Twelve public radio stations have signed a memorandum of understanding to form the New York Public News Network, the stations announced last week.
The network aims to “maximize our reporting efficiency and strength and to give residents a better understanding of the biggest stories across New York state,” according to Current citing a memo, which was shared with Current.
To start, the network will focus on sharing stories, coordinating coverage and sharing resources among stations, but it has plans to grow.
Over the last three to four years, public radio news leaders in the state have met weekly. That has been a “big change” and has helped with issues such as duplication of coverage, said David Sommerstein, news director at North Country Public Radio in Canton.
“I don’t think there was much communication between the stations before,” Sommerstein said. A lot of the change has been “due to the technologies we’ve adopted since COVID,” he said. “Zoom and Slack makes it just a whole lot easier.”
Forming the news network is “the natural next step,” Sommerstein said. Giving the collaboration a name helps to “publicize it a little bit to let New Yorkers know that we’re all working together, that we’re making the most of their listener and reader donations to provide better journalism across the whole state,” he said.
New York stations have been sharing the work of Capitol Bureau Chief Karen DeWitt for decades, for instance. Some of the stations have also worked together on initiatives such as Innovation Trail in 2010 and Upstate Insight in 2014.
The participating stations are WXXI; North Country Public Radio; WAER in Syracuse; WAMC in Albany; WBFO in Buffalo; WJFF in Liberty; WMHT in Albany; WNYC in New York City; WRVO in Oswego; WSKG in Vestal; WLIW in Long Island; and WSHU in Westport, Conn.
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