WFPL in Louisville shifts priorities, triples news staff in one year

News/talk WFPL, part of Louisville Public Media, has added four reporters in the past year, "bucking a national trend that has left many news organizations with shrinking staffs amid a sluggish economy," notes the local Courier-Journal. The WFPL newsroom has tripled from just two reporters in early 2011 to six this year. Those hires reflect a shift in priorities at the organization, said Todd Mundt, outgoing Louisville Public Media v.p. and WFPL p.d. “The goal has been to make the newsroom the center of the entire operation,” he said. Louisville Public Media President Donovan Reynolds credits recent fund drives. “When we have outlined our aspirations to the community, they have responded," he said. Its last pledge drive, in October 2011, made $516,733, a 2.5 percent increase over the 2010 fall drive; the spring drive in April 2011 brought a little more than $615,000, up 22 percent over the spring 2010 campaign. “When I came in 2006 ... the station had never raised more than $180,000 [in a fund drive],” Reynolds said. “Now we are routinely raising half a million. That’s a big jump.”