Editor and Publisher Reports

Recently, Public Media Consultant Tom Davidson wrote an op-ed published in “Current,” the industry’s quarterly trade magazine, “decrying the lack of awareness in public media about Press Forward, the $500 million foundation effort to reinvigorate local news.” Since then, National Public Radio (NPR) published its own white paper to support public media, and the Public Media Content Collective (formally the Public Radio Program Directors Association) added a panel to their fall conference that addresses the same issues. However, Davidson still sees a major disconnect within public media on how the industry itself sees its place within the local news media ecosystem, which can impact accessing the ever-increasing national philanthropic support of local journalism. Davidson believes: “It starts with understanding that serving a tiny portion of your market (and the wealthiest, whitest portion of your market) isn’t going to work” when it comes to proving the value you provide within a society being impacted by “new