Public Radio Creates California Newsroom
Joanne Griffith, a widely respected and deeply experienced reporter and producer, has been hired as the newsroom’s first Managing Editor. “California is at the heart of so many stories of national interest: immigration, technology, the environment, housing,” said Griffith, who most recently served as the Assistant Managing Editor of Digital for Marketplace. Before that she edited and produced for the BBC, NPR and Southern California Public Radio. She added, “The opportunity to work collaboratively with stations across the state to tackle these themes and more is one I’m very much looking forward to, especially during an election year.” Griffith will work out of the KPCC/LAist offices in Pasadena but will be leading daily collaboration and coordination between news outlets across California, including public media affiliates in Fresno, Chico, San Luis Obispo and beyond. Her initial focus will be on 2020 election coverage.
“As the media industry faces increasing economic and political pressures, working together collaboratively to deliver public interest journalism is more important than ever,” said Holly Kernan, Chief Content Officer at KQED and a key champion of this effort. “This collaborative effort will ensure California citizens have accurate, independent and important news from across the state, which can only improve our democracy.”
The California news hub is the second such collaboration in the country, joining The Texas Newsroom, which launched last year and produces six live, statewide newscasts each weekday that draw content from public radio stations large and small across Texas. [Griffith photo by Carlin Stiehl].