ProPublica is partnering with KUCB and CoastAlaska to boost investigative reporting in the Aleutians. The investigative journalism nonprofit announced Friday that six public radio station reporters are joining its Local Reporting Network. The partnership begins September 1 and will last one year.
KUCB’s partnership with ProPublica will allow us to bring back our former reporter, Zoë Sobel. The program will cover Sobel’s salary and benefits for the year, through funding from the Abrams Foundation.
In the coming year, Sobel will collaborate closely with ProPublica senior editor Zahira Torres, and CoastAlaska’s Regional News Director Jacob Resneck, on a long-term investigative reporting project. ProPublica will also provide support and expertise in data, research, engagement and audience elements of the work.
“As local newsrooms across the country continue to experience cutbacks, public radio serves an increasingly important role in informing communities,” Torres said. “We need accountability reporting at the local level now more than ever. I look forward to working with these newsrooms to support their ambitious projects.”
The other public media organizations in this new cycle of the local reporting initiative include:
· KPCC/LAist (Los Angeles), Emily Elena Dugdale
· Nashville Public Radio, Meribah Knight
· Oregon Public Broadcasting (Portland), Tony Schick
· VPM (Richmond, Virginia), Megan Pauly
· WRKF and WWNO (Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and New Orleans), Richard A. Webster
The ProPublica Local Reporting Network was introduced in 2018 to help create vital investigative journalism in communities where these stories would otherwise not be done. Since inception, the Local Reporting Network has worked with more than 40 newsrooms. This list includes the Anchorage Daily News, and their Pulitzer Prize winning series ‘Lawless: Sexual Violence in Alaska.’
