Working towards a sustainable, trusted local news ecosystem across southwestern Pennsylvania.

Chapter announces a series of governance and operational updates, including hiring a strategic project consultant‍

Pittsburgh, PA, Aug. 18, 2026. – Press Forward Southwestern Pennsylvania, the regional chapter of the national Press Forward movement, today announced a series of governance and operational updates designed to strengthen its long-term support for the Pittsburgh region’s news ecosystem that includes more than 40 outlets operating and reporting across the region.

The updates include a new fiscal sponsorship arrangement, expanded opportunities for additional funding partners to join the chapter and hiring a consultant to help guide the implementation and coordination of the chapter’s work across the region.

“In recent months, changes in Pittsburgh’s news ecosystem have prompted important questions about the role of this chapter,” the chapter’s funders — The Benter Foundation, The Heinz Endowments, The Pittsburgh Foundation and the Posner Foundation — said in a joint statement. “We want to be clear: Press Forward Southwestern Pennsylvania remains committed to the work of local news organizations and is evolving alongside the ecosystem to better support strong, sustainable and collaborative regional journalism.”

The chapter’s organizational and operational updates include:  

• A New Fiscal Sponsor: The chapter is partnering with The Community Foundation for the Alleghenies (CFA) as its fiscal sponsor. CFA will provide financial administration and operational infrastructure needed to manage collaborative initiatives, grantmaking and contracts to serve its mission.
  

• Expanding Funding Partnerships: Recognizing challenges to the news ecosystem require broad-based support, the chapter is opening the opportunity for funding partners to join this work. The goal is to deepen investment in local news and expand the chapter’s collective impact.
  

• Hiring a Strategic Project Consultant: The chapter hired Robert Burack, principal, Brocade Studio, as a strategic project consultant to coordinate and implement its work across the region. This role will help the chapter transition from an informal, relationship-driven collaboration to a more structured and sustainable operating model, with clear roles, shared workplans, and consistent coordination, as it evolves.
  

• Continuing Support of News Collaboratives: The chapter will continue to partner with the Pittsburgh Media Partnership, a collaborative of newsrooms that shares Press Forward’s mission of strengthening local journalism.

As these operational updates progress and the organization becomes a more self-sustaining model, the funders of Press Forward SWPA’s acknowledge the important support provided by Point Park University’s Center for Media Innovation in serving as the chapter’s inaugural institutional home.  

About Press Forward‍ ‍
Press Forward is a national initiative with 44 chapters across 34 states working to strengthen communities by supporting local news and information. Press Forward Southwestern Pennsylvania formed in early 2024 with the goal of unifying the local foundation community and partners to support collaborative, community-centered journalism across the 10 counties in the Pittsburgh region: Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Lawrence, Washington and Westmoreland. Current partners include The Benter Foundation, The Heinz Endowments, The Pittsburgh Foundation and Posner Foundation of Pittsburgh. Dating back to 2019, Press Forward funders have invested more than $26 million to support the local news, nationally and locally.

Press Forward Southwestern Pennsylvania’s strategic roadmap, developed in 2025, provides a shared view of the regional news and information ecosystem and outlines several strategies for strengthening local news and information.

The roadmap draws on a decade of regional efforts, including the establishment and growth of the Pittsburgh Media Partnership and initiatives such as the Pittsburgh Downtown Media Hub, as well as more than $26M in related grantmaking since 2019.

A scan of local news and information in the region finds that while Southwestern Pennsylvania still has a mix of legacy, nonprofit, and emerging outlets, the ecosystem is under significant strain.

Local news organizations and community stakeholders alike point to persistent gaps in basic local coverage: access barriers related to broadband, language, and literacy; widespread distrust and fatigue with negative or polarizing news; underpaid newsroom staff; and limited capacity for business planning, technology upgrades, and audience engagement.

At the same time, the region has promising assets: community-based information networks, a growing set of mission-driven outlets, examples of shared infrastructure, and a group of philanthropic, academic, and civic partners interested in working together to strengthen local news.

In response to this landscape, the roadmap provides a shared vision and a set of principles, and focuses implementation around two core goals:

• Local news is well-positioned to adapt to changing market conditions

• Communities use, support, and trust local news and see its coverage as relevant and reliable