DENVER: KBDI-TV, the PBS member station serving the Mile High City, is starting an investigative news division, The Denver Post reports. KBDI’s new Colorado Public News unit will launch online and eventually produce a weekly half-hour TV show.
The Post said KBGI aims to raise $400,000 to support a staff of six people for six months on the project. So far, a local developer has donated $10,000. The station’s president and CEO told the Associated Press that the venture was a response to the dwindling amount of investigative reporting being supported by commercial media.
The beta site is already live, described as “the prototype” of Colorado Public News. It further says that the site will focus on one story each week, “and cover it using a mix of multimedia tools: online video, text reporting, photography, slide shows, audio reports and ultimately, broadcast video on Channel 12. Plus, we will have blogs, mobile applications and social media to surround the story with continued coverage and comments and suggestions from you.”
The site says CPN is just getting started, still raising funds and will publish weekly when fundraising goals are met.
KBDI’s programming has always leaned locally. PBS shows comprise only around 25 percent of the schedule each year.
