PRX Welcomes Six Media Organizations to the PRX Journalism Podcast Accelerator’s Central Region Cohort, including Kaiser Health News, Kansas News Service and KCUR, KBIA, Minnesota Public Radio, “Mississippi Free Press,” and Prairie Public Broadcasting
The audio training program supported by the Knight Foundation supports journalists across the U.S. seeking to develop and sustain a podcast. To date, participants in the PRX Journalism Podcast Accelerator include CapRadio, Colorado Public Radio, Hawaiʻi Public Radio, KQED, NAHJ and palabra., and the San Francisco Public Press
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Public media organization PRX today announced the participants who will compose the second cohort of the PRX Journalism Podcast Accelerator. The accelerator is an intensive podcast development and training program for local journalists across the United States, located in and serving communities supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Knight invests in models and methods that advance the practice of journalism, build trust, reach new and diverse audiences, and generate revenue solutions to ensure a sustainable future.
As part of the program, PRX is welcoming three cohorts of journalists who are connected by region. The first cohort to participate in the training program, composed of media organizations located in the western region of the U.S., did so from September through December 2022 with the goal of developing, launching, or re-launching a podcast while building new strategies to sustain audio production at their news organizations. The central cohort has now been selected, and training will take place from March to June 2023.
Participants in the central region cohort will include:
- Kaiser Health News — Midwest Correspondent Cara Anthony and Senior Audio Producer Zach Dyer will create an audio journalism podcast exploring the stories of two Black men killed nearly 80 years apart. This podcast will also reflect on how racially-motivated violence impacts health, such as how wounds can be slow to heal when matters of race go unspoken. Kaiser Health News is a nonprofit national newsroom producing in-depth journalism about health issues.
- Kansas News Service and KCUR (Kansas) — With more than 45 million acres of farmland, Kansas is one of the states with the most farmland in the country. Kansas News Service environment reporter Celia Llopis-Jepsen, news editor Stephen Koranda and managing editor Scott Canon will develop a podcast exploring how people have developed farm fields and urban landscapes in ways that starve the natural world. They’ll explore how that’s meant the disappearance of soil, insects and plants that our communities need to remain healthy, safe, and well-fed. The Kansas News Service is a collaboration of public radio newsrooms across the state, including KMUW in Wichita, Kansas Public Radio in Lawrence, High Plains Public Radio in Garden City, and KCUR in Kansas City.
- KBIA (Missouri) — In a podcast co-produced with The New Territory magazine and The Columbia Missourian, exploring the people and communities dwelling at the foot of North America’s longest river — the Missouri River — KBIA Producer Janet Saidi, The New Territory editor Tina Casagrand Foss, Columbia Missourian director of photography Brian Kratzer, and KBIA Engagement Producer Kassidy Arena will illuminate how the river shapes the town’s history, commerce, environment, and culture. KBIA public radio has served listeners in mid-Missouri since 1972, is a significant news provider in the area, and is also the area’s largest provider of arts programming.
- Minnesota Public Radio (Minnesota) — Assistant Program Director Erin Warhol and Producer Twila Dang will produce a podcast about how the history of a social code rooted in Norwegian culture has shaped Minnesota and its reputation as the home of “Minnesota Nice.” The code — called Jantelovan — is a practice where one should never try to be more, different, or consider oneself more valuable than others. It’s become an unofficial set of rules used by Minnesotans in daily life. Minnesota Public Radio is one of the nation’s premier public radio organizations, producing programming for radio, digital, and live audiences.
- “Mississippi Free Press” (Mississippi) — Co-producers Kourtney Moncure and Shaye Smith will create a podcast examining not only the forgotten, but the intentionally buried stories of racial violence in Mississippi. The podcast will also aim to illustrate systemic throughlines connecting such acts of violence by tracing them to their source and revealing the people and institutions that unexpectedly benefited. Launched in 2020, “The Mississippi Free Press” publishes deep public-interest reporting regarding causes of and solutions to the social, political and structural challenges facing all Mississippians and their communities.
- Prairie Public Broadcasting (North Dakota) — Producer Ashley Thornberg and Digital Communications Specialist Christine McClellan will produce a podcast guided by the idea of how progress intersects with one’s identity and life. Prairie Public Broadcasting provides quality radio, television, and public media services that educate, involve, and inspire the people of the prairie region.
The next and final cohort of the PRX Journalism Podcast Accelerator is intended for media organizations with roots on the east coast of the United States. Submissions remain open. See here for full details, including how to apply.
“We’re excited to create, re-tool, and problem-solve alongside this incredible cohort of journalists,” said Stephanie Kuo, Director of Training at PRX. “We also know that there are challenges to creating podcasts that are well-resourced and sustainable. The PRX Journalism Podcast Accelerator will help journalists address these challenges head-on within their organizations. Thank you to the Knight Foundation for supporting this work.”
Each team participating in the PRX Journalism Podcast Accelerator will receive:
- 12 weeks of intensive training in podcast development with a focus on developing and strengthening content concepts, introducing and implementing technical and creative skills grounded in collaboration and iteration, and best practices for areas such as audience engagement, branding, and monetization;
- $5,000 in funding for production costs; and,
- Access to a network of industry experts and a community of peers to learn from and alongside.
The PRX training team has worked with a number of journalists and producers to help develop podcasts rooted in local communities, including “Port of Entry” from KPBS in San Diego; the investigative podcasts “Through the Cracks” from WAMU in Washington, D.C. and “Sick” from Side Effects Public Media and WFYI; “The Modern West” from Wyoming Public Media; and “Black in Appalachia” from East Tennessee PBS. PRX has also led audio workshops with the Institute for Nonprofit News, the Asian American Journalists Association, Centro de Periodismo Investigativo in Puerto Rico, and the Baraza Media Lab in Nairobi, Kenya.
For more about PRX training, visit training.prx.org.
About PRX
PRX is a non-profit public media company specializing in audio journalism and storytelling. PRX serves independent producers and organizations by helping them connect to their most engaged, supportive audiences. One of the world’s leading podcast publishers, PRX works in partnership with TED, PBS, the Smithsonian, Futuro Media, GBH, Religion of Sports, and more. PRX is also home to Radiotopia, known as one of the most creative and successful podcast networks. In addition, PRX distributes trusted public radio programming to hundreds of stations nationwide, including “The World,” “The Moth Radio Hour,” “This American Life,” “Snap Judgment,” “Reveal,” “The Takeaway,” and “Latino USA.” PRX programs have been recognized by the Peabody Awards, the duPont-Columbia Awards, the IDA Documentary Awards, and the Pulitzer Prizes. In 2022, Futuro Media and PRX won a Pulitzer Prize.
