Corporation for Public Broadcasting Launches Local Journalism Initiative

Patricia Harrison announces CPB's $10.5 million investment to create regional Local Journalism Centers

UPDATED 3/25/10. Corporation for Public Broadcasting President and CEO Patricia Harrison today announced a major new local journalism initiative that will create a series of regional collaborations and leverage local journalism resources to strengthen the information health of America’s communities.  CPB’s $10.5 million investment will create a series of Local Journalism Centers, or LJCs, that will enable public media stations in common geographic regions to pool resources & increase the production of locally relevant journalism. The project, said Harrison, is part of CPB’s ongoing commitment to innovation and to serving an increasingly diverse America.

“An informed America is much more vital and essential to our Democracy than ever before,” said Harrison, echoing the findings of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy.

Initially, 27 participating public media stations will participate in five LJCs , with the number of stations per LJC ranging from three to seven. Harrison noted plans to add two more LJCs, with a total of ten additional public media stations, in the coming months. Each regional LJC will include newly-hired station based reporters and editors and will focus on a single issue of concern across the region. The LJCs will use the full spectrum of digital platforms, including TV, radio, online and mobile. And a key focus of their efforts will be community engagement and partnership.

The first five LJCs are:

• Fronteras: The Changing America Desk, covering the southwest region and including stations in California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. Fronteras will cover demographic and cultural shifts taking place in the region with concentration on border and immigration issues. This LJC has a bilingual reporting team.
• An Agribusiness LJC covering the Plains states of Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas will address topics at heart of agriculture and business–fuel, food, farming practices, and impacts on jobs, economy and the environment.
• Changing Gears: Remaking the Manufacturing Belt, to cover Michigan, Illinois and Ohio, will explore personal stories and transformation of the region’s manufacturing-based economy.
• The Innovation Trail LJC in Upstate New York will explore how innovation and technology are stimulating economic development and creating jobs in the region.
• Healthy State LJC in Central Forida will examine health issues from the policy and consumer points of view, including disparities among ethnic and geographic communities in Central Forida.

Harrison said that CPB’s goal is that the LJCs become self-sustaining and become a model for others to follow in the production and delivery of locally relevant journalism. Content produced by the collaboratives will be made available to the entire public media system.  When asked if other people can get involved in the LJCs, Harrison replied, “Absolutely.” She said those with a serious interest may contact her by email at pharrison@cpb.org.

Harrison noted that the LJC initiative is an outgrowth of a series of meetings that CPB held last year in partnership with the Aspen Institute. CPB’s announcement follows on the heels of the $2 million Argo project announced by NPR, CPB  and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation last fall. Under Argo, each participating public radio station is adding a journalist blogger/social media expert who will add to the local coverage provided by the station.

The Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy addressed the role of public service media in serving the information needs of local communities, calling for support of public service media aimed at meeting community information needs.

The CPB announcement took place during a special event at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. Paula Kerger, President and CEO of the Public Broadcasting Service , and Vivian Schiller, President and CEO of National Public Radio, were also on hand to discuss ways that public media, utilizing radio, television and digital platforms, can enhance journalism in local communities. The presentations were followed by a panel discussion on the role of public media in local, national and international reporting. Panelists included Tom Rosenstiel, Director of the PEW Project for Excellence in Journalism, Nishat Kurwa, News Director of Youth Media International, Tom Karlo, General Manager of KPBS TV-FM in San Diego, and Kinsey Wilson, Senior Vice President and General Manager for Digital Media at NPR. Hari Sreenivasan, correspondent for PBS NewsHour, moderated the panel.

Go to the National Center for Media Engagement for more information and to access the video feed of the event. The Twitter hashtag for this event is #localj. More information about the CPB initiative, including the press release, is available on the CPB website.