Public media survived the loss of federal funding, but is survival enough? In his September “Innovation in Practice” op-ed, E&P columnist Chad Davis contends that public media is at a pivotal moment that calls for the DIY spirit of punk and a willingness to rethink what public media can be. Davis explores how collaboration with nonprofit newsroom, filmmakers, game developers and other nontraditional partners could help usher in public media’s next era.
Facing funding pressures and an uncertain future for public media, Black public radio stations are finding strength in collaboration. The newly formed Black Public Radio Network will share resources, programming and ideas, all while amplifying stories and preserving cultural history. In this E&P Quick Read, Bob Miller reports on the network’s collaborative path.
As public media organizations navigate layoffs, shrinking budgets, evolving technology and the loss of federal support, the Public Media Journalists Association (PMJA) is building new ways to help journalists connect, learn and adapt. In conversation with PMJA’s Executive Director Christine Paige Diers, E&P’s Editor-in-Chief Gretchen A. Peck explores PMJA’s mission, its professional development opportunities, and its distinctive ability to maintain connections among the public media community.
One year after the loss of federal funding upended public media, stations are still navigating an uncertain future. While mergers, shared services and emergency philanthropy have dominated the conversation, E&P Columnist Alex Curley — founder of Semipublic and creator of AdoptAStation.org — suggests the industry’s survival may depend on real-time data that allows leadership to be better informed and more agile, and demonstrates to donors which stations are having the greatest local impact. Curley explains why the next 250 weeks will be the most consequential period in public media’s history.
Consolidation is no longer a theoretical discussion in public media — it’s becoming a strategic response to a rapidly changing financial reality. In this month’s Public Pulse, E&P columnist Alex Curley examines three proposed public media mergers and what they reveal about the industry’s evolving approach to sustainability, shared resources and long-term survival. As stations adapt to life after federal funding, Curley explores whether consolidation may become the next major trend shaping public media’s future.
Trust in journalism isn’t rebuilt through headlines alone. Increasingly, news organizations are discovering that some of the most meaningful connections happen far from the newsroom — at community gatherings, neighborhood forums, festivals and public conversations. As skepticism toward the media remains high, a growing number of publishers are investing in face-to-face engagement to humanize their journalists and strengthen relationships with the communities they serve.
Artificial intelligence may be changing how audiences discover information, but the bigger challenge for publishers could be preserving trust, creativity and visibility in an AI-driven media ecosystem. After attending both SXSW and the Game Developers Conference, E&P Columnist Chad Davis argues that journalism organizations must rethink how stories are created, discovered and optimized for a future increasingly shaped by AI search and digital platforms.
For more than five centuries, journalism has operated in a world shaped by the logic of print — linear storytelling, institutional authority and the permanence of the written word. But the rise of social media, the creator economy and AI-driven conversation tools is pushing the industry toward something far older: a culture shaped by voice, dialogue and personality. The shift challenges long-held assumptions about how audiences consume and trust news. In this commentary, Chad Davis explores Jeff Jarvis’ theory of the “Gutenberg Parenthesis” and what journalism’s return to a more conversational media environment could mean for the future of the industry.
Artificial intelligence is no longer a distant disruption for journalism. From Pentagon disputes over military AI use to global newsroom campaigns demanding compensation from tech companies, the industry is confronting a defining question: who will control how journalism is used, represented and monetized inside the rapidly expanding AI ecosystem?
Vegas PBS has named Angie Carr its next general manager after the Clark County School District Board of School Trustees approved her appointment on Thursday, Oct. 8. She will begin on Monday, Jan. 4, 2027.
Press Pass is a mission-driven program designed for committed supporters of PBS News across platforms who contribute at or above $8/month (or $96/year). This fundraising stream began taking shape following last year's cuts to federal funding, which necessitated new ways to build and maintain sustainable support for PBS News.
The Pathways to Sustainability program is designed to help move local public media organizations from short-term stabilization to long-term sustainability while preserving essential local service.
Melissa Bell discusses the progress and challenges of the landmark 2022 merger of the Chicago Sun-Times and NPR station WBEZ — and how she weathered the federal defunding of public broadcasting.
The National Educational Telecommunications Association proudly announces the 58th annual Public Media Awards winners, recognizing the exceptional achievements of member stations in community engagement, content, education, and marketing and communications.
A year after the federal government upended public radio and television stations by defunding public media, a partnership of the Poynter Institute and Public Media Company is launching the Future of Public Media Initiative — a national effort to reimagine a public media system built to serve communities for the next 50 years and beyond.
Imagine running a newspaper where you're the editor, reporter, photographer, designer and sometimes the person challenging city hall. For many rural publishers, that's not an exaggeration. It's their daily reality. Yet amid growing concerns about news deserts and disappearing newspapers, some small-town publishers are finding ways to survive by rethinking their business models and strengthening community relationships. During this episode of E&P Reports, Bill McKenzie of the George W. Bush Institute and Texas publisher Suzanne Bellsnyder discussed what it really takes to keep rural journalism alive.
In this episode of E&P Reports, we check in with Chicago Public Media, owners of PBS affiliate WBEZ, to find out how their 2022 acquisition of the 149-year-old Chicago Sun-Times is going. Appearing on the program are Jennifer Kho, executive editor for the newspaper and Tracy Brown, chief content officer for the parent company, who discuss their new initiatives, collaborative efforts and how the blending of these two major market brands is working to expand their audience.
When much of the news media industry is talking about contraction, Detroit PBS is doing something decidedly different: building. The public media organization has broken ground on a new 50,000-square-foot campus designed not simply as a television facility, but as a home for journalism, radio, education, culture, community engagement and multiplatform storytelling. During a recent episode of E&P Reports, Detroit PBS President and CEO Rich Homberg explained why the project represents the culmination of a 15-year effort to rethink what a local media organization can become.
Every week seems to bring another announcement of a newspaper closing, a newsroom shrinking or another community joining the growing list of America's news deserts. Against that backdrop, launching a new local news organization might seem like a risky proposition. Expanding into print less than a year later might sound almost unimaginable. Yet that's exactly what Alabama Newswire has done. During this episode of E&P Reports, founder Scott Centers and publisher Jackson Kimbrell shared why they believe local journalism still represents an opportunity for entrepreneurs willing to meet communities where they are.
For the third consecutive year, Northwestern University's Medill School has tracked how Americans' local news habits are changing. The latest survey confirms that audience demand for local journalism remains remarkably resilient, but it also reveals widening cracks in the industry's business model, growing skepticism about AI and an accelerating shift away from traditional broadcast platforms. During this episode of E&P Reports, researchers Tim Franklin and Dr. Stephanie Edgerly explained what every news leader should take away from the findings.
