News Services Increase Coverage on Underreported Areas and Issues

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is awarding $3.3 million to five regional journalism collaborations to promote local news coverage and newsgathering efficiency. The grants will help a total of 23 public media stations coordinate news services as well as produce more community-based, multiplatform coverage of local and regional issues. The collaborations will increase local news coverage at a time when the full-time newspaper jobs that drive local reporting have dramatically declined, as documented by the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Employment Statistics (OES). In addition to news from underreported rural areas, small towns and urban centers, public media stations play a vital role serving as the backbone of the Emergency Alert System.

The collaboration grants include:

1. Kansas Regional Journalism Collaboration, $502,327. Lead station KCUR (Kansas City) will collaborate with KMUW (Wichita), Kansas Public Radio (Lawrence) and High Plains Public Radio (Garden City) on a statewide news service focusing on statehouse politics, health, education, natural resources, rural life, and agriculture.
2. Collaboration in the Mountain West, $475,000. Lead station Boise State Public Radio (Boise, Idaho) will collaborate with KUNC (Greeley, Colo.), Yellowstone Public Radio (Billings, Mont.), Wyoming Public Media (Laramie), KRCC (Colorado Springs) and KUER (Salt Lake City) on a news service focusing on land and water resource management, regional growth, issues in the rural West, and Western culture.
3. StateImpact Pennsylvania, $652,902. Lead station WITF (Harrisburg) will work with WHYY (Philadelphia), WESA (Pittsburgh) and the public radio program Allegheny Front on a statewide news service focusing on the energy industry, the economic and environmental impact of energy choices, and how energy production affects the health of citizens and communities.
4. California Counts, $994,909. Lead station Southern California Public Radio (KPCC) will work with KQED (San Francisco), KPBS (San Diego), Capital Public Radio (Sacramento) and the non-profit Sacramento-based newsroom CALmatters.org on a statewide, multi-platform news service focusing on statehouse issues, economic opportunity, safety and quality of life, and the next California Dream.
5. Sustainability Regional Journalism Collaboration, $699,847. Lead station Arizona PBS, at the Arizona State Cronkite School of Journalism, will collaborate with KJZZ (Phoenix), Rocky Mountain PBS, KPCC (Los Angeles) and PBS SoCal on a news service focusing on emerging solutions to water resources, renewable energy, climate change and urbanization.