KEWANEE, Ill. — The Kewanee Voice is receiving $100,000 from the national Press Forward coalition. The newsroom is one of just six across Illinois to earn the grant.
The Kewanee Voice is a nonprofit newsroom that was launched in May 2023. Its founders say it was to fill the local news desert in the Henry County area.
The money will be paid out over the next two years. The newsroom says it will use the funds to hire "much-needed" additional staff and expand local news coverage. Another goal is to help set the foundation for years of sustainability.
“In the year and a half that The Kewanee Voice has been in existence, we’ve discovered that providing local news is an expensive undertaking. We are confident this grant will ensure our sustainability into the future,” publisher Mike Berry wrote.
The money comes from Press Forward, a nationwide movement to reinvigorate local news and strengthen communities. Press Forward awarded a total of $20 million to 205 small, local news outlets across the country. At least one newsroom in each state received a grant.
Of the six chosen in Illinois, five are in the Chicagoland area. That includes The Triibe, La Raza, Cicero Independiente, South Side Weekly, and Windy City Times.
"Some newsrooms are reporting on the vast American countryside—where they are often the only news source for hundreds of miles—while other outlets are covering people of color, LGBTQ+, and linguistically diverse communities that traditional news sources have overlooked," Press Forward said in a press release.
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