NPR's version of hyperlocal

The folks at NPR have started hiring staffers to oversee Project Argo, a collaboration with local NPR affiliates set to launch this summer.

With $3 million in seed money from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Knight Foundation, NPR will hire bloggers for two-year stints at several local stations to do beat reporting. As I understand it, the stories are supposed to enhance the coverage of the local stations while giving NPR a well of localized material to draw upon.

Here are the participating stations:

KPBS (San Diego); KPCC (Southern California); KQED (San Francisco); KALW (San Francisco); OPB (Oregon Public Broadcasting); KPLU (Tacoma/Seattle); MPR (Minnesota Public Radio); WAMU (DC); WXPN (Philadelphia) ; WNYC (New York); WBUR (Boston); and WGBH (Boston).

NPR is all about collaboration these days, so I'd expect Project Argo, if successful, to become a seed for other media partnerships in these areas.

(found via Romensko)