News Catalyst

Name

News Catalyst

Legal name

News Catalyst

Website

https://newscatalyst.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2017

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Journalism Technology Consulting

NAICS

Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services (5418)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)

akta.pro primary industry

Business, Financial & Trade News Publishers (MPAJADAC)

akta.pro secondary industry

Public Media Partnerships & Content Co-productions (NGO/Cultural) (MPABADAN)

Keywords

• Newsroom digital transformation
• Product development consulting
• Journalism technology support
• News organization partnerships
• Collaborative journalism tools

Headquarters

HQ city

Philadelphia

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Grant Funding: News Catalyst is a two-year, grant-funded project. The organization receives funding from the Knight-Lenfest Local News Transformation Fund, Knight Foundation, Lenfest Institute for Journalism, and Facebook Journalism Project. No commercial revenue model exists; the project is designed to provide free partnerships and resources to partner news organizations.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

News Catalyst provides free, hands-on product and technology support to news organizations through direct partnerships. Its offerings include technology stack assessments and tool recommendations, product workflow templates, training and learning resources for digital transformation, and collaborative partnerships aimed at solving specific product challenges. The organization also supports Project Facet, an open source newsroom collaboration infrastructure project, and targets areas such as product development, data, analytics, digital storytelling, mobile, and audience engagement.

Product overview

News Catalyst is a two-year, grant-funded project that provides a portfolio of tools, services, and resources to help news organizations transform into sustainable digital businesses. The core offerings include Tools and Technology (assessing and providing digital tools for news organizations), Product Workflows (tools and templates for developing adaptable product workflows), Hands-on Collaboration Services (product-oriented partnerships to drive new revenue), and Learning and Expertise Resources (training for digital transformation). The organization also supports Project Facet, an open source infrastructure project for newsroom collaboration. All offerings are provided through partnership programs where News Catalyst works directly with news organizations on specific product challenges.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Tools and Technology

Quantifiable outcome

• Reduced publication time and eliminated workflow redundancies for Montclair Local Nonprofit News
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers2 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• WURDcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNews Catalyst partnered with WURD to support their efforts to design and test a print newsletter to connect with and better serve members, especially senior members who aren't active online. Partnership included designing launch strategy for a postcard and inaugural issue of WURD Press, along with training for use of Asana to manage project work.
• Montclair Local Nonprofit NewscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNews Catalyst partnered with Montclair Local Nonprofit News to review their technology stack and make recommendations for efficiencies in workflow and process. Recommendations eliminated redundancies and reduced publication time.
• Temple University's Klein College of Media and CommunicationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHost institution for News Catalyst. The project is based at Temple University's Klein College of Media and Communication, providing academic affiliation and access to journalism research and talent.
• Project Facet (Heather Bryant)coreTechnology or IntegrationNews Catalyst team member Heather Bryant founded and directs Project Facet, an open source infrastructure project for newsroom collaboration. Project Facet provides tools for managing content creation, editing, distribution, project management, and collaborative journalism practices.

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• American Press Institute: American Press Institute is a nonprofit journalism training and research organization that, like News Catalyst, works to strengthen news organizations' capabilities through training and best-practice research. Both organizations focus on upskilling newsrooms, though API is more established and covers broader journalism training while News Catalyst is focused specifically on product/technology transformation.
• Lenfest Institute for Journalism: Lenfest Institute for Journalism is a major funder and operator in the local news transformation space, with overlapping mission focus on local news sustainability. Although Lenfest is primarily a News Catalyst funder rather than a peer, its operating programs for newsroom transformation make it a closely related organization in the same ecosystem.
• Online News Association: Online News Association is a nonprofit membership organization for digital journalists that provides training, resources, and an annual conference. ONA overlaps significantly with News Catalyst's training and community-building work for news organizations pursuing digital transformation, though ONA operates at a much larger scale across the full digital journalism industry.
• Google News Initiative: Google News Initiative funds training, tools, and product support for news organizations globally. It addresses a similar problem to News Catalyst (building digital sustainability in news) at vastly larger scale and across more regions, making it a relevant comparison point for capacity-building offerings to newsrooms.

Emerging players

• Trusting News: Trusting News is a nonprofit initiative that helps newsrooms build trust through audience engagement research and training. It is comparable to News Catalyst as a grant-funded, mission-driven project serving local newsrooms with research-backed engagement practices; Trusting News focuses specifically on trust while News Catalyst's scope is broader across product and technology.
• Report for America / The GroundTruth Project: Report for America places journalists and technologists in local newsrooms to build capacity, sharing News Catalyst's mission of strengthening local news organizations. Both serve the same nonprofit local news segment through capacity-building offerings but address different operational gaps (staffing vs. product/technology support).

Direct peers

• Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy: Harvard's Shorenstein Center researches and supports journalism innovation, producing reports and convenings on the news industry's digital future. Both Shorenstein and News Catalyst operate within academic institutions and target the same mission of accelerating journalism's digital sustainability, with overlapping funder networks.
• LION Publishers: LION Publishers is a membership organization supporting local independent online news publishers. Both LION and News Catalyst serve the nonprofit local news segment with capacity-building offerings and operate with similar funder support from journalism foundations, though LION focuses on membership/community while News Catalyst focuses on product/technology engagements.
• Tow Center for Digital Journalism: Based at Columbia Journalism School, the Tow Center for Digital Journalism conducts research and produces analysis on digital transformation in journalism. Like News Catalyst, it serves the local and nonprofit news ecosystem through research-backed guidance on technology, business models, and editorial innovation. Both operate as academic-affiliated journalism innovation projects.

Others

• Knight Foundation (Local News Transformation): The Knight Foundation funds many of the journalism innovation projects in News Catalyst's orbit, including the Knight-Lenfest Local News Transformation Fund. While Knight Foundation is a funder of News Catalyst rather than a direct peer, it shapes the funding landscape in which News Catalyst and comparable organizations operate.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/newscatalyst

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about News Catalyst