That wasn’t my takeaway from the article. This sounded like it would be pooled and divided up to keep as many of the small regional stations operating as possible, and they acknowledge that they won’t all make it but they want to save what they can so these pockets of the country are specifically not left to only be served by mainstream for-profit media.

The money is not aimed at PBS and NPR, better-funded national organizations that will survive without government support. Instead, the Knight Foundation and others are focused on the scores of public radio and TV stations that have historically received more than 30 percent of their support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a taxpayer-backed company that announced it would shut down because of the funding cuts. Many of those stations are in rural areas, like remote regions of Alaska and Kansas, where residents don’t have access to alternate sources of news and information.

If anyone is truly interested in seeing NPR/PBS being saved in it’s current scope and hasn’t yet read the article, I thought it was very worth the read. It’s NYT, but a gift link so you can read it all without any hassle.