Ohio Collaboration Seeks to Save Local News

Newspapers are dying or consolidating all over the country. Television is becoming more of an on-demand, binge medium. Trustworthy local news is getting harder and harder to find. A group of Ohio public radio stations is hoping to use those changes to their advantage and increase the crowd that comes to radio for respected, unbiased local news.

Ohio’s largest daily statewide radio and digital news service has announced the launch of The Ohio Newsroom, a collaboration of Ohio’s existing network of public radio newsrooms with the hope of creating a sustainable news model offering news coverage.

As part of the launch, The Ohio Newsroom is also conducting a national search for its first managing editor.

The Ohio Newsroom is structured based on research and modeling funded by The George Gund Foundation and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for expanding local journalism in Ohio.

Every public radio station that broadcasts NPR in Ohio is invited to join The Ohio Newsroom, with the following Ohio-based stations already signed on to both participate and contribute: Cincinnati Public Radio, Ideastream Public Media in Cleveland, WCSU in Wilberforce, Ohio, WGTE in Toledo, WOSU Public Media in Columbus, WYSO in Yellow Springs and WYSU in Youngstown.

The Ohio Newsroom will have a daily presence on Ohio’s NPR stations, and plans for a weekly program are also in the works.

Future Ohio Newsroom reporting can be found at statenews.org/theohionewsroom, ideastream.org/theohionewsroom, and on all of The Ohio Newsroom partner websites.

Wendy Turner, Ideastream Public Media’s first general manager of Ohio public media services, is coordinating The Ohio Newsroom, in addition to supporting The Ohio Channel and the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau on behalf of all Ohio public television and radio stations. Turner is also part of Ideastream Public Media’s executive leadership team. Prior to joining Ideastream Public Media, she served as the general manager of WKSU public radio in Kent, Ohio.

Turner is responsible for hiring staff for The Ohio Newsroom, with full consultation from the newsroom’s statewide station partners. Staffing begins with securing the newsroom’s managing editor, an integral position for which a national search is underway. Job seekers can find information about the managing editor role and apply online HERE. Additional positions will be added to The Ohio Newsroom as its implementation continues.

“Securing The Ohio Newsroom’s first managing editor, and later, more reporters, will mean more in-depth stories, expanded digital content and even better statewide coordination on breaking news,” said Turner. “Ohio’s public media organizations have a long history of collaboration. We look forward to continuing this tradition of successfully serving Ohioans through The Ohio Newsroom.”

Plans for The Ohio Newsroom initially began as a concept for developing a “statewide news collaborative” in July 2019 with a $70,000 grant from The George Gund Foundation to conduct consumer research. In October 2020, Ideastream Public Media, Cincinnati Public Radio and WOSU Public Media announced they had been awarded a $56,500 grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) to develop a business plan and a sustainability model for the collaboration. Then, as plans were further solidified between Ohio’s public radio stations, CPB awarded the project an additional two-year, $375,000 grant in October 2021 to help support the initial implementation of the new endeavor, including leadership, governance, staffing and content development.

“We are grateful to CPB and The George Gund Foundation for recognizing the necessity and urgency of expanding local journalism in Ohio. Their support exemplifies their confidence in Ohio’s public media stations to work together to address the local news crisis,” said Kevin Martin, Ideastream Public Media President and CEO. “As the number of local media outlets continues to decline statewide, we are committed to filling those information gaps and securing the funds needed to sustain The Ohio Newsroom into the future.”