Alaska Center for Excellence in Journalism Fund awards $30,000 to public media news stations
The Alaska Center for Excellence in Journalism Fund (ACEJ) at the Alaska Community Foundation has awarded two grants of $15,000 to two public media stations in Alaska, as part of its Public Media News Preservation grants initiative.
KDLL, located in Kenai, Alaska, and KYUK, located in Bethel, Alaska, were awarded the grants in order to preserve the existence of locally-produced news. Many of Alaska’s rural communities have no local news source, and a public radio news station in a regional hub community may be the closest local news source for hundreds of miles.
ACEJ’s allocation of the funds came in response to the July 2025 defunding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting by Congress. ACEJ invited Alaska public media stations with established newsrooms to apply.
“While public radio and TV are not the only media struggling to keep their local production of reliable and ethical news going, the swiftness and depth of the CPB cut caused our advisory committee to take notice and act,” said Kortnie Horazdovsky, director of the fund.
The Alaska Center for Excellence in Journalism’s mission, to support in-depth, high-impact journalism in Alaska, led the committee to fund newsrooms specifically, outside the Alaska Community Foundation’s Voices Across Alaska Fund, which has already awarded $2.9 million to Alaska’s 30+ public media stations.
“This (ACEJ) funding will directly support the sustainability and capacity of KYUK’s newsroom at a critical time for local journalism in the Y-K Delta,” wrote the station’s GM Kristin Hall in the application.
The station currently partners with Report for America for part of a full-time reporter’s salary. “This grant funding would complement that investment by helping sustain two full-time newsroom positions, ensuring we can maintain our core reporting capacity,” Hall continued. The station broadcasts its news programming in both English and Yup’ik.
KDLL’s General Manager, Jenny Neyman, similarly said the funds would support reporting efforts. The station cut its news staff from two reporters to one after the CPB cuts. The funds will go toward a part-time reporter in the Kenai Peninsula community, she said.
“Our board has committed to adding back our second news position as its first priority once
financial sustainability is reached. Until then, every dollar we're able to add to our news budget means additional coverage for our community and some breathing room for our existing full-time reporter to make sure she isn't reaching burnout,” Neyman wrote.
While these grants to public media newsrooms are helpful, they are far from covering the needs of Alaska’s far-flung and short-staffed news organizations in all media.
Please consider a gift to the Alaska Community Foundation - Alaska Center for Excellence in Journalism fund, to preserve in-depth reporting on complex and underreported topics, and to support the professional development of journalists in Alaska.
Generous support from the Atwood Foundation provided for these and other ACEJ grants and operations.
The Alaska Center for Excellence in Journalism fund is a fiscally sponsored project of the Alaska Community Foundation. The fund has granted more than $450,000 since 2019 for in-depth and arts reporting projects. The fund also supports professional development of journalists in Alaska, with more than $250,000 supporting the Alaska Press Club and nearly $75,000 in sponsoring a Legislative Reporter Exchange.
Director’s Note: Kristin Hall of KYUK is a former advisory committee member of the ACEJ fund and left the position in November 2025.
Contact:
Kortnie Horazdovsky
Director
Alaska Center for Excellence in Journalism