WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) has announced an additional $61,000 grant funding the continuation of the Public Media Journalists Association (PMJA) Editor Corps, which provides crucial editing assistance to public media newsrooms, including small and rural newsrooms.
PMJA launched the emergency Editor Corps in April to provide relief to stations facing significant burdens during the pandemic. Later, it helped stations cover breaking news events following the death of George Floyd, the “Black Lives Matter” movement and discussions about race across the country.
Each day, editors are assigned to stations that request assistance. Editors are paid directly by the Editor Corps and are provided at no cost to the stations.
Initial funding for the project was provided by NPR, PRX and the Knight Foundation as sponsorship for the PMJA annual conference. Once the June conference was canceled due to the pandemic, the three organizations, seeking to make the most impact on the system, asked that their funding be re-directed to support Editor Corps.
CPB provided an additional $20,000 to get the program started.
In three months, more than two dozen stations received nearly 600 hours of editing assistance.
“As the election season heats up, we are thrilled and grateful that CPB has agreed to help us continue to offer this important assistance to stations through the end of the year,” said PMJA Executive Director Terry Gildea. “We’ve received excellent feedback from both editors serving in the Corps and stations that have used this service. We are excited to get the editors back to work.”
The PMJA Editor Corps is made up of seasoned freelance public media editors who have made themselves available to stations. “We’ve assigned editors to help with talk show prep, newscast editing, spot news editing and feature editing,” Gildea said. “The program is open to any station that needs help — small or large, urban or rural.”
PMJA membership is not required to request an editor. Editors are assigned based on individual availability and funding. While every effort is made to fulfill requests, PMJA may need to prioritize requests. In that event, priority is given to stations demonstrating the most urgent need, particularly small and rural stations.
To find out more, go to https://www.pmja.org/post/pmja-editor-corps-faq.
