ST. LOUIS, Mo. & SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Feb. 14, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Missouri Foundation for Health (MFH) and KFF (the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation) have entered into a new long-term partnership to establish a KHN (Kaiser Health News) Midwest Bureau, based in St. Louis, Missouri.  KFF – the trusted source of health policy information – produces health policy analysis, polling, and journalism, and KHN is its national health and health policy newsroom, producing in-depth news coverage of health care policy and politics. An editorially independent program of KFF, KHN’s more than 50 journalists are mostly based in KFF’s Washington, D.C. offices or in California.

With support from MFH, KHN will expand its editorial staff and build a team of journalists based in St. Louis who, working with freelancers, will produce coverage throughout the region. The goal is to bring the same high-quality health and health policy journalism that KHN produces nationally to the region and to bring important stories from the Midwest Bureau to the nation.  As with all its journalism, KHN stories produced from the Midwest Bureau will be made freely available for publication by media outlets throughout the region and the country and will be published on  khn.org  and distributed through KHN’s social media platforms.

“This partnership continues and expands Missouri Foundation for Health’s commitment to health journalism,” said Robert Hughes, president and CEO of Missouri Foundation for Health. “This exciting new venture will provide the local health journalism Missourians need to understand and navigate the changing landscape of health, the health industry, and health politics. I’m looking forward to seeing more stories reported out of the Midwest Bureau receive the national attention they deserve.” 

“We are thrilled that Missouri Foundation for Health is making it possible for us to bring KHN to the Midwest and to create a new engine for health journalism based in St. Louis,” said KFF president and CEO Drew Altman, who is also KHN’s founding publisher. “Next we hope to expand in other important regions such as the South and the Mountain states,” Altman added. 

“The ongoing crisis in local journalism’s business model has left many communities with few or no trusted sources of news about a wide range of issues, including health,” said KFF vice president and executive director of Media and Technology, David Rousseau, KHN’s Publisher. “We are excited to be working with Missouri Foundation for Health to extend the KHN model of nonprofit journalism to the Midwest and are confident that both the region and the nation will benefit from this increased coverage.”

Media organizations interested in working with KHN should contact KHN at  KHNPartnerships@kff.org  and those interested in joining our efforts to expand and improve health journalism in the Midwest and beyond should contact KFF at  healthjournalism@kff.org .  Employment opportunities for the Midwest Bureau will be posted soon at  https://www.kff.org/employment-opportunities/ .

For more on the partners, visit Missouri Foundation for Health at  www.mffh.org , Kaiser Family Foundation at  www.kff.org , and Kaiser Health News at  www.khn.org .

ABOUT MISSOURI FOUNDATION FOR HEALTH

Missouri Foundation for Health is a resource for the region, working with communities and nonprofits to generate and accelerate positive changes in health. As a catalyst for change, the Foundation improves the health of Missourians through partnership, experience, knowledge, and funding. To learn more please visit  mffh.org .

Filling the need for trusted information on national health issues,  the Kaiser Family Foundation is a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California.

Rakesh Singh Kaiser Family Foundation (650) 854-9400 rsingh@kff.org