A new grant allows PBS’s “Frontline” to expand into a year-round series with a fresh infusion of magazine-style episodes.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting said on Tuesday that it was giving “Frontline” a $6 million, two-year grant that would allow it to expand its investigative programming to a year-round schedule on PBS stations.

The money, plus an additional $1.6 million that is still being raised, will pay for seven to eight new programs each year, so the 28-year-old show will no longer have to take a summer hiatus. The expansion was announced in Austin, Tex., at PBS’s annual meeting.

The corporation’s investment was “brought on by the recognition that there’s a crisis in journalism and there’s a real call for public media to step up,” David Fanning, the executive producer of “Frontline,” said in a telephone interview before the announcement. “The summer hiatus did stop us from doing certain stories,” he added.

The new episodes, interspersed throughout the year, will include three stories an hour, not the usual hourlong “Frontline” investigations. “With shorter pieces, you don’t have the high bar of having to justify a full budget,” Mr. Fanning said.

The shorter pieces will also have a quicker turnaround, so the program “can jump into a moving story,” like the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, he said. The time will also be used for following up traditional “Frontline” investigations. Now, he said, once a documentary is finished, the reporting on the topic ends, and “we don’t want to do that anymore.”

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This is fantastic news. Frontline is superb week in and week out. If you are not familiar with it go to PBS’ website. Their Frontline documentary archives are extensive.