The Edge Media Group based in Western Kentucky is one of three media organizations in the state to win a journalism project grant from Facebook. More than $16 million in funding was awarded to media outlets for local news coverage of COVID-19.
“We are the only radio group in Kentucky to receive the grant. A lot of the other recipients were public broadcasting companies and many were print entities,” said Beth Mann, President/GM of the group. “Very few were radio related. I think our radio and digital projects, working together, really enhanced our application showing that we are reaching people in a lot of different forms and formats.”
The grant stems from 25 million dollars in local news funding announced in March as part of Facebook’s 100 million dollar investment in news. It includes 10.4 million dollars awarded to 144 local newsrooms as part of the COVID-19 Local News Relief Fund Grant Program.
“This gives us a chance to extend this out for as long as we need to. We don’t know yet. We’ve had many conversations about when do we stop covering COVID-19 and we wouldn’t be surprised if we were not in a position to still be having these type of conversations through the end of this year,” said Mann.
Edge Media Group is the parent company of WKDZ, WKDZ-FM, WHVO, WPKY, Your Sports Edge, and Your Ag Edge.
