Who Will Save Public Media?

This summer, after decades of failed attempts to eliminate federal funding of public media, conservative critics and Republican lawmakers ended support for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the non-profit created by Congress in the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. Driven by the same political dynamics, some states have made similar cuts. The outlook for local public broadcasting has never seemed as dire as in the past few months. 

Just last week, WNET—the New York-based parent of PBS stations Thirteen and WLIW—announced it will not renew its operating agreement to manage New Jersey PBS, citing steep state and federal funding cuts. 

At the same time, support for public media through philanthropy has never been stronger. Locally, many stations have experienced a rise in donor contributions, sometimes compensating for the loss of CPB resources with viewer and listener support just in the first week after the cuts in Washington. 

Although the massive wave of federal funding cuts may sometimes seem insurmountable for private donors to offset, cuts to public broadcasting are not so severe that private philanthropy cannot overcome them. 

In the wake of the elimination of the CPB, foundations have come together to support the creation of the Public Media Bridge Fund, a pooled fund led by the Public Media Company, with support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and a growing list of allied supporters, including The Schmidt Family Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, among others. And this effort is only one example of the philanthropic response, with a powerful spike in audience giving immediately after the cuts occurred in July.  

Of course, nobody expects elevated audience support to remain in place on a sustained basis into the future. But worse, the most at-risk stations receive the highest revenue from CPB grants. Most of these stations are in rural areas, where they cannot expect audience support to make up the losses in government grants. At the very moment, when more and more counties are becoming news deserts—losing local newspapers and broadcast journalism—public media remains one of the only sources that reach 99 percent of Americans free over the air. 

One encouraging innovation is a new tool called Adopt A Station, which allows donors who may support their own stations in relatively wealthy urban communities to identify a less prosperous station to support. 

However plentiful these new donations may be for public media, many of the most vulnerable stations still risk closing following severe CPB cuts. 

Why should foundations care?  

Public media is a compelling public service in its own right, delivering intrinsic value to communities. But it is also a powerful amplifier for issues and programs that foundations care about.  

For all the foundations concerned about the crisis in local news, public radio and television stations employ roughly 4000 journalists across the country. For funders worried about the documentary film, public media constitutes the single-largest audience for documentary films, reaching about 22 million viewers, according to a recent report from the Shorenstein Center for Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University. By contrast, in-person screenings at cinemas and film festivals attract about 1.2 million people.  

Running down the list of topics of great concern to philanthropy, you can find essential information reaching a meaningful audience on just about every issue. For funders concerned about equitable access to arts and culture, programs like Great Performances on PBS and countless musical programs on more than 700 noncommercial music radio stations provide cultural content to over 20 million people each week. And for artists, musicians, and organizations in communities across the country, public media offers essential information in arts and performance calendars for audiences searching for local events. 

Likewise, whether it’s science programming like Nova and Nature, or children’s educational programming like Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood or any of the myriad programs carried under the PBS Kids banner, public broadcasting delivers valuable programming into millions of homes, regardless of their ability to pay the rising cost of streaming and cable broadcast fees. 

Indeed, in practically any specialized area of philanthropy, you will likely find quality programming in public media that illuminates and informs audiences about the issues you seek to advance.  

What can philanthropy do? 

In a word: a lot. If we think of philanthropy as a continuum—from the individuals providing modest membership support, to major gift donors, to corporate underwriters, to endowed foundations—philanthropy has provided the bulk of support for public media for decades. 

If you look at total revenue for public broadcasting—television and radio stations—you see about $3.8 billion in revenue. Of that, less than $600 million came from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It’s a lot to lose in one stroke, but it represents only about 15 percent of total funding. If it were to fire on all cylinders, philanthropy has the potential to be the engine that powers public media in the foreseeable future. 

One thing that must be understood and appreciated for public media to thrive is that noncommercial broadcasting existed for half a century before the creation of the CPB. And it can certainly continue without it, as long as the federal government fails to provide reasonable support for this public service. 

Public goods and private support 

Understanding our relationship with public broadcasting requires us to ask fundamental questions about our political and economic system: How do we pay for public broadcasting? What is a public good? How do we define it, and how do we achieve consensus on paying for it? 

