In August and September 2008, Morning Edition listeners heard the Local News Initiative (LNI) in action: a three-part series produced by KNAU, Flagstaff and NPR through the Local News Initiative’s NPR Producer/Editor Residency Project. This pilot project brought together NPR News production and editorial staff with KNAU news staff to work jointly on news designed for a regional audience but also of interest to listeners everywhere.
About the SeriesWorking with NPR producer Cindy Carpien and editor Maeve McGoran, KNAU reporters explored the difficulties of living in so-called “high amenity” communities where the contrast between a high quality of life and the high cost of living and limited employment was described by members of KNAU’s community as “poverty with a view.”
In the two-part series, we hear from KNAU’s Dan Kraker about the growing national trend of "amenity migrants" who are moving to smaller, picturesque towns such as Flagstaff. One story focuses on the newcomers and the adjustments they have to make, the other on the changes the newcomers bring with them.
In the third part of the series on Morning Edition, we meet the “River Runners” who work for Grand Canyon river rafting companies in the summer but often have to scrape by in the off-season to make ends meet. This feature is by KNAU's Gillian Ferris Kohl.
Take a listen to parts one and two:- Morning Edition, August 19: ‘Amenity Migrants' Alter Life In Resort Towns
- Morning Edition, August 20: Around Resorts, Boomlet Towns Thrive, Too
- Morning Edition, September 16: For White-Water Guides, The Thrill Is Never Gone
The series has been a collaborative effort from start to finish - between KNAU and its local community, NPR and PRPD, and NPR and KNAU. Spurred by the PRPD/LNI effort to center local programming around a “Sense of Place,” KNAU organized focus groups and an extraordinarily well-attended town hall to identify issues of particular importance and resonance in their community. Flagstaff, AZ, listeners described life in their community as "poverty with a view" -- astounding natural beauty coupled with low-paying jobs and a high cost of living.
While the focus of this pilot project is on enhancing stations’ capacity to provide quality, in-depth news, the series has direct ties with KNAU’s development activities. Through outreach to local funders, KNAU secured resources for the series that matched NPR’s LNI investment. With national distribution of the series, KNAU can now leverage the series in future fundraising appeals and membership drives as an example of the excellence of their newsroom and the national importance of their local concerns. It’s exceptional work that listeners will continue to hear out of KNAU.
About the Local News Initiative’s NPR Producer/Editor Residency ProjectThe idea for this pilot program came out of the LNI call for proposals for activities that would foster new and collaborative thinking in public radio about ways to provide sustainable local news service to our communities. In addition to identifying target “hubs” intended to bring multiple stations together around a common interest, beat or geographic area, the call for proposals identified the NPR Producer/Editor Residency Project as a training and professional development activity with the potential for strong regional and national impact.
In the days ahead, we’ll share more with you about what we learned through this pilot program and plans for expanding the project to more stations.
To date, 136 stations have been involved with the Local News Initiative’s projects and activities. For more on the LNI, please see the LNI website at: http://www.localnewsinitiative.org/home.cfm or contact Marcia Alvar at 310 815 4254 (office); 310 387 3408 (cell) or malvar@npr.org.
