Introduction
The INN Index is the most comprehensive dataset on nonprofit news in North America.
The Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) has conducted its annual Index survey of INN member news organizations since 2018. Those organizations act as a research consortium by sharing their business and editorial statistics to help each other benchmark their own development. This practice helps INN evaluate and better understand new media business models and operational needs to develop programming that supports newsrooms as they form and grow.
Since 2024, INN has leveraged Index data to produce actionable benchmarking data for member news outlets via INN’s Pods program. The Pods program tailors benchmarks to distinct types of nonprofit news organizations — from small hyperlocal community outlets to larger investigative powerhouses and creates opportunities for members to connect with peers facing similar challenges and opportunities.
As the nonprofit news field rapidly evolves, the INN Index serves as a vital resource for understanding what drives this growth — how it’s funded, who it serves and where it’s headed. By tracking and analyzing these trends, INN provides funders, researchers and newsroom leaders with insights that not only strengthen the work of member organizations but also inform strategies to expand access to high-quality information for the public.
Please contact INN’s communications team with any questions or press inquiries.
INDEX CREDITS
- Primary authors: Jesse Holcomb, Michele McLellan and Ha Ta
- Copy editor: Marquita Brown
- Data collection and analysis: Many thanks to our Index research assistants, including Calvin University students Ethan Meyers and McKenna Wilkinson
- Data visualization: Ha Ta
THANK YOU TO OUR FUNDERS
INN’s Index is made possible thanks to INN’s individual donors and general support funders, including Arnold Ventures, Arthur Vining Davis Foundation, DAF Giving360 made possible by the Present Progressive Fund, Democracy Fund, Henry Luce Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and Jonathan Logan Family Foundation.
Executive Summary
New data from the 2025 INN Index, the eighth annual survey of INN members across North America, show that nonprofit news organizations continued to strengthen financially in 2024, building on revenue growth from the prior year while also seeing a steady rise in the number of local outlets joining the field.
The median INN member outlet generated $532,000 in annual revenue, a marked jump from $477,000 in 2023. Overall, INN estimates that the nearly 400 digital-first nonprofit newsrooms1 in its ranks took in a combined $650–$700 million in revenue last year, representing a 14% increase from 2023, alongside a 10% rise in the number of outlets included in the sample.
For the first time, local news outlets make up the majority of INN’s membership, rising to 51% in 2024 from 48% in 2023. These organizations often operate with smaller budgets and leaner staff, yet they distinguish themselves through a close alignment with community needs. Local outlets are far more likely to define their missions around broad and current news coverage: 75% cover a wide range of topics (compared with 29% of non-local outlets) and 61% focus on current events (versus 25%). They are also more likely to serve rural communities, with 23% doing so compared with 16% of non-local outlets.
On the other hand, the growth of startups within INN membership is slowing. Startups, organizations that launched within the prior three years, made up about 15% of INN’s membership in 2024, down from the peak at 27% in 2021.
In 2024, INN member outlets employed an estimated 4,650 staff, with about 70% working in editorial or news related roles. Women continue to hold a majority of executive roles (53%) at news outlets in INN’s sample. Four in 10 outlets (42%) report at least one executive of color out of the three top executives, and representation is highest at outlets that center their journalism on communities of color.
On average, INN members publish 52 stories per month, with a median of 20. Outlets focused on in-depth, investigative or analytical reporting typically produce fewer stories than those covering daily news. Based on the monthly average, INN estimates that the nearly 400 digital-first nonprofit news outlets produced about 230,000 stories in 2024.
Growing and retaining audiences remains a challenge for INN members and news organizations more broadly as referral traffic from Google and Facebook continues to decline and AI-generated summaries reduce click-through rates. In 2024, outlets saw a modest increase in median monthly web visitors: 30,000 compared with 27,000 the year before. Newsletters, however, stand out as a key area of audience growth for INN member outlets: Between 2021 and 2024, 72% of outlets expanded their subscriber lists while only 10% reported declines.
Despite the challenges, INN members are turning to collaborations to increase capacity and reach. In 2024, 4 in 10 organizations participated in four or more editorial collaborations, and nearly 80% partnered on at least one — an increase from 75% in 2022. The steady rise in collaboration reflects a durable trend of resource-sharing across the field. The most common topics for collaboration include government, the environment, politics, equity and justice, elections, health, housing and unhoused communities.
This year’s Index introduces a new section on timely topics, including questions on policy engagement around revenue for news organizations and the use of artificial intelligence. We added these questions to benchmark how nonprofit newsrooms are navigating emerging forces that could shape their sustainability and operations. Our data indicate a robust level of policy engagement as nearly half (45%) of INN members participated in some form of work or discussions in 2024, suggesting a shift from earlier years when news outlets saw policy work as outside their role.
We found that compared to the previous year, more nonprofit news organizations are using AI (63% compared to 34% in 2023). Usage, however, is concentrated mainly on business operations like fundraising and tasks such as transcription and data analysis, as opposed to producing editorial content.
We also introduced a question on measuring impact to better understand how nonprofit news outlets are moving beyond page views to assess the outcomes of their work and their role in civic life. Nearly half of INN members are using impact trackers to assess the outcomes of their reporting, and many are producing voter guides, encouraging participation in local government meetings, or hosting public discussions on political issues.
For the first time, this Index report includes a dedicated highlight section on INN’s cohort of public media member newsrooms. In July, the U.S. Congress passed a bill rescinding $9 billion in previously allocated funds, including $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, essentially cutting all federal support for NPR, PBS and their member stations, and about $7 billion in foreign aid. While digital-first nonprofit newsrooms make up the majority of INN’s membership, public broadcasters made up about 7% as of September and remain an important part of the network, especially in rural areas.
Taken together, the 2025 Index highlights a field that is financially stronger, increasingly local, and steadily more collaborative. Even as news organizations face evolving pressures in technology and audience engagement, the data suggest the group is balancing its strengths with the ongoing challenges.
1 This report draws on data from 376 of the 407 news organizations that completed the Index survey. We excluded data from 27 public media members because of systematic differences in how they report revenue and expenses, as well as four outlets that are not primarily publishers. See more in Methodology.