The New York City-based Ford Foundation has awarded $50 million to support nonprofit media organizations and spur the creation and distribution of public affairs programming, particularly programs dealing with international affairs, the New York Times reports.

The foundation awarded $10 million to the Public Broadcasting Service to support a new fund that will enable PBS, for the first time, to test new programming ideas; currently, PBS relies on its affiliate stations and independent producers to develop programming. The funds also will help pay the operating expenses of the new PBS Foundation, which will manage the donations of wealthy individuals — much as National Public Radio did with a bequest of more than $236 million from Joan A. Kroc, the widow of McDonald's founder Ray Kroc.

Other grants announced by the foundation include $7.5 million to NPR, $4.5 million to Link TV, and $5 million to the Independent Television Service, which supports independent producers in the public television system. Additional grants were awarded to the Sundance Documentary Fund, which supports documentaries about human rights issues, and to New California Media (NCM), a consortium of more than six hundred print, television, radio, and Internet outlets dedicated to promoting and strengthening ethnic media.

"The media in general is at a crossroads in our country," said Ford Foundation president Susan V. Berresford, pointing to declining newspaper circulation, a drop over the last decade in coverage of international affairs, and continuing market pressures that demand ratings successes while depleting news-gathering budgets.

The foundation's involvement with noncommercial broadcasting dates to the middle of the 20th century, when it was instrumental in funding the development of such public broadcasting jewels as Sesame Street and the documentary Eyes on the Prize, as well as technological advancements such as closed captioning. "Without the Ford Foundation in those days, there would be no public television," said Lawrence K. Grossman, a former president of PBS.