WASHINGTON, D.C. — Eric and Wendy Schmidt, philanthropists with billions of dollars thanks to Eric’s former role as Google CEO and Wendy’s investment prowess, have given NPR a sizable grant to further expand public media’s collaborative journalism efforts.
The $5.5 million grant is designed to enable NPR and its partners to create a regional newsroom in Appalachia and the neighboring area; bolster an existing public media collaboration, the Mountain West News Bureau; conduct a multi-station visual journalism pilot in New England. It is also designed to support the continued growth of the California and Midwest newsrooms, NPR says.
This grant follows a $4.7 million gift from the Schmidts presented to NPR in 2020, which created two regional newsrooms in the Collaborative Journalism Network.
“This additional investment of $5.5 million over three years will enable public radio stations to reach and serve more communities with local, multi-platform public service journalism,” NPR said. “The creation of additional regional newsrooms will provide needed resources to boost coverage and investigative journalism in communities with limited access to local reporting.”
In the greater Appalachia region, the newsroom will bring together six public media outlets in Kentucky and Tennessee, with the possibility of adding more.
The Mountain West News Bureau, an existing 14-station collaboration serving Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, will become a regional newsroom under the Collaborative Journalism Network.
“NPR’s collaboration with the newsrooms will help strengthen reporting on issues impacting Indigenous and Native communities, develop a talent pipeline and provide opportunities for professional development and training, and create a shared services model that will provide support for small stations,” NPR said.
Through the grant, a new pilot in partnership with the 10 station New England News Collaborative will expand short-form video news coverage. The pilot will build on existing infrastructure and expertise at NPR and stations and also provide training and mentorship to build visual storytelling capacity and knowledge of best practices for digital platforms.
The California and Midwest newsrooms were established in 2021.
