Four public radio stations—including WRKF 89.3 FM, Baton Rouge’s independent NPR affiliate—are collaborating to launch the Gulf States Newsroom in an effort to increase coverage of news events in the region and provide content to national broadcast news programs and digital platforms.
WWNO in New Orleans, WBHM in Birmingham, Alabama, and Mississippi Public Broadcasting in Jackson are joining WRKF in the collaborative effort, which, according to their station managers, comes at a time when local commercial news outlets are quickly disappearing and many Americans are losing access to—and connection with—the news events of their communities and states.
“Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama rank at or near the bottom among states on many measures of health, education, environmental quality and social justice,” says Paul Maassen, general manager of the Baton Rouge and New Orleans stations, in a prepared statement. “The Gulf States Newsroom aims to help local public radio stations build a better-informed populace on issues that matter across the region.”
To fund the Gulf States Newsroom, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is providing the stations a $1,276,299 grant over a 44-month period. This funding, coupled with support from NPR, will allow for the creation of six new beat reporting positions and two editing positions dedicated to regional coverage that will be based in each state.
Additionally, the newsroom will hire a full-time managing editor, based at WBHM in Birmingham, who will direct news coverage and content collaboration among the regional partners and national news outlets.
It’s part of a larger commitment by CPB, NPR and NPR member stations to enhance local reporting capacity and coverage of more locally relevant issues. Significantly, the Gulf States Newsroom marks the first time the organizations have collaborated to fund and launch a regional newsroom, following statewide newsrooms in Texas and California that received early support from CPB and have since expanded to serve as regional hubs for NPR.
