Microloans for Journalists is matching journalists together to help them battle coronavirus-driven hardship

The last month has shown us that the news industry, despite a dramatic spike in readership, is in no way immune to the coronavirus. Layoffs, furloughs, closures, salary cuts: On Monday, The Dallas Morning News became only the latest newsroom to announce pay reductions for its staff.

I won’t go through the long list of publishers that have done the same or worse, but I’ll link you to Poynter’s list instead.

To help support journalists during this time, ProPublica reporters Robert Faturechi, Ryan Gabrielson and Topher Sanders, and OpenNews program director Sisi Wei launched Microloans for Journalists, a program for United States journalists to lend to other journalists.

Five months into my gig at the @pbpost, I broke my elbow. The newsroom didn’t hesitate to chip in for the uninsured new part-timer. This is what makes the industry so great: At the end of the day, we’re one crew ready to ride for anyone in need 💯💪 https://t.co/nSnNKdCFK6

— Samantha Ragland (@sammyragland) April 6, 2020

Mutual aid micro-loan fund – for journalists, by journalists. Sign up to be a donor (I did) or to get the cash you need in a rough-ass time. https://t.co/fczMN0T0xg

— Maggie Koerth (@maggiekb1) April 6, 2020

Microlending as an idea is usually associated with the deeply impoverished in the developing world; Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank are credited with originating the modern iteration of the concept, for which they won the Nobel Peace Prize. But journalists have been helping other journalists for about as long as the profession has existed.

The way it works is that journalists in need (borrowers) can sign up to receive a loan of $500 while other journalists (lenders) and sign up to lend. (It’s structurally a lot like the Boston Helps project at Boston.com I wrote about last week.) Then the Microloans for Journalists team verifies that the borrower is a professional journalist who’s been furloughed or laid off and match a lender with a borrower. The two will handle the exchange between themselves. Borrowers are expected, in good faith, to pay the lender back within a year, though the website notes that since this is only a matching program, there’s no way to ensure that happens.

Only journalists are allowed to be lenders to avoid a conflict of interest. (You wouldn’t want someone a journalist covers to be the person who lends her money.)

Journalists like The 19th co-founder Amanda Zamora and New York Magazine’s Yashar Ali and others have already agreed to lend and are listed on the website. Lenders are, of course, welcome to forgive loans or consider their loans to be donations.

I’m in for $2,500, @RobertFaturechi!

So many journalists are being laid off, but some aren’t impacted & have money..looking at you TV anchors

I hope they’ll join me in becoming a part of this interest-free lending program for journalists

(btw, I’m going to forgive the loans) https://t.co/mXY5HH9hOh

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) April 6, 2020

If you’re a journalist facing layoffs or furloughs, there’s now a micro-loan resource for you. Thanks for doing this @ryangabrielson @RobertFaturechi @ReporterTopher @sisiwei — as always, you’re all about action & impact. https://t.co/kyFDbhk9DV

— amanda zamora (@amzam) April 6, 2020

In the past few weeks, journalism communities have rallied together to support others in several ways:

• The International Women’s Media Foundation’ Journalism Relief Fund for women journalists.
• Freelancer Union’s Freelancers Relief Fund.
• Numerous GoFundMes, including for workers in Virginia or the Florida Times-Union, the Pueblo Chieftain and Creative Loafing Tampa.
• A general journalists furlough fund by Seattle Times reporter Paige Cornwell.
• A New York Times fund for any journalists who have freelanced for the Times in 2020 or have work assigned in the near future.
• The Broadcasters Foundation of America’s emergency grants for broadcasters who have tested positive for COVID-19.