NPR adds Mountain West regional newsroom
Tyler Falk
NPR and the Mountain West News Bureau are collaborating to create the seventh regional newsroom in the NPR Network.
“NPR is committed to working more closely with these Mountain West stations to serve the public’s need for trusted reporting from this vast section of the country,” said Edith Chapin, NPR SVP, editor-in-chief and acting CCO, in a Thursday press release. “We’re eager to examine the use of public lands, the demands on water and energy resources and other vital issues for people in this area.”
A grant from Eric and Wendy Schmidt through the Schmidt Family Foundation will allow the newsroom to hire a full-time digital editor and an Indigenous affairs reporter.
Mountain West News Bureau launched in 2018 with a grant from CPB of nearly $500,000. It received additional funding of nearly $500,000 in 2024.
Boise State Public Radio in Idaho is the lead station in the regional newsroom, along with five managing partner stations: KANW in Albuquerque, N.M.; KUNC in Greeley, Colo.; KUNR Public Radio in Reno, Nev.; Nevada Public Radio in Las Vegas; and Wyoming Public Media in Laramie.
“The Mountain West News Bureau is eager to expand,” Tom Michael, GM of Boise State Public Radio, said in the release. “In addition to daily news and enterprise reporting, we are working with partners Koahnic Broadcast Corporation and Native Public Media on covering Indigenous affairs. Our newest partners will help us deepen our journalism and elevate our work.”
NPR’s other regional newsrooms are in Texas, California, the Gulf States, the Midwest, New England, and Appalachia and the mid-South.
“By working together in this way, these public media organizations can do more local reporting and add context and perspective that helps people understand the complexities of this region,” said Michael de Yoanna, managing editor of the Mountain West News Bureau, in the release. “The bureau will be a hub for collaboration and help expand meaningful, in-depth and investigative reporting across our region.”
