By Ha Ta & Michele McLellan
For the first time, this Index report includes a dedicated highlight section on INN’s cohort of public media member newsrooms. In July, the U.S. Congress passed a bill rescinding $9 billion in previously allocated funds, including $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, essentially cutting all federal support for NPR, PBS and their member stations, and about $7 billion in foreign aid. Since then, PBS has reported on the financial struggles of public media stations as well as the impact and risks facing stations in rural communities.
While digital-first nonprofit newsrooms make up the majority of INN’s membership, public broadcasters remain an important part of the network, accounting for approximately 7% of INN members as of September. For the first time, this Index includes a dedicated highlight section on INN’s cohort of public media member newsrooms. The INN Network includes 34 public media outlets as of this year. Of those, 27 completed the Index survey with 2024 data, offering a snapshot of key characteristics of public broadcasters within INN membership.
Because public media often categorize revenue and expenses differently, their responses are usually excluded from the main Index analyses. Here, however, we present key takeaways from their data. To put this sample in perspective: The U.S. has more than 1,500 locally owned and operated public media stations, including 1,200 radio stations, according to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The 27 organizations represented in the Index survey are a small slice of this much larger field.
Most of the 27 INN member outlets are radio or digital organizations, with just one identifying television as its top direct platform. A majority (56% or 15 outlets) are local and typically serve much larger audiences than newer local digital newsrooms. Fifteen outlets also report targeting audiences of 1 million to 10 million or more.
Public broadcasters in this sample also prioritize serving specific communities. Two outlets (7%) report that people of color are their primary focus, meaning people of color comprise a majority of their audience, and the organization spends a majority of its funding, resources, and staff time on stories for communities of color. Fifteen outlets (56%) list serving communities of color as one of their several core priorities.
Five outlets (19%) identify rural audiences as their primary focus and another 11 outlets (41%) list rural communities as one of their several core priorities.
Leadership diversity of INN members that are public broadcasters reflects the broader INN Network. Among up to three top executives per organization, one-fourth (25%) are people of color. Women make up 43% of the executive ranks.
A majority of these broadcasters (67% or 18 of 27) indicated they participated in some form of policy-related work or discussions related to journalism policy in 2024. Most (97%) said that work entails attending a webinar or an event to learn about media policies, while 39% (7 of 27) reported reaching out to a representative in support of or against some media policy.
On the audience side, these broadcasters report a median of 147,109 monthly unique users, 10,131 newsletter subscribers, and 15,574 podcast downloads. These organizations also emphasize building direct audience relationships: The median outlet derives 90% of its reach from its own channels.
Like many other INN members, public broadcasters also collaborate frequently. In 2024, about 78% of them participated in at least one editorial collaboration, which is defined as two or more outlets sharing resources for news reporting. These broadcasters had a median of five republication partners.
Examples of such collaborations illustrate the value of these partnerships. KUNR and The Nevada Independent, an INN member, partnered to expand access to local journalism across Nevada. The outlets share news stories, partner on reporting projects, and host community events together. They have reported on timely political issues, including a series examining the influence of baseless claims about voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. They also exposed ties between extremist groups and public officials, and covered efforts by local governments to seek more autonomy from the Legislature.
At a statewide level, the California Newsroom, launched in early 2020, unites INN members KQED and CalMatters with NPR and more than a dozen public media organizations. The collaboration expands reporting capacity, shares content, and enables investigations that might not otherwise reach statewide or national audiences. Since its launch, the newsroom has produced award-winning journalism that influenced multiple policy issues, including reforms to compassionate release for dying incarcerated people, congressional scrutiny of wildfire prevention, and stronger state oversight of nursing homes.
That same year, INN also led From Rust to Resilience, a collaborative climate reporting project involving Belt Magazine, The Conversation, Ensia, Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television, MinnPost, and Side Effects Public Media, along with public media partners such as WUWM Milwaukee, Indiana Public Broadcasting, and The Water Main from American Public Media. The series produced a dozen stories examining how Great Lakes cities — from Detroit and Chicago to Duluth, Minn., and Toronto — are confronting climate vulnerabilities like flooding, aging infrastructure and pollution. The collaboration produced 12 stories and reached about 103,272 unique visitors across six outlets. The project was also recognized with a 2020 Great Lakes Leadership Award from the Great Lakes Protection Fund.
Though only a small portion of the broader public media field is represented in the Index, their participation highlights the vital role public broadcasters play in the nonprofit news ecosystem.
INN PUBLIC MEDIA MEMBERS (AS OF SEPTEMBER 2025)
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