FRONTLINE Wins Major Funding to Expand Investigative Reporting

Share:

June 25, 2014

FRONTLINE today announced two new major grants to expand investigative reporting across platforms.

Longtime WGBH supporters Jon and Jo Ann Hagler have made the single largest gift by an individual to FRONTLINE in its 30-year history: $5 million, with the majority going towards a new endowment for continuing journalism.

In addition, the Ford Foundation is making a two-year, $800,000 grant towards a new cross-platform Enterprise Journalism Group within FRONTLINE that will deepen the series’ in-house investigative bench.

“These two gifts are a vote of confidence in FRONTLINE’s ambitions for the future,” says Executive Producer David Fanning. ‘’We know that to keep doing significant investigative reporting we have to undertake a major effort to raise additional funds for the time-intensive and costly work of enterprise journalism. The generosity of the Haglers and new support from the Ford Foundation is an expression of optimism about the future of the series and the kind of journalism we practice, and need to keep expanding.”

FRONTLINE, which receives its majority funding from PBS as well as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, has been the recipient of major foundation support from The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for many years, with an initial series grant of $5 million and an early grant of $1 million to pursue digital opportunities across WGBH.

The Park Foundation is also a longstanding series funder, and FRONTLINE recently received funding from the Wyncote Foundation to support journalistic collaborations. Additionally, the series receives support from the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund, which helps fuel in-depth journalistic investigations through donor contributions.

“FRONTLINE has been able to build its journalistic capacity because of the support of the MacArthur, Park, and Wyncote Foundations,” says FRONTLINE Deputy Executive Producer Raney Aronson-Rath. “Now the Haglers and the Ford Foundation are giving us a remarkable chance to not just expand our original investigative journalism, but to innovate it, to report and tell stories that matter in new, creative ways, and to reach a digitally native audience.”

Read the full announcement here.


Patrice Taddonio

Patrice Taddonio, Digital Writer & Audience Development Strategist, FRONTLINE

Twitter:

@ptaddonio

In order to foster a civil and literate discussion that respects all participants, FRONTLINE has the following guidelines for commentary. By submitting comments here, you are consenting to these rules:

Readers' comments that include profanity, obscenity, personal attacks, harassment, or are defamatory, sexist, racist, violate a third party's right to privacy, or are otherwise inappropriate, will be removed. Entries that are unsigned or are "signed" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. We reserve the right to not post comments that are more than 400 words. We will take steps to block users who repeatedly violate our commenting rules, terms of use, or privacy policies. You are fully responsible for your comments.

blog comments powered by Disqus

More Stories

THE PEGASUS PROJECT Live Blog: Major Stories from Partners
A curated and regularly updated list of news articles from our partners in “The Pegasus Project,” a collaborative investigation among 17 journalism outlets around the world.
August 2, 2021
A Utah Prosecutor Says New Self-Defense Law Makes it Harder to Charge Problematic Police Officers
Reacting to calls for police reform, some states have made it easier for prosecutors to criminally charge officers accused of using deadly force when they shouldn’t have. Utah, on the other hand, made it harder.
August 2, 2021
As Biden Announces End of U.S. ‘Combat Mission’ in Iraq, 21 FRONTLINE Docs Provide Context
President Biden said July 26 the U.S. combat mission in Iraq is drawing to a close. These documentaries illuminate the Iraq War and its aftermath.
July 28, 2021
‘A disturbing shooting’: Salt Lake County district attorney says officer was justified in killing handcuffed man
An exasperated district attorney tried to get two points across at a Thursday news conference. The first is that as the law is currently written, Longman’s shooting was justified. The second is that Gill thinks the law should be changed. 
July 22, 2021