BOSTON—Frontline, PBS’s investigative documentary series produced at GBH in Boston, has announced the newest class of partners for its Local Journalism Initiative (LJI).
Since 2019, Frontline’s LJI has promoted sustainable, public interest journalism in communities where local news organizations have been hit hard by financial pressures. In 2025-26, the initiative will work with seven local newsrooms on three investigative projects.
In 2025-26, one of the projects involves three newsrooms—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Post and Courier of Charleston and AL.com. They will investigate environmental pollution in the South. This joint reporting will also be supported by The Associated Press Local Investigative Reporting Program.
Additionally, Blue Ridge Public Radio, VTDigger and The Texas Newsroom (the collaboration among NPR stations in the state) will work together to examine the aftermath of devastating local floods, focusing on the victims and survivors as well as the federal government’s shifting response to natural disasters.
The reporting on pollution and local floods will be funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, as a part of a three-year, $1.5 million grant the foundation awarded to Frontline to support LJI. The Local Journalism Initiative began in 2019 with a $3 million grant from Knight Foundation and a $1 million grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. To date, Knight has given $4.5 million to support Frontline’s LJI.
The 2025-26 cohort will also include The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which will investigate plummeting childhood vaccination rates throughout Pennsylvania. The Post-Gazette’s reporting will be funded by the Heinz Endowments as part of a one-year, $275 thousand grant to support Frontline’s LJI.
“We’re thrilled to welcome our fifth cohort of Local Journalism Initiative partners to Frontline. We’ve been proud to support and expand the reach of our partners’ enterprise reporting, which has tackled critical issues that impact communities across the country,” said Raney Aronson-Rath, editor-in-chief and executive producer of Frontline. “We are grateful to the Knight Foundation and to the Heinz Endowments, whose generous support makes our work with local newsrooms possible. We look forward to sharing the powerful and impactful storytelling from our partners over the next year.”
“We’re proud to join forces with these outstanding local investigative teams on projects related to health, the environment and public safety,” said Erin Texeira, Frontline’s senior editor and LJI director. “Now more than ever, strong newsroom partnerships can produce the vital accountability journalism our communities need.”
Frontline’s Local Journalism Initiative provides editorial and financial support for newsrooms, which can include paying journalists’ salaries and sharing Frontline’s expertise on investigative techniques, video storytelling and connecting journalism with wider audiences.
Since 2019, Frontline’s Local Journalism Initiative partners have included The Post and Courier of Charleston, Chattanooga Times Free Press, Milwaukee PBS, New Mexico PBS (KNME-TV), Oklahoma Watch, Rhode Island’s The Public’s Radio, Rocky Mountain PBS, Star Tribune, The Salt Lake Tribune, The Tampa Bay Times, The Texas Newsroom, The Texas Tribune and WFAE Charlotte NPR.
The initiative has helped produce major investigative projects, including “Breakdown”, a Peabody and Emmy Award-nominated multiplatform investigation into Maine’s deadliest shooting with Portland Press Herald and Maine Public Radio; “Fractured”, an 11-part WFAE radio series and Frontline documentary on North Carolina inmates living with mental illness; and stories about a polluting lead smelter in The Tampa Bay Times that won a George Polk Award and Pulitzer Prize.
“Frontline’s Local Journalism Initiative continues to support the creation of impactful and essential investigative reporting that deepens understanding of the issues shaping people’s everyday lives,” said Marisa Kwiatkowski, director for journalism at Knight Foundation. “It’s a powerful example of how local and national partnerships can strengthen journalism in service of the public good.”
“The Heinz Endowments is delighted to support this Frontline project and looks forward to seeing its impact on our region,” said Endowments Equity & Learning Vice President Carmen Anderson. “We are committed to helping ensure that the residents of western Pennsylvania receive accurate information that will enable them to make good decisions about their lives and their communities. More specifically, investigating the reasons behind declining childhood vaccination rates is a crucial step to safeguarding public health in Pennsylvania as it allows residents to understand the underlying causes and take action to address preventable diseases.”
