National Public Radio and WGBH Boston have an agreement in principle to acquire National Public Broadcasting, LLC. Majority owned by Williams Communications, NPB is considered the leading sponsorship representative for public TV and radio stations.  The partners plan to combine NPB with NPR Corporate Sponsorship to form “a new independent non-profit company to represent sponsorship across all media for public broadcasting.” From the start, the new entity will be the largest such enterprise: it will sell sponsorships for 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; NPB Interactive (NPBi) and network representation of local station websites. The deal is expected to close by the end of October.  No terms were disclosed.

It seems a little disingenuous to call it independent (although I get the point) with NPR CEO Ken Stern taking the role of chairman of the board and Jonathan Abbott, COO and president-elect of WGBH, on the board. Robert Williams, a founder, will be CEO of the new company.  Release.