$2.25 million in new funding will increase statehouse reporting; awards are designed to 'fill gaps' in coverage

Wyoming Public Media received a CPB
statehouse reporting grant. (WPM logo)

Americans need fact-based statehouse coverage with consistent, insightful and informative reporting by well-trained journalists. But amid newspaper closings and journalist layoffs, that type of reporting is in short supply. To address staffing needs, the "Corporation for Public Broadcasting is providing $2.25 million to assist seven public media newsrooms and NPR with statehouse reporting," Tyler Faulk reports for Current. "The grant program responds to a 'drop in the overall number of full-time statehouse reporters across the country,' CPB said in a press release announcing the grants."

In the release, CPB President Patricia Harrison said the grants will “address an urgent need as we increase the number of journalists at public media stations reporting statehouse news and policy decisions. Their coverage will be made available to all citizens in those seven states.”

The two-year funding grants will go to:

• Alaska Public Media in Anchorage — $196,588 for a full-time, year-round state government reporter.
• Connecticut Public in Hartford — $217,775 for a full-time, year-round state government reporter.
• WHYY in Philadelphia — $300,000 to provide multimedia enterprise coverage of the state government in Delaware.
• Louisville Public Media in Kentucky — $294,727 to expand its state government news team to four journalists.
• KOSU in Stillwater, Okla. — $250,000 to add a full-time journalist to report on state government and public policy issues.
• Wyoming Public Media in Laramie — $360,999 to partner with Jackson Hole Community Radio in hiring a multi-platform journalist covering state government and a full-time digital content coordinator.
• KERA in Dallas — $250,000 to support one editor and one reporter focused on investigative reporting for the Texas Newsroom.
• NPR in Washington, D.C. — $380,577 to add a second state government editor who will work with station reporters to identify trends in legislation and governance across states and to provide training for state government reporters.
  
  The grants require the stations to "share their state government coverage with public media and other outlets across the state," Faulk reports. "In Connecticut, for example, the reporting will be shared with WSHU in Fairfield, Conn.; public media stations in the New England News Collaborative; Spanish-language news outlets; and the nonprofit digital news organization CT Mirror."
  
  "Recipients were chosen from 20 proposals and 'fill gaps' in state government coverage that were identified in CPB’s 2022 study of public media’s statehouse coverage."