In the immediate aftermath of Congress' final vote last week to take back money from the public media system, local stations across the country launched emergency drives asking for help.
To a large degree, listeners came through. In Seattle, KUOW raised just under $1.5 million in a day. In Tampa Bay, tiny community radio WMNF raised $280,000.
This is a good sign for public media everywhere, but it's just the beginning of a very tough transition for the public media system.
Fundraising experts suggest that it's unlikely that stations will be able to sustain this level of enthusiasm. There are roughly 300 local NPR affiliates, and they will all be asking their communities for a lot more support over the next year. So will all the public television stations.
So, should you donate to your local public radio station? It's wise to ask some questions before you give your money away. We've got a three-part test to help you assess the value your local station provides. — Kelly McBride
How can I tell if my local public radio station is doing a good job?
When Congress created the public media system, it set aside a portion of the spectrum that allows TV and radio to be broadcast over the air. Those stations were then licensed to nonprofit broadcasters across the country. License holders include universities, local and state governments, and independent boards.
While 98% of the people in the United States have access to public radio, the stations themselves all operate a bit differently, because their governing structure varies based on who holds their license, how big their budget is and how many staff members they have.
Prospective new public radio donors can ask these questions to determine if giving money to their local station is a worthy donation.
How local is it?
Local news is a dwindling resource in every single market across the country. "Most people don't even know there is a local news crisis," said Steven Waldman, founder and president of Rebuild Local News. In many markets, the public radio newsroom is the one newsroom that has been growing.
But that's not true in every market. Every station's website lists staff members, including the journalists who host the shows, report the stories and edit the news. Looking at those titles, as well as the local shows and stories, is a good way to see the breadth of the local work. What does your public radio station do that no one else does in your community?
If you've been through a natural disaster, it's possible that the only news available was public media. When the power goes out and cell towers fail, radio is often the only source of information.
Some public media stations broadcast high school sports. Many stations excel at covering state politics. In many states, stations collaborate on statewide topics . Some local stations compile the best regional arts and culture calendar.
Or maybe you enjoy listening to All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Fresh Air or other national programming on your car radio while you drive around town and that's what you want to support.
Public media in the United States was designed to be a diffuse system with the local stations in every market making their own choices about how to best serve their community. News consumers should ask if their local stations are doing enough to justify community support.
Is the station clear and transparent about its financial goals?
Old-school public media fund drives — the kind where they hold the programming hostage until enough money comes in — can be antithetical to the journalistic mission of public media because they are deliberately opaque. The manufactured suspense and the implication that regular programming cannot resume until the target is reached are manipulative.
To be fair, most stations don't do that anymore. Instead, they carve out a portion of time every hour to explain the mission and ask for support. In making that request, the station is telling a story of need.
"Fundraising, for listeners, isn't always fun to listen to," WUSF (Tampa) General Manager JoAnn Urofsky told me. Her station held an emergency drive last Friday morning, immediately after the Senate voted to rescind the funds. "How do we make it as easy as possible to understand what we need? We came up with, '3,000 new members giving $20 a month will close the gap.' That's something we can repeat again and again. And it's accurate."
Accuracy in the fundraising narrative is critical. News organizations are built on trust. They shouldn't distort or artificially drag out the narrative in the name of raising money. Instead, stations should clearly state their goals and update the audience on their progress.
Between state and federal cuts, the WUSF staff told listeners that the station was losing close to $800,000. They pushed all day to recruit new monthly donors.
Urofsky told me that they made a good dent in the shortfall, getting $245,000 in commitments and 461 new monthly donors. That kind of information should be easy to find. Current and potential donors deserve straightforward transparency.
Maria O'Mara, executive director of PBS Utah and KUER in Salt Lake City, held a similar drive last week. Her station started by sending out emails right after the vote in Congress, at roughly 11 p.m. Mountain time. Early the next morning, O'Mara received an email from a donor asking for candor.
"Not only does he listen (to KUER) but he gives and he has for many years," she said of the donor. "He's asking questions like, 'Exactly what is the shortfall?' 'How many supporters do you have?' He wants to know the formula for what we have to do."
Most stations put their audited financial reports online for anyone to find. That's a bare-minimum effort at transparency. The audits are difficult to read without the help of an accountant. On top of publishing financial documents, stations that respect and value their listeners will offer easily understood financial updates during their drives and on their websites.
Does the station collaborate with other local media?
When another newsroom in your community reports a big story or has in-depth expertise, does the public media station invite the outside journalists on the air to describe their work? Do they summarize the work on their website or in their daily newsletter and then link to the original reporting?
There's too much news in most markets for any one newsroom to cover it all. And although many local public media newsrooms have expanded, few can provide their communities with comprehensive coverage.
The mission of public media suggests that if a local story is of significant interest to the community, listeners will hear about it from their local public radio. Local stations that don't team up with other newsrooms or acknowledge big stories reported by their competitors are doing their audience a disservice.
If listeners don't hear from other media outlets, they probably aren't getting a comprehensive view of the local news.
There's a strong case for supporting local public media, but it's hardly a no-brainer. The promise of free, local and widely accessible quality journalism should be more than just a promise. People should find evidence every day, every time they turn on the radio, click on the app or open their social media.
For the foreseeable future, public media will have to exist without government funding. Given that it is impossible to change the economic nature of a news organization and not change the nature of the news product, public media will evolve throughout this process. The programming that emerges from this crisis will be the work that audiences cannot live without.
As this all unfolds, we'll be monitoring these changes, analyzing the work of both NPR and the local stations, and answering questions from the public. — Kelly McBride
The Office of the Public Editor is a team. Reporters Amaris Castillo and Nicole Slaughter Graham and copy editor Merrill Perlman make this newsletter possible. Illustrations are by Carlos Carmonamedina. We are still reading all of your messages on Facebook, X and from our inbox. As always, keep them coming.
Kelly McBride
NPR Public Editor
Chair, Craig Newmark Center for Ethics & Leadership at the Poynter Institute
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