TAMPA, FLA. — The Charles and Margery Barancik Foundation awarded a $600,000 grant to WUSF Public Media to expand news coverage in several local counties.
The public radio station is located on the campus of the University of South Florida. WUSF Public Media plans to hire an editor and four reporters with the grant money.
The reporters will produce content for radio, TV and print. They will focus on Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto counties.
"We’re really excited that they want to make this kind of investment in the community, in people who live in the community, to provide more news, more journalism," WUSF general manager JoAnn Urofsky said.
The team of reporters will provide content for several local media outlets, including The Sarasota Herald-Tribune, the Observer Media Group, Venice Gondolier/The Daily Sun, The Bradenton Herald, Tempo News, ABC 7 WWSB, WSLR, Solmart Media, Sarasota Magazine, Sarasota Scene Magazine and West Coast Woman.
"We can do a little bit more of a deeper dive into education, environment, government, the big topics people are interested in," Urofsky said.
“Journalism is the lifeblood of a functioning democracy and a civic-minded population,” Barancik Foundation’s President and CEO Teri A. Hansen said. “Yet the economic environment faced by today’s local media is challenging their ability every day to report on community stories. We aim to address that problem head-on by adding new resources to cover important topics that affect our communities.”
The Charles and Margery Barancik Foundation is based in Sarasota and was established in 2014. Charles and Margery passed away in a car accident in 2019, but their legacy continues through the work of their foundation.
"Both of them were super passionate about kids and education, so when you think of education in the broader sense, journalism is education, really," Collaboration and Impact Officer with the Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation Matthew Sauer said. "It’s informing citizens about important things that are going on in their community that they need to know about in order to make decisions and contribute to making someplace a good place to live."
The partnership is expected to last about three years.
Urofsky said they plan to post the job positions soon. For more information on WUSF, visit their website.
