NEW YORK, August 9, 2023 – THE CITY, an independent nonprofit newsroom with a mission to produce hard-hitting and useful local reporting that serves the people of New York, today announced a $250,000 grant from The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The funding expands THE CITY’s capacity for developing interactive news applications and data journalism. It also supports the team’s knowledge-sharing initiatives with the community of practice around small to medium-sized local news organizations around the country. 

“We’re thrilled the Knight Foundation has made an investment in this work. It will go a long way in supporting THE CITY’s mission of serving the information needs of New  Yorkers,” said Scott Klein, THE CITY’s chief product officer. “We believe that with the right data presented in an intuitive way, people can make better choices and lead safer lives. We look forward to launching products that are useful to New Yorkers, and to sharing what we’ve learned with the rest of the local news ecosystem.” 

Klein leads a team building data visualizations and interactive tools to empower readers. Their latest interactive maps New York City’s “heat islands” - neighborhoods prone to spiking temperatures. Another news application, Know Your District, a partnership with Spectrum News,  was released in June. It helps voters understand their City Council district and candidates ahead of Council elections this year.

THE CITY’s pioneering news products include “Meet Your Mayor,” an award-winning guide to NYC’s complex 2021 elections which put candidates’ policy positions into an easy-to-use quiz format. Results showed voters which candidates best matched their priorities and demonstrated how ranked-choice voting could work. Over 250,000 New Yorkers, a quarter of the electorate, used Meet Your Mayor, spending an average of 13 minutes working through it. 

Following the success of Meet Your Mayor, THE CITY shared the code and the editorial process behind the tool with LAist in Los Angeles, Vote ATL in Atlanta, and Billy Penn in Philadelphia. LAist’s adaptation served over 40,000 Los Angelinos in that city’s 2022 race.

With Knight Foundation’s backing, THE CITY aims to enhance its public-service mission and status as a go-to source for New Yorkers seeking to understand and engage in their communities.

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ABOUT THE CITY: THE CITY (thecity.nyc) is a nonprofit digital news platform whose mission is to produce free-to-read, local reporting that serves the people of New York City. Launched in 2019 to fill critical local reporting gaps, THE CITY covers New York’s uncovered neighborhoods, holds the powerful to account, and helps make sense of the greatest city in the world. THE CITY Scoop, its flagship newsletter, is delivered weekdays and Sunday, while additional newsletters serve New Yorkers with news they can use on housing, jobs and civic engagement.

Contact: 

Vania André

vandre@thecity.nyc

347-581-3224