Acquisition made to power sponsors for public TV and radio.

Public media companies NPR and WGBH Boston have made an offer to acquire National Public Broadcasting, LLC (NPB), a leading multi-market sponsorship representative for public television and radio stations.

The offer has been accepted in principle by Williams Communications, Inc., majority owner of NPB.

Combining NPB with NPR Corporate Sponsorship, NPR and WGBH will form a new independent nonprofit organization to represent sponsorship across all media for public broadcasting. This new entity will become the largest and most comprehensive representative for national and local public radio, television and multimedia.

Robert Williams, who founded NPB in 1997 with his partner Linda Williams and has served as its chief executive officer, will retain that role with the new company. Ken Stern, chief executive officer of NPR, will additionally assume the chairmanship of the board of this new entity; Jonathan Abbott, chief operating officer and president-elect of WGBH, will also serve on the new board.

"Every company founder wants to see his company succeed long-term, and this is the best outcome we could have imagined. We are delighted that these two powerful institutions have chosen to make NPB a central strategic asset for an expansion of the sponsorship efforts of the public broadcasting community," said Williams.

"Public radio and television hold a critical role in American life, and our rapidly-growing audiences trust and support the companies that support our public service mission. With the rapid growth of audience throughout public broadcasting and the expansion of media platforms we serve, this new organization will provide greater resources to fully, actively represent our shared assets," he said via a written statement.

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According to Abbott, "As the multimedia landscape evolves, WGBH sees this new company as a critical resource to helping public media grow at both the local and national levels. WGBH has been involved with NPB since its inception, and believes in the potential of the NPB team to continue to be essential to public broadcasting."

The transaction, which is expected to be completed by the end of October, will provide the nucleus of the new company that will represent all areas of public media for sponsorship. This includes all NPR programming--including Morning Edition, All Things Considered and Fresh Air--and NPR.org, multi-market sponsorship for 60 television stations and 120 radio stations, national sponsorship of "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," PBS.org, the National Public Broadcasting interactive (NPBi) and network representation of local station Web sites.