BACKGROUND

NewsLab began as an initiative funded by the Park Foundation, a private foundation based in Ithaca, New York. From 1998-2003, we were associated with the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and affiliated with the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

Our mission was to serve local stations by helping them find better ways of telling important stories that are often difficult to convey on television. Thanks to the Park Foundation’s generosity, NewsLab was able to provide training to thousands of working journalists and journalism educators; encourage innovation by developing and sharing new story forms; and generate new, useful research for television newsrooms. But Park, like many other foundations, suffered economic losses and was unable to renew our grant.

In 2003, NewsLab incorporated as an independent non-profit, with a board of directors.

Our early efforts were assisted by an advisory board of local television news executives from stations across the country.

Read what others have said about our work.