US public broadcasting faces profound challenges as a mass media service entering a disintermediated digital era. In an increasingly segmented media marketplace, public broadcasters still aim to educate and inform the broadest possible swath of Americans. News and public affairs provision is a core function of public broadcasting, and garners enormous trust ratings—a feature that is in short supply in participatory news media. However, future news and public affairs programming will require genuine interactivity and listener/viewer choice and participation to remain relevant. This has been a major obstacle for a service that has been rewarded for its feudalistic stability. Public broadcasting's resources and assets are valuable today and hold great potential value for tomorrow's nonprofit online media sector. The sector will have to transform to fulfill that potential—the question is how. Scenarios include going local, going national, partnering up, or fighting it out, each of which offers opportunities to those who care about preserving the public service media.
