With former Google global head of news Richard Gingras already on board, a community publisher has attracted philanthropic support for a push into the United States.

Canadian media company Village Media has recently made news with a partnership with its Random Acts of Kindness programme and a partnership with OpenAI to develop an AI-driven community health and care navigation platform that allows users to search for resources such as food assistance, health care and housing.

Now the Knight Foundation is backing Village to develop a scalable model for US markets.

Based in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, Village Media has already built a network of sites in Canada – almost three dozen are listed on its website. Noting what it sees as replicable success, the Knight Foundation will back a push into the US, taking a 50 per cent share of each of 15 proposed sites, starting in Wisconsin, and parts of Illinois and Pennsylvania.

Evolving from previous funding initiatives, the new programme – into which it is putting US$5 million (A$7.01 million) – is a response by the philanthropic organisation to what it sees as a “deepening crisis” in local news.

Vice president of journalism Amalie Nash has been quoted that “if there are replicable, proven business models that can be scaled out”, they should help make them happen.

“We’re all very laser-focused on what some of the solutions are, and so if you’ve identified a company that has succeeded in a place like Canada, can that be repeated in the United States to such a degree?”

Chief executive Jeff Elgie says the hope is that these sites will be cashflow positive within two or three years, and it will be possible to bring in a local investor.

Village Media already has a reputation as a power for good, helping raise funds to restock a local food bank, for example, and handing play equipment to youngsters in its area. Its Open Door project with OpenAI aims to make it easier for people using ChatGPT and Search to find reliable, fact-based local information.

Gingras’ approach to the community publishing business is forward looking and needs focussed, and he sees Village’s core mission as empowering communities to address their own challenges and opportunities… to not only give them information, but “create opportunities and frameworks for the community to come together and address their own opportunities and challenges”.

He joined Village Media as chairman in April last year, and is also a founding board member of the Center for News, Technology & Innovation, and of the International Center for Journalists. He is an advisor to Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, and also on the boards of the First Amendment Coalition, and World Computer Exchange.

He was Google’s vice president of news for 14 years, and previously a strategic advisor on product development. Between 1993-96, he was Apple’s worldwide services (online & Internet).

Village’s technology is in use at a number of other sites around the world, including Glacier Media in British Columbia, Harvard Media in Saskatchewan, and Stuff’s Neighbourly News in New Zealand.

Pictured: The Village Media headquarters in Sault Ste Marie (photo Jake Cormier/Village Media)