The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has announced a $200,000 grant to the Huffington Post Investigative Fund, joining the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy, Atlantic Philanthropies, the Markle Foundation, and the Huffington Post in support of the nonprofit multimedia venture.

Part of Knight's $15 million investigative reporting initiative, the grant will support the production of a broad range of investigative journalism created by staff reporters and freelance writers, especially those affected by the recession. Through its open-source publishing platform, any content produced by the fund is free for anyone to publish at the same time that it's made available to the Post, thus distributing investigative journalism to a larger audience than the fund is capable of attracting on its own. To date, more than forty outlets have republished content published by the fund.

Since the program's launch this fall, the investigative fund has produced more than fifty stories, including twenty videos. Stories have included an investigation of a top subprime lender at the heart of the housing boom and bust; a three-part expose of how credit rating companies fended off regulation from Congress and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission; and a project shedding light on inequities in denials of health insurance claims, reported with help from citizen journalists.

"Knight's grant is an important milestone in the young history of the Huffington Post Investigative Fund," said Huffington Post co-founder and editor-in-chief Arianna Huffington. "We're incredibly grateful to Alberto Ibarg�en and Eric Newton of the Knight Foundation for their passion for championing innovative solutions in the face of the crisis facing investigative journalism. Everyone who understands the vital role good journalism plays in our democracy is looking for ways to preserve and strengthen it during this time of great transition for the media, and Knight is playing a lead role in this effort."