All of this underlines what we at the Pew Center have been heartened to learn in our three years of operations-- how many allies we have in our work to improve the journalism-audience connection. Does all of this foundation activity constitute a threat to the independence of newspapers and broadcasters? Independence is, after all, a core value of journalism, respected by all journalists worthy of the name, and as former editors we are deeply sensitive to the issue.

Last fall The Wall Street Journal set out to explore the question of whether The Pew Charitable Trusts were buying their way into newsrooms. If the newspaper found any evidence to support that view, it wasn't shared with readers nor were any editors quoted who seemed alarmed by foundation funding of newsroom projects.

Perhaps that's because of the special role foundation funding plays in our economy. It is the financial underpinning for high-risk experiments that cannot attract capital from conventional sources. It is different from conventional capital because foundations do not demand a financial return on their investment.

Foundation funding is seed money, targeted where there is a chance for a break-out idea to find its legs, but, for which, for whatever reason, conventional funds aren't available. We operate in the hope that if a civic journalism project proves itself, its parent news organization will take over support and incorporate the lessons learned into daily operations.

That is, indeed, what seems to be happening as newsrooms that earlier sought support now find ways to incorporate civic journalism principles into the way they cover the news. This and other issues of the Civic Catalyst are filled with reports from forward thinking editors on projects we have encouraged around the country.

Although each foundation has its own approach, here is how the venture capital selection system works at the Pew Center: An applicant proposes a worthy idea that conforms to our guidelines, the proposal is accepted for consideration, our advisory board meets, selects and approves the initiatives to be supported. A subcontract is signed and a check sent to start the project down a road that the editor, not us, has chosen.

That completes the transaction except for a final report when the project ends.

No one looks over the editor's shoulder, no one visits the newsroom unless invited, there is no demand that reporters attend our workshops, screen our videos or even read our publications. Oh sure, we like to see tearsheets and are happy to report on projects so the rest of the profession can share the lessons the editor has learned, but that's the extent of our involvement.

We've learned that early seed money is essential to help with the initial unbudgeted expenses of launching a civic journalism initiative. The most common use of Pew money is to fund survey research or to hire a community coordinator who knows how to reach out to the community.Staffing and news hole are two areas where our funds may not be used; other than that, where the money is spent is left to the creativity of local journalists.

In addition to our work and the well known fellowship programs for mid-career journalists at Harvard, Michigan and Stanford, all funded by foundations, other examples abound of the imaginative use of foundation funds to foster good journalism.

The McCormick-Tribune Foundation underwrites "News in the Next Century," an exploration of how new technology will affect the electronic news media. A separate effort, "New Directions for News," seeks to bring innovative thinking to bear on newspapers' changing readership. Still another grant supports the Values Institute, an initiative of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, which is wrestling with the question of what journalistic values will guide newspapers as they face new competition. Altogether, these are multi-million dollar programs designed to help guide a multi-billion dollar industry buffeted by changing technology as it moves into largely uncharted waters.

The Freedom Forum is picking up the tab for reporter Lisa Herzing Burgess' year-long stint as a fellow at the National War College. This new program is designed to give journalists reporting on defense policy a more sophisticated grasp of the nation's weapons and strategy and to narrow the gap of misunderstanding between the military and the media.

The Joyce Foundation helped fund the Center for Public Integrity's tracking of campaign contributions, widely used by news organizations covering the 1996 elections. The Center did basic reporting and analysis that few news organizations could have undertaken on their own, now that downsizing has left most journalists panting from deadline to deadline.

The reason foundations are involved with journalism is that journalism isn't just another business. While profit obviously motivates every business enterprise, journalism is the only one that provides news and information--the oxygen democracy and its companion, free enterprise, need to survive.

The question is: Will the drive for ever-higher profits collide with the need to incubate the civic journalism techniques some news organizations are developing to hold onto their readers and viewers in the face of growing competition from other news sources.

Foundation funding is a meager substitute for the dollars that owners and publishers ought to be spending to develop better educated people, stronger news values and innovative journalism techniques. However, until the big media companies come to that realization on their own, foundations will be there to help.