KANSAS CITY, MO. — The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which conservative Republicans and the Trump Administration seeks to defund, has awarded a $1 million grant to a public media journalism collaboration covering agricultural and rural issues.
Harvest Public Media, a service of NPR Member KCUR-FM in Kansas City, is designed to provide insight into the lives of people in the Midwest, Great Plains, and farming communities throughout the country.
The CPB grant, which spans three years, will help the station collaboration expand from nine to 15 states, increasing its reach and daily coverage of rural issues.
“Agriculture and farming in rural America are the backbone of our country, driving our economy and contributing to our national security,” CPB President/CEO Patricia Harrison said. “So many rural newsrooms are gone and it’s important for CPB to support the growth and reporting capacity of Harvest Public Media.”
The grant is designed to enable Harvest Public Media to add three reporters at new partner stations in additional states in the central U.S.
Harvest Public Media is a collaboration between lead station KCUR and Illinois Public Media; Northern Public Radio’s WNIJ-FM in DeKalb, Ill.; Iowa Public Radio; St. Louis Public Radio; Oklahoma State University’s KOSU-FM in Stillwater; Nebraska Public Media; and 15 associate station partners.
The collaborative will also hire an audience editor to work with partner stations on data analytics to create scalable strategies for accelerating audience growth and produce digital-first video and visual journalism to expand the reach and depth of Harvest reporting. Its digital features are currently carried in nearly every state, from national news sites to small community newspapers, by both non-profit and for-profit commercial news organizations.
“Harvest’s collaborative reporting comes from the ground up and provides a richer, more nuanced picture across a wider region of rural areas than any other media outlet can provide,” KCUR GM Sarah Morris said. “This grant will allow Harvest to grow its coverage footprint and to better serve audiences across the country.”
This grant brings CPB’s total discretionary support for regional journalism collaborations to more than $48 million since 2010. That year, Harvest Public Media was among the first collaborations launched with CPB funds, involving six partner stations providing reporting on food production and issues in small towns in the Midwest.
