NPR has selected KCUR 89.3 and three other public radio stations to lead a regional news collaboration focused on public service and investigative reporting.
Other members chosen to lead the Midwest regional hub are St. Louis Public Radio, Iowa Public Radio and NET in Nebraska. It's being funded by a grant to NPR’s Collaborative Journalism Network by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and his wife Wendy.
Through the hub, the four stations will coordinate and expand their local and regional reporting, providing stories to national news programs as well as the 25 public radio stations serving the four-state region.
“This incredible decision to support local journalism is an exciting opportunity for KCUR,” Sarah Morris, KCUR’s interim general manager, said in a statement. “The new collaboration not only will boost our own coverage of issues affecting Kansas City and the region, but also will allow us to bring more Midwestern voices to the rest of the nation.”
The hub will include a three-person investigative team, two editors and a coordinating producer based at NPR in Washington.
It will be NPR’s fourth regional news hub. The others are in Texas, California and the Gulf States of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.
KCUR has built and developed several multi-station collaborations. They include Harvest Public Media, a four-state partnership among public radio stations covering food and agriculture; the Kansas News Service, a collaboration among four Kansas public radio stations covering politics, health and education; and America Amplified, a national elections project focused on community engagement.
Of the Schmidts’ grant of $4.7 million, the Midwest hub will receive $3 million. The other $1.7 million will go to the hub in California.
Eric Schmidt was the CEO of Google from 2001 to 2011 and executive chairman of Google from 2011 to 2015. Wendy Schmidt founded a residential interior design firm and has been president of the Schmidt Family Foundation since 2006.
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