The Institute for Nonprofit News rejected more than half of newsrooms that applied for membership in 2023

Here’s a nugget from the Institute for Nonprofit News that might come up as we creep ever closer to the 2024 elections. Only 48% of nonprofit newsrooms that applied for INN membership in 2023 were accepted.

Others failed to meet INN membership standards, which focus on editorial independence and transparency and include prohibitions on “dark money” to fund journalism.

INN wants membership in their organization — currently about 450 newsrooms strong — to be “a sign of quality, credible journalism” in an information ecosystem that includes some bad actors, said Sharene Azimi, communications director for INN. She noted, in particular, the phenomenon of “‘pink slime’ sites masquerading as news.”

To become a member of the INN Network, nonprofit news organizations must meet the membership standards and be approved by INN’s board of directors.

“The reasons for denial are various but tend to be that the organization receives too much anonymous funding, that it is not operationally independent from a larger organization, that it does not have full editorial independence (e.g., if it’s part of an advocacy-oriented nonprofit), or that the quality of the reporting is not high enough,” Azimi said.

Each application receives hours of individual review from INN staffers. The staff go on to make recommendations but the board of directors has the final say. INN staff will work with newsrooms who’ve been rejected, Azimi noted, to help them try and meet the organization’s standards on a second or third application.

INN’s CEO Karen Rundlet has noted the rejection rate and stressed that the organization is dedicated to elevating (emphasis mine) independent journalism.

“INN members produce fact-based, data-driven original reporting — and you know exactly who their funders are. Let’s continue to make sure the public knows that what our members produce is very different from pink slime journalism, press releases, or funder-prescribed content,” she said in remarks given at the INN Days conference this June. “Not everyone gets to be an INN member.”