Supporters of public media on Capitol Hill and beyond are scrambling to find solutions to address a fiscal cliff that public media is staring down this fall following cuts directed by President Trump and executed by his allies in Congress.

Senators on both sides of the aisle say they were working to protect local stations after Congress cut funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the government-funded body that said it will shut down as a result.

At the same time, public media leaders are looking for ways to blunt the blow for stations most at risk, but have warned that filling the gaps could be next to impossible.

“Nobody can replace $600 million a year,” Tim Isgitt, CEO of the Public Media Company, said Tuesday. “CPB was the largest funder of local news and information in this country, and no, philanthropy can’t make up that gap.”

Isgitt’s organization is the driving force behind a philanthropic effort, known as the Public Media Bridge Fund, which has raised more than $26 million for stations at risk of shuttering in wake of the CPB cuts.

“For these at-risk stations, CPB typically sends about $55 million a year, just to these 115 that we've identified,” Isgitt told The Hill. He said the goal is to raise about $100 million over two years to help cover that gap for these stations, while exploring ways for them to become “more sustainable over time,” including finding other sources of revenue or reducing expenditures.

In total, a group of philanthropic organizations including The Knight Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Schmidt Family Foundation, all longtime backers of public media, pledged to commit nearly $37 million this week to provide immediate relief to public media stations at risk of closure following federal funding cuts.

“Local public media stations are trusted community anchors that connect people to vital news, culture and civic life,” Maribel Pérez Wadsworth, president and CEO of Knight Foundation said in a statement. “This is an urgent moment that calls for bold action.”

Public broadcasting stations have also seen a boost in donations in response to the cuts, with reports showing tens of millions of dollars in increased support in recent months.

But advocates for public media say much more is needed to fill a more than $500 million hole for the coming fiscal year. Some say the void left by the closure of local public media stations would pose a risk to public........

© The Hill