National Public Radio (NPR) has announced a three-year, $5.5 million grant from Eric and Wendy Schmidt to help expand NPR’s Collaborative Journalism Network.

The funding will enable public radio stations to reach and serve more communities with local, multi-platform public service journalism. To that end, NPR and its partners will create a regional newsroom in Appalachia and the neighboring area; bolster an existing public media collaboration, the Mountain West News Bureau; conduct a multistation visual journalism pilot in New England; and support the continued growth of newsrooms in California and Midwest.

The latest commitment is in addition to a $4.7 million grant from the couple in 2020, which established two regional newsrooms in the Collaborative Journalism Network.

“Local news organizations are essential to our communities, providing not only a sense of identity and connection but also a spotlight on local challenges, like land rights, voting abuses, the impact of extractive industries and air and water quality,” said Wendy Schmidt, co-founder and president of the Schmidt Family Foundation. “Eric and I believe deeply in investing in NPR’s work to strengthen our democracy, protect human rights, expose wrongs, and uplift voices that deserve to be heard.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Frazao Studio Latino)