Los Angeles, CA – Philanthropy leader and multimedia journalist Karen Rundlet will become chief executive officer of the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN), the network driving the movement to reinvent journalism as a nonprofit, nonpartisan public service.
Rundlet will join INN on Jan. 8, the INN Board of Directors announced today, after eight years at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, where she was instrumental in executing Knight’s journalism investment strategy developing sustainable local news ecosystems.
At INN, she will lead growth and support of more than 425 news organizations that make up the INN Network, setting standards and best practices for philanthropy in news and advancing the innovation, business reinvention and equitable approaches reshaping the news field.
As senior director for Knight’s journalism program, Rundlet managed a more than $50 million portfolio of grants in newsrooms and field-building organizations, including INN. She helped lead the growth of NewsMatch, the end-of-year campaign launched by Knight and supported by a coalition of dozens of funders that has leveraged a $25 million investment to help newsrooms raise $246 million in support from their communities since 2017.
Rundlet is also one of the funding leaders helping organize Press Forward, a new collaborative effort spearheaded by the MacArthur Foundation that aims to enhance the expansion and sustainability of local news organizations across the country.
“Across the country, we are experiencing a renaissance in newsmaking, with INN members driving that shift,” said Rundlet. “Ours is a powerful community of practice, focused on excellence in journalism, equity and inclusion, and the financial health of news. We are world-building and innovating with the ultimate goal of keeping communities informed to serve our collective future.”
Rundlet moved to Knight and journalism philanthropy in 2015 with deep experience in digital, radio and television news. As a journalist and manager at the Miami Herald Media Company she reported, led digital initiatives and built the newsroom’s first video studio. Rundlet also produced business reports for public radio newsrooms and American Public Media’s “Marketplace.” Early in her career, she worked as a television news producer in Atlanta and New York.
Rundlet, her husband, Alex, and daughter live in Miami, where she grew up after her family emigrated from Jamaica. She is currently an Ambassador for Black Art at the Perez Art Museum Miami and a board member of Artists in Residence in Everglades (AIRIE).
At INN, she joins a fully remote staff of 22 who support a fast-growing membership as nonprofit news becomes a mainstay of journalism across the United States and Canada.