CPB awards $1 million for Editorial Integrity and Leadership Initiative to ASU's Cronkite School

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has awarded a grant of $1.1 million to Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication to develop and manage the Editorial Integrity and Leadership Initiative.

The two-year initiative will provide training for 100 editors to strengthen their ability to lead public media’s growing newsrooms and collaborations while upholding the highest editorial standards.

“Skilled, effective editors are vital to the success of public media’s journalism as they oversee the development of content that informs our country’s civil discourse,” said Kathy Merritt, CPB’s senior vice president of journalism and radio. “This initiative will combine training on the principles of editorial integrity and leadership in today’s challenging media environment — where the news is more fast-paced than ever, delivered across more platforms than ever, and where the margin for error is smaller than ever.”

At the Cronkite School, the faculty and coaches will design a customized curriculum of onsite and virtual training, supported by ongoing mentoring and coaching. Topics will include editorial integrity, strategic partnerships, multiplatform editing, data reporting, audience-first engagement as well as metrics.

The Cronkite School will recruit and select applicants for the initiative, with the goal of identifying journalists from a wide range of backgrounds to participate. The program is being led by Julia Wallace, the Cronkite School’s Frank Russell Chair and former editor-in-chief of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The Cronkite School is home to Arizona PBS, the largest media outlet operated by a journalism school in the world. With reporting bureaus in Phoenix, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., Arizona PBS is one of the country’s only PBS stations to deliver a locally produced nightly newscast.

“Leadership and innovation are critical components for public media organizations to thrive,” said Christopher Callahan, dean of the Cronkite School and CEO of Arizona PBS. “The CPB Editorial Integrity and Leadership Initiative will help newsrooms across the country take the next step in enhancing editorial integrity. We are excited to be a part of this important project.”

Applications for the Editorial Integrity and Leadership Initiative will open on Nov. 15.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private, nonprofit corporation created by Congress in 1967, is the steward of the federal government’s investment in public broadcasting. It helps support the operations of more than 1,500 locally owned and operated public television and radio stations nationwide. CPB is also the largest single source of funding for research, technology and program development for public radio, television and related online services.