The Knight Foundation awarded $75,000 in unrestricted funds to Northeast Indiana Public Radio/WBOI. PBS-Fort Wayne received $166,000 contingent on matching funds to strengthen public media in the area.
According to a press release, the grants were made in partnership with the Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne.
In August, the Knight Foundation and several other national foundations committed $36.5 million to support at-risk local public media.
“Local public media stations are trusted community anchors that connect people to vital news, culture and civic life. This is an urgent moment that calls for bold action,” said Maribel Pérez Wadsworth, president and CEO of Knight Foundation. “We are proud to stand with our fellow foundations and urge others to join us in securing the future of public media.”
The pledge from these organizations came after Congress rescinded more than $9 billion in already-appropriated funds for public media at the urging of President Donald Trump.
WBOI is using the funds to launch expanded weekday features, as well as produce three longform storytelling or investigative pieces each month across radio, livestream, WBOI.org and Instagram.
The money will also help sustain WBOI newscasts through the end of the fiscal year.
“We look forward to putting these funds toward strengthening our reporting, distributing news in new ways, and continuing to build the home for information and inspiration that Northeast Indiana deserves,” said Travis Pope, president of Northeast Indiana Public Radio and general manager of WBOI.
According to a press release, PBS Fort Wayne will use its grant to resume its local public affairs program, PrimeTime, in January — reviving a show that had gone dormant due to budget cuts. The grant will also support new local productions, including multiplatform news formats, lifestyle and culture programming, and documentary projects highlighting the region’s colorful history.
“At a time when public media is being forced to cut or scale back local content offerings, this grant will allow us to expand our storytelling, develop new formats, and continue our 50-year legacy of producing local content,” said Ed Leon, president and CEO of PBS Fort Wayne. “I can’t be more grateful.”
“The Community Foundation is proud to partner with Knight Foundation to bring this important funding to Fort Wayne,” said Brad Little, President and CEO of the Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne, in a release. “Local public media strengthens our democracy by keeping people informed, connected and engaged. Supporting WBOI and PBS Fort Wayne ensures our community continues to have access to trusted news and inspiring local storytelling.”
Fort Wayne is a “Knight city”. The Fort Wayne News-Sentinel was published by the Knight-Ridder Corporation until it was sold to McClatchy in 2006.
The foundation is committed to supporting the success of communities where the Knight brothers once published newspapers, according to the release.
