NBC Subsidiary in Deal with Non-Profits to Boost Local News Reporting

NBC Owned Television Stations announced Tuesday it has entered into an agreement with four non-profit organizations to beef up local news reporting in select metropolitan areas.

The company announced an agreement with ProPublica, a New York-based non-profit news organization focused on public interest investigative journalism; the Chicago Reporter, an investigative news organization reporting on the social, economic and political issues of metropolitan Chicago and the effects of race and poverty; WHYY, a public media provider based in the Greater Philadelphia metropolitan area; and Los Angeles-based KPCC, Southern California Public Radio's flagship station.

Each agreement is designated for the city where the non-profit is based, except for ProPublica, which will partner with all ten NBC Owned Television Stations sites. The partnerships will begin immediately.

NBC said the new arrangements are modeled after a partnership between an NBC-owned television station in San Diego and voicesofsandiego.org, a six-year old non-profit news organization providing news regarding the San Diego-area.

Over the last several months, we've made significant investments in our 10 stations to boost our news gathering capabilities and deliver the best local news and information in the marketplace, Valari Staab, President of NBC Owned Television Stations said in a statement.

Our new partnerships will complement these efforts, giving us even more resources to enterprise stories that are important to our viewers in the communities we serve and helping us offer even more diverse programming and viewpoints, Staab continued. They will also offer an even larger platform for these non-profit news organizations to have their independent and diverse voices heard.

NBC Owned Television Stations is a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, which is jointly owned by General Electric and Comcast. The company owns stations in the San Francisco Bay Area, Dallas-Fort Worth area, Washington D.C., Miami and Connecticut, in addition to the areas mentioned previously.

Editor's Note: This story has been updated to clarify that three, instead of all, of the agreements are designated for the city where the non-profit is based. ProPublica will partner with all ten NBC Owned Television Stations sites.