The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has awarded Public Media Co. a $1.5 million grant to help stations strengthen local news coverage.
Public Media Co. plans to build a website of tools and data for stations seeking to fill the gap created by the crisis in local news. A website describing the new initiative says more than 266,000 newspaper jobs have been lost since 2005.
“Public media is an important solution to the crisis in local news,” said PMC CEO Tim Isgitt in a news release. “Local public media organizations have earned the trust of their communities over decades and collectively reach 99% of the country. This initiative comes at a critical moment for ensuring communities continue to have access to essential local news and information.”
Public Media Co. will work with partners such as the Medill Local News Initiative at Northwestern University, the Institute for Nonprofit News, Media Impact Funders and CPB to organize and share data on local news ecosystems throughout the country, according to Managing Director Stephen Holmes, who will be the project lead.
The website will also include funding insights, including who has funded local media organizations and the recipients of that funding in recent years, Holmes said.
“We want people to understand the local news ecosystem but also then identify potentially unserved and underserved populations in that as well,” Holmes told Current.
PMC plans to develop resources for public media organizations looking to launch a newsroom or scale one up, Holmes said. Those could include case studies and how-to guides, with individualized support offered on a more limited level, he added.
The Knight Foundation grant is for a three-year term, according to Holmes.
PMC will likely launch the website in the first quarter of 2025, Holmes said, but the effort will continue building from there. PMC will work on other ways to engage the system and organizations.
“The website alone is not the goal,” Holmes said. “We ultimately want to make sure what we’re providing is valuable.”