NEWSWELL to expand Chicago coverage and Spanish-language news access with $2 million MacArthur grant

We’re grateful to share NEWSWELL has received a $2 million three-year grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to expand access to trusted local news in the Chicago region and along the U.S.-Mexico borderlands.

This support helps us build on what matters most: serving communities with reliable, local information they can trust. The grant will support two major areas of growth for our nonprofit news network: expanding our reporting teams across NEWSWELL’s Chicago outlets and scaling Spanish-language news access through two new Spanish-language WhatsApp news services under the Tiempos platform.

In Chicago, the grant will cover three reporters and additional editing support across our community newsrooms, strengthening coverage in Oak Park, Austin, River Forest, Forest Park and Riverside-Brookfield and providing these neighborhoods with the kind of consistent, community-centered reporting they deserve. The investment is ultimately about showing up more fully for this region — listening, reporting and building trust over time.

“This grant is transformative for our newsroom and for local journalism in the communities we serve,” said Max Reinsdorf, general manager of NEWSWELL Chicago. “It allows us to deliver not just more coverage, but better coverage. In Austin, a dedicated full-time reporter means more in-depth, authentic storytelling for a community of nearly 100,000 residents. It gives us the capacity to build deeper relationships, pursue more ambitious reporting and tell the stories that matter most to the people who live there.”

The grant also will help NEWSWELL build on the early success of Tiempos de San Diego, our daily Spanish-language WhatsApp news service. We’ve seen firsthand how meeting people where they are — in language and platform — can make local news more accessible and useful. NEWSWELL plans to launch two new Tiempos platforms — one in California and one along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The model is designed to deliver relevant, reliable news in the language people prefer and through channels already woven into their daily routines.

“Tiempos de San Diego has found an audience that was just waiting for a conversational Spanish-language publication that distills the day’s news with personality and curiosity,” said Andrew Keatts, general manager and editor of Times of San Diego and Tiempos de San Diego. “It has succeeded in building trust and loyalty because it covers relevant topics that aren’t covered elsewhere. It’s not a translation of a handful of English stories; it’s a thoughtful, curated daily digest by a writer who knows what the community wants to read because he is part of it.”

At the heart of this work is a simple belief: Local journalism is essential to strong, informed communities. This expansion gives NEWSWELL the opportunity to help more newsrooms deepen coverage, reach underserved audiences and build the operational strength they need to last. It also gives journalists more room to focus on what matters most — reporting from inside their communities, listening closely and telling stories that help residents understand the place they call home.

The MacArthur grant is also a show of support for NEWSWELL’s broader shared-services approach. As we continue growing, we are working to show how nonprofit local newsrooms can preserve local identity while gaining the operational support needed to become more resilient.

For NEWSWELL, this grant is a chance to expand trusted local reporting, strengthen community connections and build a future where every community has access to the news it needs. Thank you for being part of this work with us.