Editorial Integrity & Executive Leadership Initiative

Eligibility:

Open to all applicants.

Deadline:

January 16, 2024

Request for Proposals

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) seeks an entity to design and implement a professional development fellowship initiative for station managers who oversee public media newsrooms (“Initiative”). The Initiative will engage 50 fellows (“Fellows”) in small cohorts, over a timeframe of two years, with a customized curriculum of onsite and virtual training and activities, supported by ongoing mentoring and coaching, to improve the knowledge and expertise of these managers.

Over the past several years, many public media stations have hired new station managers, many of them overseeing newsroom operations. These locally owned and operated newsrooms are a critical source of fact-based information in their communities, helping audiences distinguish fact from fiction, responding to sometimes life-threatening public emergencies, and contextualizing complex issues impacting their lives and communities. Even as public media continues to be a trusted source of information, Americans’ overall trust in media is at a historic low. Meanwhile, the rapid news cycle and increasing pressure to develop more public media presence across more platforms are pushing newsrooms to produce content at unprecedented levels.

At a time when the craft of journalism is under increased scrutiny, it is critical that public media general managers that oversee newsrooms have the support and training they need to uphold public media journalism’s highest editorial standards, including accuracy, fairness, objectivity, balance, and transparency. Station managers impact every part of the newsroom operation – from enforcing editorial firewalls to establishing workplace culture, overseeing budgets to greenlighting innovation, managing crisis response to partnership development. The Initiative will provide training in all these areas and will also create relationships among the Fellows with the objectives of advancing system collaboration and strengthening public media’s local-national journalism service.

The Initiative will provide a customized curriculum that incorporates the distinct needs of each Fellow, which could include station managers who are first-time news managers, experienced journalism leaders who are new to public media station management, and managers leading newsrooms at stations licensed to state governments or universities. The goals (“Goals”) of the Initiative are:
• To build the organizational leadership skills of public media station managers who oversee newsrooms;
• To equip these leaders with the tools they need to enforce clear editorial firewalls and make ethical decisions in high stress, high stakes news situations;
• To support institutional evolution and accelerate change in public media newsrooms, so that they can better meet the information needs of communities;
• To create mutually supportive cohorts for these station leaders, so that they see themselves as part of a larger public media ecosystem; and,
• To provide ongoing training, coaching, and support.

Please download the Request for Proposals below for detailed information, including application requirements.
AttachmentSize
PDF icon Request for Proposals255.56 KB

Application Procedure and General Questions:

Applicants must submit technical and cost applications through CPB’s electronic grants management system.

All questions regarding this RFP must be submitted in writing to Erin Day at eday@cpb.org The questions (without attribution) and CPB’s responses will be posted on CPB’s website. Please include “Editorial Integrity & Executive Leadership Initiative” in the subject line of all emails. The deadline for submitting questions is Tuesday, November 28, 2023 at 5 p.m. ET.

CPB will conduct an Applicant webinar (“Webinar”) on Tuesday, December 5, 2023 at 12 p.m. ET to answer questions submitted to CPB. Potential Applicants must register for the Webinar in advance by emailing Ms. Day by Tuesday, November 28, 2023

To gain access to the electronic grants management system, please send an email request to Erin Day at eday@cpb.org no later than Tuesday, December 5, 2023 at 5 p.m. ET. CPB will provide access to eligible applicants within two business days. Include “Editorial Integrity & Executive Leadership Initiative” in the subject line. In your request, please provide your name, title, phone number, organization name, address and organization web site.

Proposals for this RFP are due no later than Tuesday, January 16 at 5 p.m. ET. CPB will not consider proposals submitted after this time.

Technical Proposals may be in Microsoft Word or PDF format. Cost Proposals must be in Excel format.