You can get Guthrie’s classic yarn on some public and commercial radio stations on Thanksgiving. (Photo: WFUV)/Creative Commons)
• Colorado Public Radio will no longer air Colorado Symphony concerts due to a disagreement over how the station would promote the ensemble. Sean Nethery, senior v.p. of programming at the network, told CPR reporters that “the Colorado Symphony was making requests that would have let an outside organization influence editorial and promotional content.” The disagreement ends a 15-year relationship.
• Public Radio International recently named David Beard the first executive editor for its website, and the new hire talks with Poynter about what the job will entail. Beard hopes to build audience by finding new ways to drive traffic without depending on what he calls “hour-by-hour obeisance to Facebook.” PRI’s site currently aggregates stories from its programs, including The World and Science Friday.
• Another digital news chief, Kinsey Wilson, has landed at the New York Times as its first editor for strategy and innovation. Writing for Nieman Lab, Ken Doctor breaks down how the former NPR exec will fit into the Times’s evolving newsroom. “He understands deeply the all-important roles of technology and of partnership in driving all news businesses forward,” Doctor writes. “In those respects, he can be [Executive Editor Dean] Baquet’s trusted ambassador — the two have known each other for a long time — to worlds not immediately intuitive to Baquet, a master journalist and editor, but one who hasn’t gone digital.”
• Change is also coming to Voice of San Diego, the nonprofit news website that will soon be 10 years old. To coincide with the anniversary, the site announced Monday that it will shift priorities in an effort to improve its coverage. Starting in February, “we’re going to emphasize the most compelling stories and get rid of some of the practices that have often led us to produce work without the impact, reach and legacy that we want,” writes CEO Scott Lewis. As part of the change, Lewis will take on the title of editor in chief in addition to CEO, and Mary Walter-Brown, now VP, will become COO/publisher.
• And for the holiday, check out Radio Survivor’s roundup of radio stations playing “Alice’s Restaurant,” the Arlo Guthrie classic. Enjoy your Thanksgiving!