Hy-Lo News was selected for two grants in Press Forward South Florida’s first round of funding, including a $75,000 collaboration grant with The Miami Times to produce multimedia coverage of Overtown, Liberty City, Miami Gardens and Opa-locka.
Hy-Lo News also received a Newsroom Strength grant, which includes a $20,000 stipend, a sustainability audit, and a year of monthly coaching to help strengthen its business operations. The $75,000 collaboration award supports the partnership between the two newsrooms; it is not a separate $75,000 award to each outlet.
The grants were announced Tuesday, Sept. 22, during Press Forward South Florida’s “Building For Tomorrow” event at Miami Dade College’s Freedom Tower. The initiative awarded $760,000 to more than a dozen local newsrooms and media partnerships in its first funding round.
For Hy-Lo News, the collaboration brings together its digital reach among younger audiences of color and The Miami Times’ longstanding coverage of South Florida’s Black communities. The funding will support reporting focused on the people and issues shaping four communities whose stories are central to both outlets’ work.
Hy-Lo News founder and editor-in-chief Janey Tate also joined a discussion about the future of local news at the event. Press Forward South Florida’s Tere Figueras Negrete moderated the panel with Tate, Sun Sentinel Managing Editor David Schutz and elTOQUE Editor-in-Chief José J. Nieves.
Asked about a finding that nearly half of Black respondents did not see themselves represented in local news, Tate said, “I wasn’t surprised when I saw those numbers because it’s what we hear when we’re in our communities.”
The awards came as South Florida’s news industry faced another setback. Recent layoffs at the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald cut reporting positions, including coverage of the City of Miami and Broward County. In response, The Miami Foundation announced a $100,000 matching challenge to support Spanish-language coverage through elTOQUE and City of Miami reporting through The Florida Trib in partnership with Coconut Grove Spotlight.
Other donors announced support for local coverage, including $50,000 from the Community Foundation of Broward for Broward news providers and up to $30,000 from Report for America toward a City of Miami beat reporter’s salary. The Knight Foundation offered $50,000 in additional support for the coverage efforts backed by The Miami Foundation’s challenge, according to the event recap provided to Hy-Lo News.
Press Forward South Florida said its grants were shaped by research showing that the region’s news ecosystem is active but fragmented. Whether residents can find information they trust often depends on their neighborhood, language, and digital access. Its first grants aim to help newsrooms collaborate, reach more residents, and build lasting operations.
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