Funding Area: Education
Nationally, Public News Service (PNS) is a public interest newswire (similar to an independent Associated Press) operating state news services across 40 states. Tomberg Family Philanthropies helped PNS launch the Mississippi News Connection (MNC) in 2022. We cover topics and voices frequently marginalized by the mainstream media, and make that news accessible to communities underserved by their state’s media landscape. PNS journalists produce every story with print, broadcast, and digital versions, so any news outlet in the state can easily use PNS stories on their own platform (at no cost). Every day, our mult-format stories are distributed to thousands of media outlets across the country (TV, radio, online, and print)–which delivers our reporting to an audience of 60-70+ million a week across geographic, political, and technical divides. Distribution is targeted to rural areas and news deserts where local news is disappearing fastest.
Projects We Support
Mississippi News Service Launch: Informed Communities
With support from Tomberg Family Philanthropies, Public News Service will launch a state level news service in Mississippi–Mississippi News Service (MNS)–to cover underreported public interest topics that receive too little attention in the MS news ecosystem.
Nationally, Public News Service (PNS) is a public interest newswire (similar to an independent Associated Press) operating state news services across 38 states. We cover topics and voices frequently marginalized by the mainstream media, and make that news accessible to communities underserved by their state’s media landscape. PNS journalists produce every story with print, broadcast, and digital versions, so any news outlet in the state can easily use PNS stories on their own platform (at no cost). Every day, our mult-format stories are distributed to thousands of media outlets across the country (TV, radio, online, and print)–which delivers our reporting to an audience of 60-70+ million a week across geographic, political, and technical divides. Distribution is targeted to rural areas and news deserts where local news is disappearing fastest.
This grant request will support the launch of Mississippi News Service (our 39th news service)–bringing Public News Service closer to our goal of launching news services in all 50 states. Once launched, Mississippi News Service (MNS) will fuel the Mississippi’s news ecosystem with public interest reporting that local MS news outlets are unable to cover, and deliver the stories to local outlets to use on their own platforms. MNS stories will cover a broad range of public interest topics that answer the question “how does this impact me today?” for the average working American, and provide audiences with relevant information needed to participate in their community and contribute to a thriving democracy.
Support Dates: March, 2023 – Ongoing
