Eric and Wendy Schmidt have given $4.7 million to NPR’s Collaborative Journalism Network to create two new regional newsrooms — one in California and a Midwest hub connecting Member stations in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska — that will increase local coverage across the states, especially in underserved communities, and will expand investigative reporting capacity. According to NPR’s announcement:
These two new regional newsrooms will enable public radio stations in the states they serve to coordinate and expand their local and regional reporting and will also provide content to national news programs and digital platforms…
All 25 public radio stations in Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska serving some 63 cities will have access to content produced by the midwest regional newsroom, which will be led by the largest public media stations in the region–KCUR in Kansas City, St. Louis Public Radio, Iowa Public Radio and NET in Nebraska–with NPR as the national partner.
The grant will add investigative units in California and the Midwest, enabling the regional newsrooms to provide deeper coverage of topics like government accountability, criminal justice, the environment, healthcare and rural economic development. The regional hubs will also leverage existing reporting resources by coordinating coverage of breaking news and elections across statewide news teams.
“Now more than ever, we depend on high-quality journalism for timely and critical information,” said Wendy Schmidt. “Local news is especially important, and with so many newsrooms in decline, we need to invest in strengthening reporting resources from trusted sources like public radio. These regional news hubs will not only increase local reporting of critical issues, they will also elevate diverse voices and perspectives in regional and national stories.”
Read the entire press release.