Laura Bassett, a former culture and political reporter at HuffPost, and John Stanton, a former BuzzFeed News Washington bureau chief, founded the Save Journalism Project. It aims to save the industry from the "monopolistic power of big tech companies," according to a news release. 

According to the Save Journalism founders, firms like Google and Facebook dominate the digital advertising market, distributing news content without paying to produce it and dismantling traditional newspapers and digital news outlets.

The newly founded nonprofit estimates 2,400 journalists lost their jobs in 2019 so far. It also estimates 1,300 communities lost local news coverage in the last 15 years, with 60 percent of the nation's counties without a daily newspaper and 171 with no newspaper coverage at all. 

In part, the Save Journalism Project aims to educate journalists on the side of the industry reporters tend to ignore — the business side.