Microsoft backs Washington's expanding news fellowship

Data centers and Big Tech are getting some tough press coverage lately.

But that isn't stopping Microsoft from supporting newsrooms in rural Washington counties where it operates hyperscale computing facilities.

The company announced this week that it's providing $500,000 over two years to fund reporting positions in Grant, Douglas and Chelan counties.

It makes Microsoft the largest donor so far to Washington's news fellowship program, which is trying to expand statewide.

These communities have been homes for our data centers for years and we are thrilled to continue to deliver on our commitment that the places where we choose to build, own and operate data centers should benefit from our presence," said Teresa Hutson, corporate vice president and general counsel of Microsoft's Technology and Services Group.

Hutson announced the grant at a journalism event Microsoft hosted Monday at its Redmond headquarters. It included regional and national journalists and funders, and panel discussions on policies and funding to support journalism and briefings on AI technology.

This adds to a long list of ways that Microsoft has supported local journalism. In 2024 it partnered with OpenAI to provide $10 million in grants and technology credits to help news organizations, including The Seattle Times, hire technical staff to develop AI products.

Yet Microsoft was unusually quiet about the fellowship grant, withholding details such as the funding amount, but I was able to confirm that later.

The company apparently doesn't want to appear to be backfilling the state budget, especially after legislative leaders targeted successful tech entrepreneurs and workers as part of a strategy to push through massive tax increases this year to cover their runaway spending.

Listed as co-hosts of Monday's event were Washington State University and Report for America, a Boston-based nonprofit that operates a sort of Peace Corps for local reporters.

They are working together to expand Washington's fellowship to potentially place a reporter in all 39 of the state's counties.

Washington funded 16 news fellowships starting in 2024 but cut the program's budget last year, putting the program in limbo.

In February WSU announced that it's partnering with Report for America to raise private donations and expand the program.

They hope to raise $10 million over five years, half from the state, but legislators so far have declined to provide more than the fellowship's current $750,000 per year. So far they have about $300,000 in other donations, according to Ben Shors, WSU journalism chair.

Microsoft's grant will support three fellowship positions over two years and overall work to increase local reporting. Hutson said the investment is intended to "unlock reporting capacity, amplify the state funding and extend impact to more communities around Washington."

The "reach every county" proposal has thrilled big philanthropies and others working to address the decline of local news coverage, especially in rural and suburban areas.

I love the idea of having a baseline of civic news coverage in every county.

But big questions loom. Details of where the county reporters will work and where the rest of the funding will come from are still unclear. This core responsibility of local news organizations also needs more than a rotating cohort of grant-dependent, temporary reporters.

I'm particularly concerned that WSU and Report for America may force deeply problematic commercial terms on participating newsrooms, by requiring them to give stories away for free.

Perhaps Microsoft, a company whose success is built on protecting and licensing intellectual property, can talk sense into academics and nonprofits who still think news organizations must give their work away.

Utopian notions that professionally reported news should be free online contributed to the loss of 75% of America's newspaper journalists and a third of its local newspapers over the last two decades.

Pied Pipers of "free news led the industry off a cliff while delivering a windfall to companies building online portals and turnstiles that benefited from newspapers' trustworthy content.

The industry has spent years working to undo that damage. The vast majority of newspapers now depend on subscriptions to fund their newsrooms, so forcing them to give their product away undermines efforts to support local journalism and the service it provides to communities and democracy.

Microsoft's grant makes clear that local news has value. Its creators should be fairly compensated, just like creators of music, movies, books and patented fruit strains like the Cosmic Crisp apple that WSU developed with taxpayer support.

Will WSU require orchardists producing that fruit to give it away?

How such programs support the fruit industry's commercial success may be another story for local-news fellows to pursue in Central Washington.

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