A newsroom with a staff of 4,000
North Country Public Radio gets a lot of attention around the US for its reporting. People ask us this question a lot:
“How does a small, rural station tucked away in a part of New York so Upstate that even a lot of Upstaters don’t know where it is manage to do the kind of work you do?”
The answer, of course, is that we have a newsroom with about 4,000 people sharing the work.
Some of us, like Todd Moe, get out of bed at 4 am every weekday to make sure we have the most up-to-date information.
Some of us chip in $20 or $40 to pay for a tank of gasoline, or to help us pay the costs of one investigative report.
Some of us come in to volunteer answering phones. Or cook loaves of banana bread. Or donate pizzas.
That’s the kind of newsroom that should put out great, fact-based, community-rooted journalism, right? It’s a collaborative effort driven by literally hundreds of passionate, thoughtful people.
So whether you’ve been on the NCPR news team for decades, or joined us over the last week, it’s great to work with you. The stories, the factual information, the voices you hear over the next year — you did that.
As a journalist, I can’t think of a better way to run a newsroom.
Tags: media
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I appreciate the NCPR staff. Thanks for being here!
One of the other NPR affiliates I can get in my region raises 4 or 5 times more money per fund drive than NCPR and their news is a pale shadow of the excellent work your station does. Some affiliates news is a mile wide and an inch deep. Yours is grass roots deep.
(sorry to mix metaphors but you get the point)
I visit my hometown (a metropolitan area) and listen to the NPR affiliate there – can not even compare to NCPR (almost no local programming) and the budget is many time NCPR’s. The NCPR staff does amazing things with what is essentially a shoestring budget and as Brian MOFYC says, it is truly grass roots.