FOR IMMEDIATE MEDIA RELEASE
Thursday, March 25, 2010

WVIZ/PBS and 90.3 WCPN ideastream® together with Michigan Radio and Chicago Public Radio have received a multi-year grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) to create the Upper Midwest Local Journalism Center. The center is designed to produce programming focused on a major regional story: the opportunities for the transformation of the Midwest from a fundamentally industrial-based economy to a post-manufacturing one.

Significant resources at each organization will be committed to this long-term project. At ideastream, two full time staff members will be added: a reporter and a Senior Producer for Social Engagement who will lead the stations’ efforts on the web and in using social media to create a regional platform for discussion and debate about regional economic issues. Two additional reporters and a Senior Editor will be hired to work from WBEZ in Chicago or Michigan Radio (WUOM Ann Arbor/Detroit, WFUM Flint, WVGR Grand Rapids).

“Coverage of the region’s economy is a priority for ideastream and has been since 2001 when community feedback to the first Listening Project survey reported that it is the number one challenge for Northeast Ohio,” said Kit Jensen, Chief Operating Officer of WVIZ/PBS and 90.3 WCPN ideastream.  “In response, ideastream has produced significant content around the issue including:  A Quiet Crisis; Making Change; The Region’s Resume; Facing the Mortgage Crisis; and Help Wanted as well as continuing coverage on Morning Edition, The Sound of Ideas®, Ideas, and Feagler & Friends.  This grant will allow ideastream to grow its commitment to covering this vital regional issue,” she continued.

As recipients of the grant, one of five regional grants announced by CPB today, ideastream and its partners will tell the story of “Changing Gears: Remaking the Manufacturing Belt.” The stations’ ongoing coverage will look at the past, present and future of the industrial Midwest through the production of feature reports, regional call-in discussions, community town hall events, blogs and other online features. In Northeast Ohio, reports will also air on WVIZ/PBS. 

The Local Journalism Centers are designed to facilitate conversations beyond borders to tell the economic, social, environmental and cultural angles of this important story, and to explore what has and what has not worked in terms of improving regional economy.  This multi-platform editorial project will:

•Highlight today’s innovators
•Look at how families and individual workers are reinventing themselves to make the best of bad times
•Spotlight tech-savvy companies, including those in the clean energy industry
•Profile towns in transition, as they move from heavy industry and manufacturing to new ways of working
•Follow stimulus dollars to uncover their impact
•Search for ways the region can collaborate across state lines
•Provide a forum for the exchange of ideas about the issues and solutions facing the communities of the Great Lakes.

Throughout the coverage, ideastream and its partners will tell the stories of individuals, families, businesses and innovators who will share their struggles and solutions, their efforts to reinvent themselves and their capacity to make the best of bad times.

ideastream’s collaboration with two of the largest public radio stations in the Great Lakes allows the stations to pool their resources and diverse perspectives. As a result, the region’s most important story – its economic future – will receive the most comprehensive coverage possible.