Deep South Today is pleased to announce that it has received a $250,000 grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to support its efforts to sustain and grow local journalism in the communities it serves in Louisiana and Mississippi.
“This generous grant from the MacArthur Foundation will further strengthen the core operations of Deep South Today and ensure it continues to provide essential news and information across our multi-state region,” said Warwick Sabin, President and CEO of Deep South Today. “We are committed to bringing local journalism to the communities that need it the most, and we are honored and grateful that the MacArthur Foundation is aligned with our mission and is helping us fulfill it.”
The grant is awarded through the MacArthur Foundation’s Local News Program, which is designed to foster strong local news ecosystems that strengthen civic engagement. The grantmaking is organized around four general approaches: Equity, Engagement, Infrastructure, and Visibility. It is intended to support local trusted newsrooms, accelerate solutions, close inequalities, and advance policy for better access to news and information.
About Deep South Today
Deep South Today is a nonprofit network of local newsrooms that includes Mississippi Today and Verite News. Founded in 2016, Mississippi Today is now one of the largest newsrooms in the state, and in 2023 it won the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting. Verite News launched in 2022 in New Orleans, where it covers inequities facing communities of color. With its regional scale and scope, Deep South Today is rebuilding and re-energizing local journalism in communities where it had previously eroded, and ensuring its long-term growth and sustainability.
About the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
The MacArthur Foundation boldly invests in creative solutions to urgent challenges, sparking hope for our future. We work on a few big bets that strive toward transformative change in areas of profound concern, including the existential threats of climate change, the challenges of criminal justice reform, revitalizing local news in the U.S., and corruption in Nigeria.
In addition, we maintain enduring commitments in our hometown Chicago, where we invest in people, places, and partnerships to build a more inclusive Chicago and in journalism and media, where we invest in more just and inclusive news and narratives.
We also make awards to extraordinarily creative individuals through the MacArthur Fellows program and for solutions to critical problems of our time through 100&Change.