CPB reduces aid to longtime grantees

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is reassessing its funding commitments to several grantees that provide specialized assistance and diverse programming to the public television system.

Citing shifting priorities and reductions to its congressional appropriation that have forced cuts in station grants and its own budget, the corporation has cut off aid to the National Center for Media Engagement and is reducing its annual funding to the National Minority Consortia, which back TV programs by and about minorities, while pressing them to restructure their operations. NCME, the Wisconsin-based nonprofit that teaches and archives best practices in grassroots education work, could close by the end of the month. Wisconsin Public Television is stepping in to preserve its website, and CPB has turned to Nine Networks in St. Louis to expand what it considers a more effective approach to community engagement. The five organizations that make up the National Minority Consortia (NMC) each took a 10 percent cut in CPB support for FY13, falling from a total of $7.5 million to $6.75 million. CPB is extending its contracts with each consortium through FY14 and will hire a consultant to analyze how the organizations could operate more efficiently, possibly through some type of merger. The corporation is shifting the $750,000 saved from NMC grants to World, a multicast nonfiction channel based at WGBH that features documentaries and multicultural content.

CPB is also ending its 13-year support of the Producers Academy at WGBH, a training and mentoring program that provided training to station-based and independent filmmakers.