Programs/Content
AIR selects five teams to produce live events
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Three of the five Localore Live grantees will partner with NPR member stations.
"The Pub" Podcast
‘The Pub’ #63: The ethics of foundation-supported journalism
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Are journalists allowing themselves to be the instruments of policy advocacy?
Ethics
Survey finds ‘areas of sensitivity’ in foundation support for nonprofit news
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Most newsrooms lack clear guidelines, and funders are upfront about agendas.
Quick Takes
WHYY resignations reportedly disrupt talks about large grant
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The departure of Chris Satullo from WHYY has complicated talks about a potentially large grant to the station, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported Saturday. According to the paper, Satullo, former v.p. of news, and Matt Golas, managing editor of WHYY’s PlanPhilly, recently pitched to four major philanthropies the idea of starting PlanBurgh, a website about urban planning in Pittsburgh. The site would be similar in scope to PlanPhilly, a Philadelphia website that WHYY acquired in February. Golas and Satullo sought to raise $1.5 million, according to the Inquirer. The two were meeting with foundation representatives before Satullo’s departure was revealed Sept.
Development
Growth in aid to media foundations aimed mostly at web-based efforts
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Foundation support for media-related activities increased 21 percent between 2009 and 2011, according to a study that examined how private philanthropies responded to the increased fragmentation of the media landscape. Grants for traditional public media organizations grew at a slightly slower rate than other categories of media grantmaking, from $100 million in 2009 to $118 million in 2011, an increase of 18 percent. Yet major stations such as New York’s WNET and Minnesota Public Radio are among the top recipients of philanthropic aid. “Growth in Foundation Support for Media in the United States,” released Nov. 12 by the Foundation Center, is a comprehensive look at the scope and size of foundations’ investments in media.
Development
Seeking the next $100 million
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A review of public stations’ financial data over the past 15 years shows that, despite their widely divergent revenue trajectories, public radio and television have both made great progress in implementing structural and cultural changes needed to pursue new revenues.
Development
Partner up, get local for best shot at funding, execs advise
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Grantmakers at foundations increasingly look for public radio and television stations to move beyond traditional broadcasting and serve their communities in new ways — as conveners of public dialogue, as innovators testing new approaches for producing and funding digital journalism, and as partners in helping their communities tackle social problems.
Station execs who are veterans at foundation fundraising say pubcasting projects that touch on these key themes have a good shot at capturing the attention of grantmakers:
Emphasis on community engagement
Nine Network/KETC in St. Louis received a three-year $450,000 foundation grant backing its participation in CPB’s American Graduate initiative. The JSM Charitable Trust, a private foundation in St. Louis, awarded the grant last month to help support a series of events, programs and community-engagement activities aimed at improving high-school graduation rates. The station will sponsor town-hall meetings for teachers and students, for example, and is working with a youth-literacy group on a poetry project for kids.
Development
Foundations favor grantees with digital, local news chops
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By giving two seminal news-related grants last year, the Pittsburgh Foundation broke from what chief executive Grant Oliphant described as the foundation’s history of “generic support” for public media. Answering the call from the Knight Foundation for matching grants to address gaps in local news coverage …
Public Media Policybase
Ford Foundation spending for educational broadcasting, fiscal years 1951-76
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The Ford Foundation was noncommercial television’s first big funder, years before Congress contributed large sums — supporting efforts to acquire reserved channels, helping to start stations in major cities, and backing National Educational Television, the system’s major production and distribution organization in its early years.