It is a registered not-for-profit charitable organisation[1] that is focused on research into sustainability in the news media sector.
It was founded by a group of university academics, including members of the Public Interest Journalism Foundation, and news media industry figures.
[4][5] The project has attracted significant media attention as a source of independent information about Australian journalism.
[11] Other research projects have proposed a public interest journalism rebate scheme[12][13] and investigated philanthropic funding for news companies.
Its Board includes Eric Beecher, Richard Eccles, Leslie Falkiner-Rose, Virginia Haussegger, Anita Jacoby and Mette Schepers.