Founded in 1996 by Dan Haug, Public News Service (publicnewsservice.org) came into being to help local newsrooms and radio stations get high-quality reporting on issues that affect everyday life, even when those outlets didn’t have the staff or budget to cover everything themselves. The idea was to produce ready-to-use stories and audio segments that could be shared with media outlets across different states, making public-interest reporting easier to publish and broadcast. Today, Public News Service operates as a nonprofit news service (commonly described as operating under a nonprofit structure connected to Media in the Public Interest), so it is not owned by a private individual or corporation and is instead run by its leadership and governance. Today, Public News Service mainly covers public-policy and community news, such as health care, the environment, education, jobs and the economy, housing, criminal justice, and state and federal government decisions. It generally does not focus on sports or entertainment coverage. Public News Service is based in the United States (often associated with Boulder, Colorado) and publishes and distributes stories with a strong state-by-state focus for audiences across the country. One interesting fact: Public News Service isn’t just a website—many of its stories are produced as short, ready-to-air audio reports that local radio stations can broadcast, which is different from how most online news outlets work.