Getting It for Free: When Foundations Provide the News on Health

Abstract

Washington Post Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli was asked at a meeting early this year with reporters why The Post had used two stories from something called Kaiser Health News. Up until a few months before, the paper would not have considered taking content from a nonprofit organization, yet in this meeting to discuss the monumental challenges confronting the industry, Brauchli was asked if such an arrangement was “the wave of the future.” The answer was, in fact, yes. Even before The Post published the two stories from KHN, news organizations were taking content from or partnering with investigative websites funded by universities and foundations — the most high‐profile being ProPublica.