Colorado Public Radio has received a five-year, $1.2 million grant to support solution-based coverage of climate issues.
The grant, awarded by the Jacques M. Littlefield Foundation, will fund a team of three reporters and an editor who will produce coverage of research and innovation on climate issues within the state. The team will deliver long-form stories, data-driven reports and podcasts, according to a Fridaypress release announcing the grant.
“Many Coloradans are focused on this global issue, which deserves deeply researched, comprehensive coverage from independent journalists,” Executive Editor Kevin Dale said in the release. “This team is a natural extension of our current energy and environment beat and will dramatically increase our reporting, enabling new partnerships with regional and national collaboratives about climate change and sustainable living.”
“We are committed to fact-based reporting on the impact, solutions and political aspects of climate change,” Dale said.
The grant is part of CPR’s strategy to expand its news operations. All four positions on the climate reporting team are new, according to a spokesperson.
CPR’s newsroom staff has more than doubled in size over the last six years. Dale wants to hire 25 to 30 more journalists, he told Current earlier this year. In January, the station received a grant to build an investigative unit. It acquired local news site Denverite in March.
I admire Vic Vela for his courage to admit having been a drug addict and presenting his view on the road to recovery. Congrats to CPR for this story on drug abuse.
I was so excited when I heard CPR had been given a grant to do in-depth Climate Change stories. Great to learn you have a team of three or four reporters ! But frankly I have not seen much accomplished. The stories are rather ho hum…
nothing in-depth… nothing creative.. nothing new. Sorry but I think something is wrong with the members of the team or the goals of the leader. Maybe they need to think out of the box. For inspiration, the reporters should listen what The Daily from the NYT presents everyday ! Highly produced with amazing award worthy reporting. Maybe CPR should produce some documentaries or mini docs looking at all the issues, what is being done , what should be done and the ramifications if action is not taken. Maybe the team should be responsible for a part of Colorado Matters every week? I have heard interviews with the Climate Scientists in Boulder. Was that done by NPR or CPR? Who are the Climate Scientists? What are they working on? What are their predictions? How many years do we have left to avoid disaster? Are we doomed ?
Is it already too late ? My opinion is CPR Reporters maybe need to do more phone work before going out in the field Why ? Because just traveling around Colorado by your journalists is expensive. We are not paying for vacations.
I do not see not much bang for the buck. . Please don’t squander this opportunity to do some top notch journalism. This is the major issue of our time.