Since 2005, CPB has invested more than $200 million to increase the capacity of local and national newsrooms and support international journalism. CPB funds journalism that is fair, accurate, balanced, objective, and transparent, and created in a manner consistent with local stations and producers’ editorial independence and First Amendment rights. Our mission to provide high-quality, innovative, fact-based journalism that includes diverse viewpoints has never been more closely aligned with America’s need for trusted news, amid the current swirl of unvetted information. In response to the decline of local news outlets, public media stations have added nearly 1,000 full and part time journalists over the past decade, aided by CPB support to address critical information needs, especially in underserved and rural areas.

Editorial Integrity

CPB serves as a firewall between the U.S. Congress and the editorial independence of locally owned and operated public media stations, their newsrooms, and journalists. The existence of a firewall, which protects journalistic integrity, does not mean the absence of oversight. While CPB is prohibited from interfering in editorial decisions, CPB supports objectivity and balance through statutorily authorized functions related to programming, such as funding, research, training, and communications. This has included commissioning a series of white papers on Objectivity, Balance, and Editorial Independence; funding the development of a Code of Editorial Integrity for public media stations to adopt; funding a Public Media Journalists Association Editor Corps to provide immediate editing assistance to small and rural public media stations; as well as funding professional development programs for public media newsroom leaders focused on editorial integrity.

In addition to these efforts to strengthen the editorial capacity of public media newsrooms, public media stations and producers encourage feedback on their journalism and are increasingly utilizing technologies that incorporate audience engagement into the reporting process. This helps ensure that topics selected for coverage are relevant to the lives of people in the communities the stations serve as well as bring more transparency to the reporting process, which helps bolster trust in media.

Trusted Local News and Collaborations

Public media represents the largest, multimedia, nonprofit news system in the U.S., with more than 4,400 journalists based at local stations. These stations are a vital source of local news, including during emergencies such as hurricanes, floods, and wildfires.

As part of its $200 million investment in journalism, CPB has awarded over $47 million to help launch more than 40 local and regional news collaborations since 2010, connecting 150 public media stations in 43 states and the District of Columbia. These collaborations foster a vibrant multimedia network of expertise and resources, enabling station newsrooms to undertake more ambitious journalism projects.

To increase and strengthen state government coverage, CPB has provided $4.9 million to public media organizations in 14 states to help fill reporting gaps that were identified through the 2021 State Government Coverage in Public Media station survey. Grantees must share coverage with public media stations across the state as well as with other media organizations.

Further, CPB supports journalistic initiatives such as America Amplified, a shared resource for local stations’ journalism staff that helps them build community trust through a listening-first approach. Meanwhile, public media news organizations with nationwide reach, including PBS NewsHour and NPR, are increasingly turning to local station reporters, who live in the communities they cover, to report for national audiences. Taken altogether, these public media newsroom partnerships are maximizing the benefits of public media’s federated network, fostering broader conversations around journalism anchored in independent, local reporting.

International News Coverage

CPB supports NPR’s international reporting to cover complex geopolitical issues, conflicts, and major events around the world—news that supplements the local and regional coverage provided by public media station newsrooms. Each year, NPR produces approximately 2,500 audio and digital-first stories with a focus on international interest. Thousands of international stories published on the NPR website have been enhanced by on-the-ground visual reporting and digital-first products, providing audiences with greater insights on the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, U.S.-China relations, the global struggle for democracy, and the impacts of migration, natural disasters, and food insecurity worldwide, among other urgent matters of importance.

Awards

• The FRONTLINE/Associated Press documentary 20 Days in Mariupol won the 2024 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film, FRONTLINE’s first Oscar win.
• 20 Days in Mariupol also won the DuPont-Columbia Award, Directors Guild of America Award, BAFTA Award, Overseas Press Club of America Award, the Peabody Award, and the RTDNA National Edward R. Murrow Award. (As an Oscar nominee, it was ineligible for Emmy consideration.)
• FRONTLINE won three Peabody Awards for 2023, including the Peabody Award for Public Service for the documentary America and the Taliban. PBS NewsHour (War in the Holy Land) and GBH/PRX (The Big Dig) also won Peabody Awards for journalism.
• In 2024, U.S. public media organizations won 43 National Edward R. Murrow Awards and 300 Regional Murrow Awards, including more than 95% of all of the awards given in the U.S. small market radio categories.
• Public media organizations won six 2024 Alfred duPont Journalism Awards.