Public media plays a vital role serving communities with essential journalism and cultural content across broadcast and digital platforms. It is also an ecosystem in flux, facing fundamental challenges to its structure, business model, and relevance to audiences beyond the reach of its current services. The Public Media Accelerator invites mission-driven entrepreneurs to develop innovative ideas for expanding public service media. Learn more.

Applications will open Summer 2012

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Team

Corey Ford

As Director, Corey will oversee all aspects of the Public Media Accelerator. He most recently served as the director of Runway, an incubator for entrepreneurs at Innovation Endeavors, an early stage venture capital firm in Palo Alto. Prior to that, he taught design thinking innovation at the Institute of Design at Stanford University. Corey began his career in public broadcasting managing the production of 17 films for the PBS/WGBH series FRONTLINE, earning an Emmy and a duPont-Columbia Gold Baton Award. More about Corey.

Jake Shapiro

Jake is founding CEO of PRX, the award-winning public media network managing the Public Media Accelerator within a portfolio of content, distribution, and leadership services. Jake is an Ashoka Fellow, former Associate Director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard, and an advisor to a variety of media organizations, funders, and Internet startups.

John Bracken

John is Director of Media Innovation at Knight Foundation. John previously served as a program officer at the MacArthur Foundation, where he managed investments in technology and innovation, public media and global Internet freedom, and worked to strengthen nonprofit start-ups. He also has worked with the Ford Foundation in its media policy and journalism portfolios.

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Blog

Accelerating the Public Media Accelerator on #wjchat

[View the story "Accelerating The Public Media Accelerator on #wjchat" on Storify]

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Corey Ford announced as Director, Public Media Accelerator

We are super excited to announce that Corey Ford is joining us as Director of the Public Media Accelerator, starting in April 2012. Full press release here below. One of the Accelerator’s main goals is to be a magnet for new talent, particularly mission-driven entrepreneurs with the vision to “change media for good”. We’re off [...]

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What is Public Media Accelerator?

The Public Media Accelerator is targeted at strategic innovation, identifying and accelerating ideas with the potential to transform the field. Modeled on mentorship-driven technology startup accelerators, the Public Media Accelerator will invest in both nonprofit and for-profit ventures building apps, services and media products. Successful projects will be showcased to additional funders and investors, and receive support through a partner, mentor and sponsor network.

Knight Foundation is partnering with PRX - an award-winning public media company with the expertise, standing, and capacity to lead the effort. PRX will actively guide, consult and support the selected Accelerator projects, soliciting input from a hand-picked group of advisors and mentors including stakeholders and media innovators. PRX is a Knight News Challenge winner, as well as the recipient of a Peabody Award, a Webby Award, and the MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions.

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