(Buffalo, NY) –– WNED-AM 970 (94.5/HD2) recently hired a full-time reporter, Daniel Robison, who will participate in a new Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) initiative designed to foster multi-media, regional news reporting.
Through this groundbreaking approach, teams of journalists in seven areas across the nation will produce in-depth content on regionally relevant issues. WNED-AM 970 is part of the Upstate New York Local Journalism Center (LJC), focusing on “The Innovation Trail.”

Robison will cover the local “innovation economy,” including:

• innovation and technology (and their economic impact);
• investments in research and technology;
• technologies resulting from collaborations between higher education and medical institutions;
• efforts to transition from a manufacturing base to a knowledge economy.

The Upstate Center’s other participating stations (WXXI Rochester, WMHT Schenectady, WRVO Oswego and WSKG Binghamton) have hired journalists to do the same.

All stations will work together to produce regional reports for dissemination via radio, television and various digital platforms (online, social media and mobile). An Innovation Trail web site will be developed to provide in-depth resources and expand the news stories generated.

In addition, each station will foster public engagement forums, such as roundtable discussions and talk shows, to further highlight issues and invite community dialogue.

“Even as digital technologies and the Internet make the wider world more accessible, attention to local issues is declining,” said WNED-AM Station Manager & Director of News and Public Affairs Jim Ranney. “This initiative will enhance our local reporting ability and allow reporters to move beyond traditional media to provide in-depth coverage with a high degree of community engagement and involvement.”

Robison sees his role as covering “ground zero” of the Buffalo/Niagara region’s transition to a knowledge-based economy. “I will try to put a face on that story – and the direction the city is going,” he said. He plans to cover both the major players and the small start-up businesses, following their trials, errors and successes.

The Louisville, Ky. native holds a master’s degree in journalism from Indiana University. He served as assistant news director for WFIU in Bloomington, Ind. for two years.

“Daniel brings great enthusiasm to the Innovation Trail project. He is an award winning public radio journalist with strong writing, reporting and story-telling skills. We are happy to welcome him to Buffalo and WNED,” said Ranney.

Across the nation, the CPB and all participating stations will devote about $10.5 million to this effort over two years, with the expectation that each Center will then become self-sustaining. The CPB is a private, nonprofit corporation that oversees the federal government’s investment in public broadcasting.