NPR had announced it has received a $5.5 million grant from Eric and Wendy Schmidt that will be used to expand public media’s collaborative journalism efforts.
NPR states the grant will enable it and its partners to create a regional newsroom in Appalachia and the neighboring area; bolster an existing public media collaboration, the Mountain West News Bureau; conduct a multistation visual journalism pilot in New England, and support the continued growth of the California and Midwest newsrooms. The grant follows a previous $4.7 million gift from the Schmidt’s in 2020 which created two regional newsrooms in the Collaborative Journalism Network. The new $5.5 million grant will be paid to NPR over three years.
The regional newsroom in Appalachia will bring together six public media outlets in Kentucky and Tennessee, with the possibility of adding more. The Mountain West News Bureau, an existing 14-station collaboration serving Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, will become a regional newsroom under the Collaborative Journalism Network. Via a new pilot program, the nine-station New England News Collaborative will expand short-form video news coverage. This will build on existing infrastructure and expertise at NPR and stations. It will also provide training and mentorship to build visual storytelling capacity and knowledge of best practices for digital platforms.
“Local news organizations are essential to our communities, providing not only a sense of identity and connection but also a spotlight on local challenges like land rights, voting abuses, the impact of extractive industries and air and water quality,” said Wendy Schmidt, co-founder and president of the Schmidt Family Foundation. “Eric and I believe deeply in investing in NPR’s work to strengthen our democracy, protect human rights, expose wrongs and uplift voices that deserve to be heard.”
“Local journalism is vital to creating a more informed public and is the core of NPR and public media’s mission. This gift is a continued investment in our current regional newsrooms and provides the necessary resources to support expanding our collaborative journalism efforts,” said Edith Chapin, NPR’s Senior Vice President, Editor in Chief and acting Chief Content Officer. “The multiplatform and investigative reporting from our journalists continues to spotlight critical stories directly from communities across the country.”
