An initiative to provide public media newsrooms with editing support during the pandemic received a CPB grant Thursday.
Public Media Journalists Association developed its Editor Corps in April to connect experienced public media editors with stations for free on an hourly basis. CPB will provide $20,000 towards the effort, according to a CPB press release.
Editors have already been assigned to help stations prepare talk shows and edit newscasts, features and spot news, PMJA Executive Director Terry Gildea said in the release. More than a dozen stations have requested assistance in the program’s first two weeks.
NPR, PRX and the Knight Foundation provided the initial funding for Editor Corps. The organizations were sponsors of PMJA’s annual conference in June and redirected their funding to the corps when the conference was canceled.
“PMJA recognized that stations are facing some very real and difficult challenges right now, and we wanted to find a way to provide some relief,” Gildea said in the release. “We’re grateful to our initial sponsors and to CPB for making this program happen.”