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| click to enlarge |
Christine
Schmidt recently wrote an article for NiemanLab [link] about the growing number
of “news deserts” in the United States.
According
to research conducted by Penelope Abernathy, the Knight Chair in Journalism and
Digital Media Economics at the University of North Carolina, about 1,300 U.S.
communities have completely lost local news coverage. More than one in five
newspapers have closed over the past 15 years.
The
map above, from Abernathy’s report, graphically shows the scope of the situation.
Abernathy also found that half of the 3,143 counties in the U.S. now only have
one remaining newspaper and often they are “ghost papers” that are essentially
advertising supplements.
Observers
are concerned that the trend has dire implications because of the need for informed citizens – the
backbone of American democracy. Can public media, particularly public radio,
fill the news reporting shortage?
PUBLIC MEDIA & THE
POWER OF COLLABORATIVE JOURNALISM
These
and other related topics will be front-and-center at the upcoming Public Radio
Regional Organizations Super-Regional meeting October 24-26 in Atlanta [link].
Meeting
organizers have assembled an all-star panel to discuss the current state of
collaborative journalism for a CPB sponsored luncheon on Thursday 10/25 from
12:15pm-2:00pm. The panel includes:
 |
| Joshua Johnson |
•
Joshua Johnson, Host of 1A, public
radio’s biggest weekday hit program on NPR member stations
•
Kathy Merritt, SVP of Radio and Journalism at CPB who leads CPB’s collaboration
team
•
CPB Board member Patty Cahill, former GM of KCUR in Kansas City
•
Nico Leone, the current GM of KCUR
•
Susan Rogers, GM of WXXI in Rochester
CPB,
stations and other funders have made major investments in public media’s
collaborations over the past decade. CPB seed money now totals over $32 million
for 34 public media journalism collaborations comprised of more than100 stations.
In
a presentation to the CPB Board of Directors on July 16th 2018,
Merritt said of the 34 funded collaborations, 25 are still operating.
Collaborations are partially responsible for 24% increase in the number of
public media journalists since 2011. According to Merritt, there are currently
around 4,300 journalists working in public radio and public television.
WHY SOME COLLABORATIONS SUCCEED
& OTHERS DO NOT
 |
| Kathy Merritt |
Merritt
told the CPB Board that her team has spent considerable time learning why some
of the collaborations are successful and others are not.
Collaborations
typically have three to eight stations in the group.
Each group has a lead station that serves as the fiduciary.
The collaborations are organized by shared geography or state borders, topics that are of mutual interest and/or important issues not currently receiving adequate coverage.
Each group has a lead station that serves as the fiduciary.
The collaborations are organized by shared geography or state borders, topics that are of mutual interest and/or important issues not currently receiving adequate coverage.
According to Merritt, the most successful collaborations happen when the participating stations viewed the work as an ongoing commitment and build the costs into the station budget.
Merritt
said the most common reasons some collaborations were not successful include:
• Lack of buy-in by all stations in the group
• Inability to find financial support to replace CPB funding
• Turnover of personnel
• Collaboration editors who had difficulty managing the work
• Lack of buy-in by all stations in the group
• Inability to find financial support to replace CPB funding
• Turnover of personnel
• Collaboration editors who had difficulty managing the work
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