NPR is joining the Mountain West News Bureau to create a regional newsroom that brings together public media organizations across seven Western states, including KUNR Public Radio. This collaboration advances the NPR Network’s mission to deliver journalism that helps people make well-informed decisions for their families and their communities.
The new regional newsroom expands the successful Mountain West News Bureau, founded in 2018 with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It also continues the growth of NPR’s regional newsroom model, which enables neighboring stations to share reporting and editing, plan coverage together and uncover important stories, in partnership with NPR. The Mountain West News Bureau joins regional newsrooms in Texas, California, the Gulf States, the Midwest, New England, and Appalachia and the Mid-South.
The newsroom is supported by contributions from the partner stations and by a grant from Eric and Wendy Schmidt through the Schmidt Family Foundation. The grant enables the newsroom to add a full-time digital editor and a journalist focused on Indigenous affairs, which allows it to strengthen reporting on issues impacting Native communities and to grow its digital presence.
The regional newsroom has six managing partner stations across the Mountain West – KUNR Public Radio in Reno, Nevada Public Radio in Las Vegas, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KANW in New Mexico, KUNC in Colorado, and Wyoming Public Media – along with nearly a dozen other affiliated stations and NPR. Colorado Public Radio in Denver and KJZZ in Phoenix have also joined the regional newsroom as associate partners.
“NPR is committed to working more closely with these Mountain West stations to serve the public’s need for trusted reporting from this vast section of the country,” said Edith Chapin, NPR Senior Vice President, Editor in Chief and acting Chief Content Officer. “We’re eager to examine the use of public lands, the demands on water and energy resources and other vital issues for people in this area.”
“The Mountain West News Bureau is eager to expand,” said Tom Michael, general manager of Boise State Public Radio, the regional newsroom’s lead station. “ In addition to daily news and enterprise reporting, we are working with partners Koahnic Broadcast Corp. and Native Public Media on covering Indigenous affairs. Our newest partners will help us deepen our journalism and elevate our work.”
Michael de Yoanna is the managing editor of the Mountain West News Bureau, coordinating with news leaders at the partner stations and serving as a key liaison with NPR. “By working together in this way,” he said, “these public media organizations can do more local reporting and add context and perspective that helps people understand the complexities of this region. The bureau will be a hub for collaboration and help expand meaningful, in-depth and investigative reporting across our vast region”
At KUNR, reporter Kaleb Roedel serves as the station’s Mountain West News Bureau correspondent. He regularly covers public lands, renewable energy and tribal issues among many others for the bureau.
“As a founding partner of the Mountain West News Bureau, KUNR is excited to be a part of this expanded partnership with our colleagues at NPR to better serve our listeners in Northern Nevada and the Eastern Sierra and to share stories about their region to a broader national audience,” said Brian Duggan, general manager of KUNR Public Radio, which is part of the Reynolds School of Journalism based on the campus of the University of Nevada, Reno.
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