I'm Michael Bolden, the CEO and executive director of the American Press Institute, a journalism nonprofit that supports local and community-based media through research, programs and products that foster healthy, responsive and resilient news organizations.

At API we focus on civic discourse and democracy; culture and inclusion; community engagement and trust; and revenue and resilience for journalism organizations without regard to platform or business model.

For more than 15 years, I have helped media leaders navigate the complexity of social and economic disruption to serve diverse democratic communities. I have accomplished my work at the intersection of media, entrepreneurship, and civic engagement in senior roles at The Washington Post (where I was transportation and development editor and helped merge the digital and print newsrooms), the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation (where I was editorial director across all programs), Stanford University, The San Francisco Chronicle, and now at the American Press Institute.

I've served on the boards of the Society of Professional Journalists Foundation, the Student Press Law Center and EdSource, California’s largest journalism organization focused on education. I am a regular juror for the Online Journalism Awards and the Scripps Howard Awards. I volunteer for the University of Alabama's MASTHEAD mentoring program and serve as an ambassador for Stanford University's OVAL (Outreach Volunteer Alumni Link) program.

I earned a Master of Liberal Arts from Stanford and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Alabama. I was a Maynard Media Academy Fellow at Harvard University, and I have been certified in diversity, equity and inclusion by the University of South Florida Muma College of Business and the Hearst Corp., where I also served on the Hearst Newspapers diversity committee.

My experience provides me with a unique view of how journalism can serve the information needs of our communities and equip change agents to meet them.

I believe journalism is a fundamental element of the American experiment, with a great deal of power and responsibility. For the health of our democracy, I believe the press should be at the center of American life. It has the power to connect and unify the American people. Let's meet the moment.

Learn More
Local Journalists Should Bring Love and Light to Their Communities

We, the Press, We, the People

A Love Letter to Local News

The Next Step in My Journalism Journey

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