Journalist's Resource

What Journalist's Resource does

Journalist's Resource is a non-profit academic journalism project operated as part of Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, founded in 2012 and based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The organization curates, summarizes, and contextualizes peer-reviewed academic research on eight public-policy topic areas — Criminal Justice, Economics, Education, Environment, Health, Media, Politics & Government, and Race & Gender — to help working journalists, journalism educators, and newsrooms produce evidence-based reporting. Core products include a topic-archived website, the 'Know Your Research' methodology-focused content series, and a free weekly email newsletter; all written content is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license, enabling free republishing by third-party news outlets with attribution.

The platform is built on a conventional website content management system with newsletter distribution infrastructure and an RSS feed, and reaches audiences through organic social channels (Facebook, Twitter/X) without any paid acquisition or sales motion. The go-to-market is content-led growth: research roundups, tip sheets, articles, and explainers function as both the product and the demand-generation mechanism. Revenue is exclusively grant-based, sourced from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, NIHCM Foundation, and Lumina Foundation, supplemented by individual donations. There is no commercial revenue stream, no pricing model, and no transactional relationship with end users.

Name

Journalist's Resource

Legal name

Journalist's Resource (Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School)

Website

https://journalistsresource.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2012

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Journalist's Resource is a Harvard Kennedy School-affiliated non-profit project that curates and summarizes academic research on public-policy topics to help journalists produce evidence-based reporting, distributed free under a Creative Commons license.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Journalism Education and Research

NAICS

Periodical Publishers (513120), Other Publishers (51319)

SIC

Miscellaneous Publishing (2741)

akta.pro primary industry

Interdisciplinary & Multidisciplinary Scholarly Publishing (EDAGAFAI)

akta.pro secondary industries

Open Access Scholarly Journals & Monographs (EDAGAFAJ), Academic & Scholarly Journals Publishing (Peer-Reviewed) (MPAJABAC)

Keywords

• Academic research curation
• Journalism education resources
• Public policy research summaries
• Journalist tip sheets
• Newsroom research support

Headquarters

HQ city

Cambridge

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Foundation Grants: The organization is supported by grants from major foundations including Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, NIHCM Foundation, and Lumina Foundation. These grants fund editorial operations, content creation, and platform maintenance.
2. Individual Contributions: The platform accepts individual donations from readers and supporters. A donate page is prominently featured on the website.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Journalist's Resource curates, summarizes, and contextualizes high-quality academic research on newsworthy public policy topics for working journalists. It publishes research roundups, tip sheets, articles, and explainers across eight policy topic areas, supplemented by a free weekly e-mail newsletter. All written content is freely accessible on the website and licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 for republishing by news organizations.

Product overview

Journalist's Resource is a single unified web platform operated by Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center that provides free research-based content for journalists. The platform consists of the main website hosting curated research roundups, articles, tip sheets, and explainers organized across eight public policy topic areas (Criminal Justice, Economics, Education, Environment, Health, Media, Politics & Government, Race & Gender), supplemented by the 'Know Your Research' content series focused on research methodology education for journalists, and a weekly e-mail newsletter for content distribution. All published content is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 license, enabling free republication by news organizations.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Journalist's Resource Website Free online platform that curates, summarizes, and contextualizes high-quality academic research on public policy topics to help journalists report on newsy issues. Publishes research roundups, tip sheets, articles, and explainers across eight policy topic areas: Criminal Justice, Economics, Education, Environment, Health, Media, Politics & Government, and Race & Gender.
• Weekly E-mail Newsletter Free weekly e-mail newsletter delivering updates on important new resources to inform news coverage and consumption, with a free sign-up via journalistsresource.org.
• Know Your Research Collection of tip sheets and explainers designed to help journalists understand academic research methods, find and recognize high-quality research, investigate scientific misconduct and research errors, and avoid missteps when reporting on new studies and public opinion polls.

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Harvard Kennedy School / Shorenstein CenterflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe Journalist's Resource is a project of Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. The Shorenstein Center provides institutional affiliation, editorial oversight, and academic credibility to the platform.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Emerging players

• Trusting News: Trusting News is a nonprofit project that helps journalists demonstrate credibility and earn audience trust through research-backed strategies. It overlaps thematically with Journalist's Resource's mission of strengthening evidence-based journalism, though it focuses on trust rather than research translation.
• Pew Research Center: Pew Research Center produces high-quality public opinion, demographic, and policy research that journalists frequently cite. While not a translator service itself, Pew's research outputs serve the same journalist audience and compete for the same editorial attention and foundation funding.

Direct peers

• The Open Notebook: The Open Notebook provides craft-focused resources for science and health journalists, including tip sheets, behind-the-scenes pieces, and expert interviews. It is comparable as a free, web-based resource specifically aimed at helping journalists report research-based stories more accurately.
• Poynter Institute: Poynter is a nonprofit journalism education organization that provides training, fact-checking resources (PolitiFact), and research support for working journalists. It addresses the same journalist audience with a focus on craft and accuracy.
• SciLine (AAAS): SciLine, run by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, connects journalists with scientific researchers and produces briefings that translate research for newsrooms. It is a direct functional peer for the research-to-journalism translation service, focused specifically on science.
• Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard: The Nieman Foundation, also at Harvard, curates research, fellowships, and resources for journalists. It is a sibling institution within Harvard that pursues the same mission of strengthening journalism through scholarship and research translation.
• The Conversation US: The Conversation is a nonprofit media outlet where academics write articles for journalists and the public, distributed under Creative Commons. It is the closest direct peer—same academic-to-journalism translation model, same open licensing, same nonprofit funding structure, just at much larger scale.

Broad incumbents

• Columbia Journalism Review: CJR is the Columbia University-affiliated journalism review publication covering media industry analysis, criticism, and craft. It is a broader incumbent in journalism support that overlaps with Journalist's Resource on media-industry research coverage but addresses a wider audience including media executives and academics.
• Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism: Based at Oxford, the Reuters Institute produces research on journalism trends, news consumption, and media trust that journalists and newsrooms rely on. Comparable as a research-to-journalism institution, but with a more international scope and academic research output rather than practitioner-facing tip sheets.

Others

• FactCheck.org: FactCheck.org is a nonprofit fact-checking project that monitors the accuracy of public policy claims. While not a research translation service, it shares the same nonprofit funding model, focus on U.S. public policy accuracy, and journalist-support orientation.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/journoresource
• Facebookfacebook.com/journalistsresource
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/2546793

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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 Journalist's Resource