge and to help mankind. What are they gonna do up there that has made it better for us down here?”

“It just speaks to the fact that we are absolutely living in an oligarchy where there is a small group of people who are interested in going to space for the sake of getting a new lease on life while the rest of the population, most people on planet Earth, are worried about paying rent or having dinner for their kids,” Ratajkowski said.

Much of the online criticism seemed aimed at King, who pushed back, telling reporters that she was “very saddened” and that critics “don’t really understand what is happening here.”

But don’t we?

“There was nothing frivolous about what we do,” King said in response to the criticisms ([link removed]) of the flight, People magazine reported. “So, you know, I'm very disappointed and very saddened by (the criticism). And I also say this — what it's doing to inspire other women and young girls? Please don't ignore that. I've had so many women and young girls reach out to me, and men too, by the way. Men, too, that say, ‘Wow, I never thought I could do that, but I see you doing it at this stage of your life.’”

These six women are being poised as pioneers, and maybe they are. But it comes at the same time that other women continue to face erasure, so it stops me in my tracks. It’s hard to enjoy ice cream when your friends are eating dirt.

With the money used to take an 11-minute flight, how many women could have been supported? How many unhoused people could have been given shelter? How many kids could have been fed? How many oceans could have been cleaned?

It’s unfortunate that King seems to be receiving a disproportionate share of the backlash — at least, by name. That’s a microaggression — holding a prominent Black woman more accountable than her white or nonjournalist peers, despite them all having made the same choice. They all deserve equal blame.

At the same time, I do hold King to a higher standard than the other five women — mostly because she’s usually a well-studied, go-to voice for grounded, rational takes.

That’s why I have to ask, because I’m still unclear: Why did she choose to go?

Was she swept up in the excitement and celebrity of the moment; the honor of being brought into the fold to go to space?

It is iconic anytime a Black woman goes to space. But as journalist working in an era where trust is already precarious — hard won and easily lost — we must be careful to weigh if the risk of who or what we align ourselves with is worth the reward.


** AP accuses White House of defying court order that restored access
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By Amaris Castillo, staff writer

The battle for press freedom continues in the White House. Lawyers for The Associated Press Wednesday accused aides to President Donald Trump of defying a court order restoring its access to press events there.

“In a court filing on Wednesday, lawyers for the AP accused the White House of continuing to exclude its journalists from the small pool of reporters that travels with the president and attends events in the Oval Office in violation of U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden's order lifting those restrictions while a lawsuit moves forward,” Reuters reported ([link removed]) . “McFadden found the White House had discriminated against the AP for continuing to refer to the Gulf of Mexico in its coverage rather than the Gulf of America as ordered by Trump. The court said the White House had likely violated free speech protections under the U.S. Constitution.”

Back in February, the AP issued a statement ([link removed]) from its executive editor Julie Pace, in which she said the news agency was informed by the White House that “if AP did not align its editorial standards with President Donald Trump’s executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, AP would be barred from accessing an event in the Oval Office.”

On the afternoon of Feb. 11, the day this statement was released, an AP reporter had been blocked from attending an executive order signing.

“It is alarming that the Trump administration would punish AP for its independent journalism,” Pace said in the statement. “Limiting our access to the Oval Office based on the content of AP’s speech not only severely impedes the public’s access to independent news, it plainly violates the First Amendment.”


** The White House briefing room, visualized
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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

By Ren LaForme, managing editor

In just over 80 days, the Trump administration has reshaped the federal government in a leaner, more ideologically rigid image — elevating skeptics and critics of government into top roles and shattering norms that have endured for decades.

That transformation extends to the White House briefing room, where D.C. correspondents gather several times a week to hear from the press secretary. The briefing room was once governed solely by the independent White House Correspondents’ Association. Now, the Trump administration has asserted control over parts of how it operates.

In January, the White House added a new seat for “new media,” and press secretary Karoline Leavitt has repeatedly called on fringe or partisan outlets standing along the margins. The administration has even hinted at changing the seating chart entirely.

The New York Times’ Ashley Wu, Rebecca Lieberman, Michael M. Grynbaum and Doug Mills bring this evolving dynamic to life in their interactive piece, “Inside the Changing White House Briefing Room.” ([link removed])

“The White House has said it is adjusting the makeup of the press that covers it — both in and out of the briefing room — to better reflect the outlets where people consume news and information today,” the Times reporters write. “Longtime White House reporters say the result has been an erosion of their independence.”

There’s much more in the piece, including striking visuals and smart context — definitely worth a look.


** Media tidbits and links
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* Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is among the outlets struggling to keep afloat following steep funding cuts initiated by President Donald Trump to news organizations affiliated with the U.S. Agency for Global Media. Journalists at that outlet — like Belarusian Andrei Kuznechyk — have faced imprisonment for their reporting and still continue to do their jobs. The New York Times’ Paul Sonne, Alina Lobzina and Milana Mazaeva profile their work and frustrations in “Its Journalism Challenged Autocrats. Trump Wants to Silence It.” ([link removed])
* Four Russian journalists — Antonina Favorskaya, Sergei Karelin, Konstantin Gabov and Artyom Kriger — have been convicted of extremism in a closed-door trial and jailed for working with an anti-corruption group founded in 2011 by Aleksei Navalny. A prominent political opposition leader, Navalny died last year ([link removed]) in a remote Russian prison. The New York Times’ Nataliya Vasilyeva reported that this ruling was widely criticized. More wth “Russia Jails 4 Journalists for Working With Navalny’s Organization.” ([link removed])
* ABC “World News Tonight’s” David Muir was named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People ([link removed]) of 2025. Diane Sawyer wrote about Muir: “Like Peter Jennings before him, David is authoritative and dynamic — the first out the door to the story.”
* CNN chief media analyst with, “PBS and NPR are in a once-in-a-generation funding fight. They might well lose.” ([link removed])
* The Oregonian’s Carlos Fuentes writes, “Oregon lawmakers to decide whether big tech should pay to support local journalism.” ([link removed])
* For NPR, Jenna McLaughlin with, “A whistleblower's disclosure details how DOGE may have taken sensitive labor data.” ([link removed]'?utm_source=Poynter+Institute&utm_campaign=4b7e423d1f-04172025+-+The+Poynter+Report&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-4b7e423d1f-390894500&mc_cid=4b7e423d1f&mc_eid=UNIQID)
* Something a bit more fun to end the newsletter. The New York Times’ David Segal writes, “How a Reporter Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Steak Fries.” ([link removed])


** More resources for journalists
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* Gain essential skills that protect your mental health while producing nuanced coverage that serves vulnerable communities. Enroll now ([link removed]) .
* Craft your reporting into a captivating book. Apply by April 25 ([link removed]) .
* Perfect your editing with the Poynter ACES Advanced Certificate. Enroll now ([link removed]) .
* Update your immigration policy expertise with Poynter's Beat Academy. Enroll now ([link removed]) .

Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) .
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