Latest E&P Exclusive Reporting

The Public Media Journalists Association provides career support and community

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.

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Public Pulse

How public media is adapting after federal funding cuts

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.

Public Pulse

Public media’s next chapter may be consolidation

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.

Newsrooms meet communities face-to-face

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.

Public Pulse

AI, discovery and media’s next phase

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.

Public Pulse

How journalism is shifting from print logic to conversational media

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.

Shoptalk

Newsrooms face AI control crossroads

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?

Public Pulse

From content to interaction: Gaming’s opportunity for local media

Broadcasting’s time has come and is going. Like the economies of many technologies, the cost of creating linear video and audio has dropped to a near-frictionless state. Mass media, if it even still exists, is no longer synonymous with broadcasting. The media of the masses is now interactive, including games.

SHOPTALK

News deserts persist — are we solving the wrong problem?

As concern over news deserts grows, the industry has responded with urgency — deploying reporters, building networks and funding new coverage models. But what if the problem isn’t just a lack of journalists, but a lack of connection to the communities being served? Alex Curley argues that many well-intentioned solutions risk missing the deeper challenge: trust, cultural understanding and local relevance. To truly rebuild local journalism, he suggests, the path forward may lie not in sending talent in — but in growing it from within.

Latest Industry Headlines

Montclair State University to acquire NJ Spotlight

New Jersey's public television network will take on the NJ Spotlight brand and its 16-year archive, and has retained founding editor John Mooney to lead that transition.

Public Media Infrastructure names Jeannie Ericson as inaugural CEO

Public Media Infrastructure has named Jeannie Ericson as its inaugural chief executive officer, effective Aug. 3. Ericson will lead the nonprofit’s efforts to modernize the technology infrastructure supporting more than 1,300 public media stations across the country as the industry navigates the post-Corporation for Public Broadcasting era.

WEKU, partners launch Appalachian News Exchange, expanding coverage of Eastern KY

The collaborative seeks to expand free, public service and investigative journalism to Appalachian Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia.

Baltimore Public Media and Delmarva Public Media announce partnership

This partnership launches with a shared agriculture and environmental reporter position and creates new opportunities for collaboration, community engagement and public service journalism.

Marfa Public Radio News Director Travis Bubenik assumes role of station manager

As station manager, Bubenik will oversee day-to-day operations, fundraising and membership endeavors, music programming and the station’s award-winning journalism and storytelling initiatives.

Chicago Public Media announces chicago.com: A new digital home for Chicago

Chicago Public Media invites Chicagoans to help shape the future of one of the city's most iconic digital addresses, made possible by a landmark gift from The Chicago Community Trust.

How Connecticut Public used AI to uncover more local stories

Local news organizations across the country are wrestling with the same challenge: how do you cover more communities when resources are stretched thin? At Connecticut Public, the answer wasn’t to replace journalists. It was to build tools that help journalists discover stories they might otherwise miss.

Rocky Mountain Public Media expands radio footprint

Rocky Mountain Public Media has filed an agreement to acquire six full-power FM radio stations and 11 FM translators from Community Radio for Northern Colorado, expanding its radio presence across the state.

WGTE Public Media announces Dr. Adam Fineske as new president and CEO

WGTE Public Media announced the appointment of Dr. Adam Fineske as its new president and CEO, effective Aug. 1.

Cascade PBS spins off local public app to help stations build local streaming services

Cascade PBS, a Seattle-based community-supported, locally-owned public media organization, has launched Local Public, a wholly owned public benefit subsidiary that will provide locally branded streaming app solutions to public media stations across the United States.

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Latest #NewsMedia Stocks of Interest

Latest E&P Vodcasts

How Noisy Creek is breathing new life into an industry many had written off: A one-on-one with Brady Walkinshaw

Alternative weeklies were once the unruly heartbeat of American cities, shaping politics, culture, nightlife and public conversation before collapsing advertising and changing media habits pushed many toward extinction. Brady Walkinshaw believes the industry mistook disruption for irrelevance. Through Noisy Creek, he is acquiring, reviving and reinvesting in beloved local publications that others had written off. His wager is that their fiercely independent voices, community roots and tangible print presence may be more valuable in an increasingly automated media world than ever before.

Checking in with the Chicago Sun-Times/ Public Media merger.

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.

At 24, she's crossing the US looking for the future of local news. What she found surprised her.

She expected to find an industry weighed down by layoffs, closures and uncertainty. Instead, a summer spent visiting independent newsrooms across America introduced Jasmine Shiffer to publishers, editors and reporters who remain deeply committed to serving their communities—and surprisingly optimistic about the future. Along the way, she discovered that local journalism's greatest strength isn't its technology or business model. It's the people who still believe the work matters.

How to stand out when journalism jobs are harder to find

For job seekers, landing a newsroom job can feel increasingly dependent on luck, connections and an opaque hiring process. Cristina Silva, managing editor for Operations & Standards at The Boston Globe and the new author of Poynter’s Ask the Recruiter column, says candidates have more control than they may realize. The key is to understand how editors make decisions, communicate clearly and make it easier for a hiring manager to see your value.

Can New Jersey’s civic-information model help rebuild local news?

Local journalism does not need another obituary. It needs a new operating model. In New Jersey, Stefanie Murray is helping build one that treats local information as civic infrastructure, supported by collaboration, philanthropy, local business revenue and carefully protected public funding. Her message to the industry: The future may not look like the past, but communities still need journalism that serves them.

Latest #NewsPeople on the move

Collin Binkley named White House reporter with The Associated Press

Las Vegas investigative reporter named Kerlin fellow