Media Giraffe affiliates fare well in Knight news challenge grants

Twelve Media Giraffe "prospects" or participants in MGP events were among 34 winners announced today in the "Knight Brothers 21st Century News Challenge," a multi-year effort by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to foster news innovation which improves geographic communities.

The third-largest award -- $885,000 -- went to VillageSoup.com, the Maine-based local online community whose founder, Richard Anderson, was among attendees at MGP2006 last June. Other MGP2006 participants winning grants were Adrian Holovaty, Lisa Williams, Paul Grabowicz, Jay Rosen and Benjamin Melancon.  Among "prospects" winning awards were the Gotham Gazette, Amy Gahran, Dori Maynard, J.D. Lasica and Ethan Zuckerman.  Some of the MGP2006-attendee winners are also in the "prospects" database.