In America, more than in most countries, we rely heavily on private support for many public goods, including health, education, public libraries, and public media. Supporters of public media—individuals and institutions alike—have kept their part of the bargain. With the radical imposition of President Donald Trump’s second administration, the federal government is beating a swift and chaotic retreat from its obligations in this compact. For anyone who believes public-private collaboration is at the heart of American society, we must rebuild a consensus for government to pay its share. 

In many areas where Congressional Republicans and the White House have made cuts—Medicaid, foreign aid—the sums cannot possibly be replaced by philanthropy. But in public media, the gap is bridgeable. 

That’s because government support was always relatively small compared to other nations. In the U.S., per capita expenditures for public media represent about $1.50 per person. In Germany, it’s closer to $150 per person per year. If CPB had operated on that scale, philanthropy could never replace it. However, since federal support was so modest, the challenge is achievable. We can do this. 

Addressing vulnerabilities 

Support for nearly 1,500 public media stations—about 1,100 radio stations and 360 television stations—now comes mainly from individual donors, with foundations and corporations filling the balance. 

The challenge is to address vulnerabilities in the system, finding ways to cut costs and increase revenues wherever possible. Not every station is operating with the best tools and management practices. Many have been slow to modernize, and many fail to reach their full potential. 

Philanthropy has historically played an outsized role in strengthening the field. Working with President Lyndon Johnson’s administration, the Carnegie Corporation of New York helped establish the Carnegie Commission on Educational Television, which developed the blueprint for the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. The Ford Foundation, too, was instrumental in shaping CPB’s early years. The Annenberg Foundation pledged $150 million in 1981 to CPB to create educational programs for colleges and universities (though it was later cut short). And in a stunning gift, Joan Kroc, widow of McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc, donated $200 million to NPR. These are reminders that philanthropy has been transformative at key moments in public media’s history. 

What more can philanthropy do? 

The newest effort is the Public Media Bridge Fund, created by the Public Media Company. The idea was first presented at a special gathering of funders in Philadelphia in June, convened by Media Impact Funders, the Arthur Vining Davis Foundation, and the Wyncote Foundation. Support grew quickly, particularly with the energetic leadership of Maribel Pérez Wadsworth, president of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. 

The Bridge Fund aims to support the most vulnerable stations, helping them maintain local service, preserve broadcast infrastructure (including spectrum assets and towers), and adopt more sustainable practices. By supporting stations locally, the Bridge Fund also protects the national system—preventing a “doom loop” where station closures weaken NPR and PBS, leading to reduced quality, diminished audience support, and further decline. 

The Bridge Fund builds on a long history of sector leadership at the Public Media Company, which began as Public Radio Capital in 2001. Its mission then was to preserve at-risk public radio licenses, such as in 2010, when Duquesne University decided to sell the permit for WDUQ, a music radio station with a jazz format. Local philanthropy leaders at The Pittsburgh Foundation and the Heinz Endowments worked with Public Radio Capital to acquire the license and created WESA, now Pittsburgh’s NPR news station.  

Similar innovation led to the creation of PRX in 2003. Originally known as the Public Radio Exchange, PRX was established to open up the ability to produce and distribute content for public broadcasting stations and networks, taking full advantage of the decentralized Internet, by comparison with the traditional method of satellite distribution, which was relatively more expensive, cumbersome, and inflexible to use. Over the years, PRX also became a powerhouse in podcasting, home to Radiotopia and many leading voices in long-form audio documentaries.  

Historically, CPB staff also played a vital role in innovation, backing projects like PRX and Public Radio Capital in their formative stages. Their absence in this moment is a profound loss. Until the federal government resumes its role, philanthropy—individuals, corporations, and foundations—must step up to keep delivering this essential service to communities nationwide. 

The loss of the CPB marks the end of one chapter in the history of American public media. But it does not need to be the end of public media itself. Philanthropy—individual donors, foundations, and local communities—has long powered this system, and today it must rise to the challenge once again. With smart investments, coordinated leadership, and bold imagination, we can preserve not just stations and signals, but the essential role of public media as a trusted source of news, culture, and civic connection for millions. The time to act is now. 

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