Models for Funding Local News
On August 24, 2010, the Grant Center hosted a webinar to discuss funding opportunities for local news. The presenters included:
- Kathy Merritt, Senior Director, Radio Program Investments, CPB
- Frank Morris, News Director, KCUR
- Jayme Burke, Director of Foundation Relations, KQED
- Debbie Zambetti, Associate Director, Foundation Relations, KQED
- Amy Dominguez-Arms, Program Director, California Democracy, The James Irvine Foundation
- Moderated by Amie Klempnauer Miller, DEI Foundation Development Advisor
The first presenter was Kathy Merritt, Senior Director, Radio Program Investments, at CPB. This past spring, CPB announced that it would make a major investment in the launch of seven Local Journalism Centers (LJC) around the country with the goal of enhancing the capacity of public media to produce local journalism. Merritt noted that there are currently fewer than 2,500 journalism jobs in public broadcasting. CPB wanted to invest specifically in local news reporting.
One of CPB's goals was to design a model that could be sustainable. The decision was made to support each LJC with a two-year grant. Each LJC is made up of three to eight stations working together to create multi-media, multi-platform content around one topic area that is relevant to all of their communities. Each LJC has to add reporters, an editor and a "managing facilitator." Further, CPB required each LJC to undertake community engagement activities and partnerships.
CPB has announced investment of $8.1 million from TVP, Radio, Digital and System Support funds. Merritt noted the significance of the fact that funding for this project comes from multiple sources inside CPB. Stations will invest an additional $4 million. A total of 42 radio and television stations are participating. The LJC initiative will enable them to hire 52 new journalists. CPB is working with each LJC to create sustainability plans. The development staff at participating stations are beginning to collaborate on developing sustainability and fundraising plans.
Five LJCs have been announced to date. Merritt reviewed each, including the participating stations, the content focus, and the investment (see slides). Two additional LJCs are in development: a Southern LJC, focused on education and a Northwestern LJC, focused on environmental issues. The participating stations for the last two LJCs have not yet been announced, but will be when arrangements are finalized.
The second speaker was Frank Morris, News Director at KCUR in Kansas City, Missouri. KCUR is one of the LJC participating stations (Harvest Public Media LJC). At KCUR, Frank supervises a staff of seven full-time reporters and is the lead point person for the Harvest Public Media LJC. Morris noted that local news at his station has never sustained itself; KCUR has always depended on NPR. He added that the LJC can help advance local news a great deal. He anticipates that the stories on agriculture will be of strong interest to audiences in the region and will also be of interest nationally (e.g., to NPR).
Morris noted that the project benefits from the fact that public media has a lot of credibility, whereas some other agriculture reporting (by non-public media sources) lacks credibility because of its association with major corporate advertisers in the agricultural industry. Morris pointed out that agricultural reporting carries with it some issues related to underwriting; certain underwriters or funders would be unacceptable because they would undermine the project's credibility. That said, KCUR anticipates selling underwriting ads for its online content. Morris expects that farm groups may be interested in helping to support this content.
The next speakers were Jayme Burke, KQED Director of Foundation Relations, and Debbie Zambetti, KQED Associate Director of Foundation Relations. While KQED is not part of the LJC initiative, it has been producing – and funding – local news for many years. Their presentation focused on KQED's funding model for the long-running radio broadcast, The California Report.
The California Report is a statewide news service (635,000 listeners, 27 partner stations). There are 15 news broadcasts and 3 magazine broadcasts per week. Bureaus exist in San Francisco, Sacramento, Fresno and Los Angeles. Content strands include education, youth, juvenile justice, immigration, health, climate and California governance. Approximately half of the overall budget for The California Report is built into KQED's general operations budget. This slice is funded by membership, gen operating/unrestricted foundation grants for the organization, and unrestricted major donor gifts. Some foundations support a specific reporting "beat" or "strand" on The California Report (e.g., California Endowment, health reporting; Westly Foundation, immigration; Stuart Foundation, education).
The final presenter was Amy Dominguez-Arms, Program Director at the James Irvine Foundation, which has funded The California Report since its inception. Irvine is a multi-issue foundation focused on California. Its major program areas include Arts, California Democracy and Youth. Irvine currently supports The California Report through the Foundation's California Democracy program. Dominguez-Arms described the rationale for the Foundation's support, specifically:
- The quality of coverage.
- The large audience reach.
- The diversity of perspectives presented.
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The special coverage focused on state governance issues (of high interest to the Foundation).
Download the Power Point slides.
