NPR To Expand Collaborative Journalism Network

NPR announced today that it has received a $5.5 million grant from philanthropists Eric and Wendy Schmidt to further expand public media’s collaborative journalism efforts. The grant will enable NPR 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.

This grant follows a $4.7 million gift from Eric and Wendy Schmidt in 2020, which created two regional newsrooms in the Collaborative Journalism Network. This additional investment of $5.5 million over three years will enable public radio stations to reach and serve more communities with local, multi-platform public service journalism.

“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.”

The creation of additional regional newsrooms will provide needed resources to boost coverage and investigative journalism in communities with limited access to local reporting. In the greater Appalachia region, the newsroom 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. NPR’s collaboration with the newsrooms will help strengthen reporting on issues impacting Indigenous and Native communities, develop a talent pipeline and provide opportunities for professional development and training, and create a shared services model that will provide support for small stations.

Through the grant, a new pilot in partnership with the 10 station New England News Collaborative will expand short-form video news coverage. This pilot 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.