Walton Family Foundation: Journalism Impact Primer

The Walton Family Foundation invests in journalism as one element in its high-impact social change strategies, especially in its environment and K–12 education programs.

This report puts forth a WFF Media Impact Framework and identifies key indicators and research methods that can be used to assess journalism investments across program areas, based on best practices in the field of media strategy and research. The companion WFF Media Impact Toolkit provides a set of steps for grantmakers to take to get from the decision to invest in media all the way to identifying the appropriate indicators, targets and baselines. While this report is customized to reflect WFF goals, priorities and processes, it is our hope that other partners can utilize the materials to become more effective communicators and grantmakers.

This report also provides background information about the journalistic profession, noting in particular its differences from social change and advocacy organizations. This context is especially important for framing what can be difficult conversations with journalism organizations, given their commitment to neutrality and the recent— and ongoing — upheaval in the industry. It also contains a media glossary with definitions for common terms in the media industry, including categories of media, different content platforms and analytics providers.