NPR Joining Mountain West News Bureau
• NPR announced that it is joining the Mountain West News Bureau to create a regional newsroom that brings together public media organizations across seven Western states.
This collaboration, nearly a year in the making, is the seventh within the NPR network, joining existing regional newsrooms in Texas, California, the Gulf States, the Midwest, New England, and Appalachia and the Mid-South.
The Mountain West News Bureau has six managing partner stations — Boise State Public Radio (founding partner of Mountain West News Bureau), KANW/Albuquerque, NM, KUNC/Greeley, CO, KUNR/Reno, NV, Nevada Public Radio, and Wyoming Public Media — along with nearly a dozen other affiliated stations and NPR. Colorado Public Radio in Denver and KJZZ/Phoenix have also joined the regional newsroom as associate partners.
“NPR is committed to working more closely with these Mountain West stations to serve the public’s need for trusted reporting from this vast section of the country,” said Edith Chapin, NPR SVP, Editor In Chief and Acting Chief Content Officer. “We’re eager to examine the use of public lands, the demands on water and energy resources and other vital issues for people in this area.”
The new regional newsroom expands the successful Mountain West News Bureau, founded in 2018 with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and continues the growth of NPR’s regional newsroom model, which enables neighboring stations to share reporting and editing, plan coverage together, and uncover important stories in partnership with NPR.
“The Mountain West News Bureau is eager to expand,” said Tom Michael, GM of Boise State Public Radio, the regional newsroom’s lead station. “In addition to daily news and enterprise reporting, we are working with partners Koahnic Broadcast Corporation and Native Public Media on covering Indigenous affairs. Our newest partners will help us deepen our journalism and elevate our work.”
Michael de Yoanna, Managing Editor of the Mountain West News Bureau, is coordinating with news leaders at partner stations and serving as a key liaison with NPR. “By working together in this way,” he said, “these public media organizations can do more local reporting and add context and perspective that helps people understand the complexities of this region. The bureau will be a hub for collaboration and help expand meaningful, in-depth and investigative reporting across our region.”
