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Media giants to miss out as Judith Neilson restarts journalism fund with $72m

The Judith Neilson Institute is set to return to the Australian media landscape - but in a markedly different way to the past with major newspapers no longer in line for funding.

John Buckley
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The institute is currently working to assemble a new-look team led by an executive director who will be charged with recalibrating the institute's objectives in Neilson’s philanthropic image. Credit: JNI.

Billionaire philanthropist Judith Neilson will no longer award grants to major news organisations under a revised strategy for her nonprofit journalism institute following a period of protracted turbulence at the organisation.

Simon Freeman, chief executive of Neilson's primary philanthropic vehicle the Judith Neilson Foundation told Capital Brief her journalism fund, which was set up in 2018, still had $72 million of its original $100 million budget to support journalism initiatives.

However, he said that under a new strategy endorsed by the organisation's board, it would be deployed very differently to how it had been in the past, with a focus on generating independent journalism.

“It’ll certainly mean we won’t be funding the likes of the [Sydney Morning] Herald, and the [Australian] Financial Review in the future,” Freeman told Capital Brief. “But I think it’s also a transition away from necessarily being a grant-making organisation to being one that actually looks to practically work within journalism.”