ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Sept. 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — A year after the federal government upended public radio and television stations by defunding public media, a partnership of the Poynter Institute and Public Media Company is launching the Future of Public Media Initiative — a national effort to reimagine a public media system built to serve communities for the next 50 years and beyond.
Poynter and Public Media Company will guide a process based on community needs that leads to a full set of recommendations — focused on renewing public media’s purpose, definition and design principles — during early 2027. The initiative will build on groundbreaking research that offers the most comprehensive analysis available of how communities across America want media to serve them.
“We’re living in an era of enormous change, where technology has connected us in new ways — but also has often isolated us from each other and from reliable information,” said Sitara Nieves, Poynter’s vice president of teaching and organizational strategy, who leads the effort for Poynter, a nonprofit that works to strengthen journalism.
“This is an opportunity to think expansively about a reimagined public media system that can serve the needs of our country and our communities into the future,” said Tim Isgitt, CEO of Public Media Company, which seeks to cultivate vibrant local media that informs, connects and inspires communities. “Our goal is to establish a clear framework for a robust public media system that helps connect communities and provide trusted information and inspiration to all Americans for free.”
The Future of Public Media Initiative will work to define the purpose of public media and what it means to serve the public interest, and propose a definition, structure, funding models and design principles for a reimagined system.
It has been a year since Congress voted to rescind more than $1 billion in future funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. CPB had distributed funding to a network of 1,500 public media stations for over 50 years, providing support for essential news, educational and cultural programming.
The Future of Public Media Initiative will engage a wide coalition – of civic leaders, public media station leaders and staff, nonprofit media and concerned citizens – in the creation of a shared framework to answer key questions about public media’s future. They will use this work “to drive a recommendation for where a public media system could go and what it could look like – how it might serve the real needs of communities in this country at scale,” Nieves said.
The initiative will work with a research partner, City Square Associates, which has conducted research on the needs, sentiments and opinions of over 100,000 U.S. adults.
The public sign up at futureofpublicmedia.org for regular updates.
The initiative has received initial funding from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations and Knight Foundation. Individuals who wish to support the effort can donate through Poynter’s website.
Poynter is the gold-standard for journalist professional development, and works extensively with media companies to help improve skills, ethics, editorial strategy, leadership, and sustainability. Poynter has a longstanding relationship with public media, and has worked with more than 300 public media stations — including guiding a digital transformation to increase revenue and audience. Public Media Company has worked with over 450 local media organizations in all 50 states, facilitating mergers, acquisitions, operating agreements and content partnerships that have expanded service to millions of people — work that includes launching the Public Media Bridge Fund to help at-risk stations navigate the post-CPB landscape.
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SOURCE The Poynter Institute
