Public Broadcaster Is to Sell Current, a Trade Publication

Current, the newspaper that has covered the public broadcasting business every two weeks for three decades, is leaving the hands of its longtime owner, WNET.org, the New York City public broadcaster. The board of WNET.org last week approved an agreement to sell Current to the American University School of Communication, whose board has also approved the move.

The change is expected to take place in the new year, once a final contract is signed. The trade publication, which is based outside Washington, was founded in 1980 by the National Association of Educational Broadcasters, but in 1982 it shifted to the Educational Broadcasting Corporation, the forerunner of WNET. American University Dean and former Benton Foundation President Larry Kirkman said the school had “become a laboratory for the future of public media,” helped by initiatives like the Center for Social Media and the Investigative Reporting Workshop, which produces for PBS’s “Frontline.” He added that he hoped students would become more engaged with public media with Current at the university.