George Soros' nonprofits spent nearly $23 million on US journalism in 2023
Courier Newsroom received $15 million; National Trust for Local News $6.4 million
Part 3 of 4
George Soros’ nonprofits gave $38 million in grants to journalism organizations in 2023.
A previous Watchdog article described Soros grants to the Journalism Development Network (also known as the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, or OCCRP) and the Global Investigative Journalism Network. OCCRP is a member of the Global Investigative Journalism Network and these organizations received US Government funding through USAID and the US State Department.
This article focuses on nearly $23 million in grants to US journalism in 2023 with two organizations receiving almost 95% of these funds:
Courier Newsroom, and
National Trust for Local News
The remaining 5% of the grants were to a union program, and two diversity-equity-inclusion projects.
Courier Newsroom
George Soros through his nonprofits provided substantial financial support to Courier Newsroom. In 2023, the Fund for Policy Reform, which is part of the Soros family's Open Society Foundations network, gave Courier Newsroom $15 million to support its "locally focused journalism."
Local news outlets
Courier Newsroom, which operates under the guise of local news outlets, used these funds to promote Democratic candidates and narratives. Courier spent significant amounts on social media advertising, particularly on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, targeting voters in swing states to influence elections in favor of Democrats.
COURIER is a public benefit corporation owned by Good Information Inc. that runs local newsrooms in 11 mostly “battleground” states:
Arizona, The Copper Courier
Florida, Floricua
Iowa, Iowa Starting Line
Michigan, The ‘Gander’
Nevada, The Nevadan / El Nevadense
New Hampshire, Granite Post
North Caroline, Cardinal & Pine
Pennsylvania, The Keystone
Texas, Courier Texas
Virginia, Dogwood
Wisconsin, UpNorthNews
“Courier Newsroom” is a “pro-democracy news network” that claims to stop the “spread of misinformation or disinformation” by only telling one side of a story:
We will never manufacture “both sides” to our stories, giving equal weight to conspiracy theories or junk science. We will always provide proper context in our reporting to help ensure we don’t continue the spread of misinformation or disinformation.
[Source: Courier webpage]
Acknowledged supporters and investors
COURIER claims “over 6,000 individual supporters across all 50 states.”
COURIER’s web page identifies selected investors, but fails to mention any connection with Soros’ Fund for Policy Reform and the $15 million in funding this nonprofit provided in 2023 for operation for two years:
Good Information Inc.’s investors include: Vero Media Investments, Incite Labs Inc., Technology for Democracy, and the Kenneth & Jennifer Duda Living Trust.
A June 2024 article by Maddy Crowell, A Little to the Left, in the Columbia Journalism Review gives details of the financing:
Good Information Inc. … began with a multimillion-dollar seed investment courtesy of George Soros, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, tech-money megadonors Kenneth and Jennifer Duda, and the venture-capital firm Incite.
Crowell goes on to take Courier to task for their “journalism:”
[Steven] Brill, in his book [The Death of Truth], calls Courier “the most prominent and sophisticated of the pink-slimers”—the name for partisan operations masquerading as local news—on the side of Democrats.
Beginnings
Originally, Courier Newsroom was funded by a mysterious ACRONYM organization that had a super PAC called PACRONYM.
The New York Times reported in Nov. 2019 that David Plouffe, key Obama advisor, had joined the ACRONYM board to help set up $75 million digital campaign to counter Trump in the 2020 election. The Arabella Advisors dark money Hopewell Fund gave over $8 million to ACRONYM in 2020.
A 2020 Open Secrets posting said “Courier has faced scrutiny for exploiting the collapse of local journalism to spread “hyperlocal partisan propaganda.”
The ACRONYM playbook for the COVID-year election in 2020 showed their early strategies and tactics:
This PACRONYM case study from 2020 describes how they planned uplift Joe Biden’s candidacy by boosting enthusiasm for Kamala Harris as Vice President.
Leadership
In 2020 Americans for Public Trust filed a complaint with the FEC against Tara McGowan, CEO, and Courier Newsroom for violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act to force registration as a political action committee.
McGowan has a history as a Democratic political strategist and logged White House visits in both the Obama and Biden administrations.
Before the FEC tossed that complaint Courier Newsroom reorganized in 2021 as a public benefit corporation, Good Information Inc., which was still led by Tara McGowan as its publisher and CEO.
AXIOS commented the new corporation planned to battle “disinformation.”
A new public benefit corporation backed by billionaires Reid Hoffman, George Soros, and others is launching Tuesday to fund new media companies and efforts that tackle disinformation.
So the organization accused of “hyperlocal partisan propaganda” was now fighting disinformation? The pot calling the kettle black?
But nothing changed. An Aug. 2024 Washington Free Beacon article said the Courier fake news network swamps Nevada voters with disinformation.
National Trust for Local News
The Trust's operations are supported by a mixture of philanthropy and traditional newspaper business models. Philanthropy is mostly aimed at acquisitions and one-time investments rather than annual operating expenses.
Soros’ nonprofits in 2023 gave two grants totaling $6.4 million to the Trust. Apparently these funds were used for acquisitions in Colorado, Georgia and Maine.
The webpage for the National Trust for Local News (NTLN) now shows “trusts” for local news in these three states.
One source in 2023 said the Trust was “exploring opportunities in Kentucky, Montana and New Mexico.”
Colorado Trust
The Colorado Trust was initially backed by funders including George Soros's Open Society Foundations when it was founded in 2021.
In 2023 the Trust bought 24 papers along Colorado’s Front Range and expanded to 26 shown online today. The Trust says it serves 42 communities in Colorado.
“Sustaining local news and reconnecting people with their communities across the Front Range”
Georgia Trust
The Trust’s chief portfolio officer, Ross McDuffie, told the New England Press Association planned acquisitions in Georgia would be complete by Nov. 2023.
In addition to Soros’ nonprofits as a funding source, The Knight Foundation gave $5 million to create the newsroom in Macon.
The Trust shows online 18 newspapers serving 37 Georgia communities.
Protecting local news and reconnecting people with their communities in Macon, Albany, Dublin and across Middle Georgia
Maine Trust
The grants from Soros’ nonprofits in 2023 apparently were used to acquire several newspapers in Maine.
Maine Public reported the Soros connection via the Lenfest Institute for Journalism, which is also noted on the Open Society Foundations’ grant page:
The Trust' donors include the Lenfest Institute for Journalism, which is the non-controlling owner of the Philadelphia Inquirer. …
The institute, in turn, received donations earmarked for the trust from groups such as George Soros' Foundation to Promote Open Society and the Democracy Fund, which was created by the founder of eBay.
An online article said these acquisitions included 22 mostly rural weekly newspapers, but only 16 are listed online today.
These 16 newspapers reportedly serve 45 Maine communities:
Protecting local news and reconnecting people with their communities across the state of Maine
Related
Part 1 of 4
Part 2 of 4
Part 4 of 4
What went wrong at the National Trust for Local News? With a cofounder out as CEO, a big question looms: Is the novel idea of fighting news deserts by buying and remotely running local outlets flawed? Poynter, Feb. 6, 2025.
Soros gave record cash to pro-Democratic ‘local news’ network that spent millions influencing 2024 election, Robert Schmad, Washington Examiner, Dec. 5, 2024.
With the revelations provided by the D. O. G. E., it appears that Soros organizations operate akin to Metropolitan Planning Organizations and Area Transportation Authorities, funneling U. S. taxpayers' through these organizations to push through TEPTB (The Evil Predators That Be) agenda.