NPR Banks $17m in Grant Money--That's a Lot of Tote Bags

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National Public Radio today will announce $17 million in grants, the lion's share of which NPR will devote to financing a new Web and mobile platform, the New York Times reported today.

Roughly $10 million in grants will go toward creating, according to NPR, a "seamless local-national listening platform." Sources for the grant money include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the John & James Knight Foundation, the Ford Foundation and the Wallace Foundation, the Times article noted.

Because the grants are for specific projects, they will not affect NPR's $6 million deficit that is expected to prompt a 10 percent staff reduction in 2014 (see "TUOL" post 9/13/13).