KnightBlog » Communications

Happy Birthday, Bud!

Kristen Taylor — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 22:03:18 +0000

Larry "Bud" Meyer retired February 1st after fourteen years at Knight Foundation. You can find more about his accomplishments on his retirement announcement. He is board chairman of the Communications Network, a national nonprofit with 324 members dedicated to promoting strategic communications in U.S. philanthropy.

We miss him here in the office and wanted to send birthday wishes his way, so we made a short video:

Happy Birthday, Bud!

Knight President Alberto Ibargüen Addresses Economic Outlook

Kristen Taylor — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 17:33:57 +0000

Knight Foundation President Alberto Ibargüen addresses the economic outlook in a video (here's the transcript): Some key points are listed below the video.

First, let me repeat what we've discussed with many of you individually: while we have taken our losses, the foundation remains quite strong.

I'm especially pleased to be able to assure you that Knight Foundation will honor all existing pledges and grants. We foresee no liquidity issues for the Foundation.

We've been well served by a long-standing policy of asset diversification, directed by an outstanding Investment Committee and our outside investment manager.

And we expect to be well positioned when the markets recover.

Thoughts? Other things you would like answered? Let us know in the comments.

Follow @knightfdn on Twitter

Kristen Taylor — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:09:55 +0000

Another way to find out what Knight is working on and thinking about: follow our Twitter feed for Knight Foundation and the Twitter for our new community site, Knight Pulse.

Below, a screenshot of recent tweets (the parlance for Twitter updates); today, a link to Knight Stanford Fellow Andrew Haeg's (@andrewhaeg) Twitter group, Change Journalism.

Some other journalism Twitter feeds that @knightfdn has linked to lately:

CUNY Journalism School

themediaisdying

The Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard

Knight Digital Media Center

Your favorite Twitterers? Help us make a Twitter list in the comments.

Need Help Writing News Releases?

Kristen Taylor — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:42:49 +0000

Knight has just launched a new site, News Release Workshop to help you write a strong press release.

On the site, you will find example press releases (here's another), a structural worksheet, and why the Flesch Score matters.

All site content is under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works license, so we hope you will share it (with attribution, please).

Thoughts? How can we improve the site to make it a better resource for you?

Communications Network Conference 2008 Begins in Chicago

Kristen Taylor — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 13:19:24 +0000

The 2008 Communications Network Conference, a group of philanthropy professionals who work in communications, began last night in Chicago.

Chair of the Network, Larry Meyer (pictured below at left) and Senior Communication Officer and Secretary at Knight Foundation, introduced Ira Glass, who explained how his wildly successful NPR (and Showtime) show This American Life uses narrative hooks to "cunningly" engage listeners around issues they might not otherwise care about.

Everyone was still abuzz about his talk this morning at breakfast;

to follow the events, the conference Twitter tag is #comnet08 and the conference blog has more details about sessions and speakers.