Quick Takes

PBS dominates Daytime Emmy nominations

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PBS leads the network pack in Daytime Emmy nods, announced today in Los Angeles by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. PBS has 56; ABC, 50; syndicated programming, 49; CBS, 30; and NBC, 20. Included are PBS nominations for Sid the Science Kid, Gourmet’s Diary of a Foodie, Equitrekking, This Old House and Mama Mirabelle’s Home Movies. Also, Sesame Street will receive a special Lifetime Achievement Award for its 40 years on the air. See a complete list of nominations here.

Quick Takes

To succeed amidst disruption of traditional media, think about ‘cannibalizing yourself’

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Now is the time for NPR to think about “becoming our own disruptor,” said President Vivian Schiller during a webinar on how media companies can and must adapt to the dissolution of their traditional business models.During a one-hour talk and Q&A hosted today by the Microsoft-sponsored blog FASTforward, Schiller pointed to the big audience gains that NPR booked last fall as the reason for an aggressive push into the digital media sphere–“this is exactly the time you’ve got to think about cannibalizing yourself”–and said it’s no longer good enough for NPR.org to be a companion to the NPR radio news service. “NPR.org has got to be a destination in its own right, and be designed for people who are interested in the values our radio service represents in the online space,” Schiller said. By pairing NPR’s national and international newsgathering capacity with the editorial capabilities and listener relationships of local stations, public radio can create a “network of digital properties” that will have deep local connections, she said.Another featured speaker was media change consultant and author Scott Anthony, who differed with Schiller on the importance that news consumers will place on quality. Media companies have to recognize that “quality is a relative term” and ease of use and simplicity are valuable attributes in digital media, he said.Fast Forward has posted audio from the one-hour session and is hosting continued discussion.

Quick Takes

Gates receives Ralph Lowell Award

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Filmmaker Henry Louis Gates is the latest recipient of the Ralph Lowell Award from CPB. Gates was presented with the honor, pubTV’s most prestigious, Wednesday evening at the PBS Showcase in Baltimore. His body of work for the network includes Wonders of the African World, America Beyond the Color Line, and Looking for Lincoln. He made news in 2006 and ’08 when he hosted and co-produced African American Lives and African American Lives 2, in which he uses DNA testing to track the lineage of notable African-Americans. His next project was previewed at PBS Showcase: Faces of America, which will follow the ancestry of two Jewish-Americans, two Arab-Americans, two Latino-Americans, two Asian-Americans, two West Indian-Americans, two Irish Americans and an Italian-American.

Quick Takes

Copps calls for idea to support PBS

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Acting FCC Chair Michael Copps thinks America needs ways to address market failures in media businesses. “For example, should we find a way adequately to fund PBS or some other group that is actually interested in doing the job?” In a speech before the “Free Press Summit: Changing Media,” today at the Newseum, he also said that perhaps that would be “a PBS-S, Public Broadcasting System on Steroids. That can’t be done on the cheap, and we’ll hear laments that there’s not a lot of extra cash floating around these days. But other nations find ways to support such things.

Quick Takes

Different reactions to WBAI staff changes

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There’s been a “changing of the guard” at New York’s WBAI, the Pacifica station that has been hemoraging money for years. General Manager Tony Riddle was offered a reassignment and Program Director Bernard White was escorted out of the building on Friday, the New York Daily News reported. “This is a termination,” White wrote in a letter to his supporters. Steve Brown, a member of the WBAI local station board, told the Daily News that the changes are intended to revive the station, but White’s supporters see it differently. An alternative view from Berkeley, Calif., home to the Pacifica Foundation that owns WBAI and Pacifica community radio stations in four additional markets, comes from former KPFA listener board chair Richard Phelps, who has either attended or listened online to many Pacifica National Board meetings.

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DOE official lauds PBS

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Jim Shelton is not only the Assistant Deputy Secretary of the Department of Education’s Office of Innovation and Improvement. He’s also, as he told a ballroom full of pubcasters at the PBS Showcase, “one of millions and millions of parents” who entrust their children to the network. “There is no place I’d rather send my son than PBS,” he said of his 6-year-old. “PBS has the opportunity to be the most effective, trusted brand in education in the country. To be transformative for our children, young adults, and adults in transition in particular.

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Incoming CPB innovator eyes video games

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Joaquin Alvarado, who joins CPB on June 30 as senior v.p. for diversity and innovation, led a wide-ranging, fast-moving discussion on “Public Service Media 2.0” at Wednesday’s PBS Showcase. One issue: Pubcasting, he said, is “woefully absent” from the conversation about the educational possibilities of video games. “We have all these kids at the console spending four, five hours a day playing games. How do we use that as an opportunity to address challenges in education?” Alvarado cited as an example the nonprofit Games for Change, which, according to its website, “seeks to harness the extraordinary power of video games to address the most pressing issues of our day, including poverty, human rights, global conflict and climate change.”

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APTS updates Showcase participants

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At PBS Showcase yesterday, APTS President Larry Sidman joked that there was scant coverage — OK, none — of his first 100 days in office. But he was busy indeed, and will continue to be during the coming months. Sidman and his legislative team updated pubcasters on the lobbying group’s ongoing efforts on Capitol Hill. “We feel our job is to try to get access to as much federal funding for stations as we possibly can,” Sidman said, because all stations are suffering shortfalls in “almost every nonfederal funding source.” The group also is trying to assist individual stations that aspire to stimulus grants.

Quick Takes

Classic Sesame album returning

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Next week Sesame Workshop and partner KOCH Records will re-release on CD “Sesame Street: Silly Songs,” a classic album currently out of print. Remember these? “Monster in the Mirror,” “Captain Vegetable” and “The Honker-Duckie-Dinger Jamboree.” Should be in stores around May 19.

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PBS Showcases kids’ lineup

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A performance by Mr. Steve, who sang of how sad the world would be without PBS kids’ shows, kicked off a preview of programming for younger viewers today at the PBS Showcase in Baltimore. One project sure to generate news is a two-part episode of Arthur set to air in October that will tackle the subject of cancer. An animated Lance Armstrong appears to talk about his battle with the disease and the program was developed in partnership with his foundation. Then there’s The Cat in the Hat Knows All About That, voiced by actor Martin Short, the first time the classic story will appear as an animated series. (However, Time magazine’s Tuned In columnist is dubious about that.) Over the coming months four “stunts” are aimed to draw not only the younger audience but also press attention as well.

Quick Takes

Outrage over NPR’s unwillingness to name names

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NPR is being accused of hypocrisy in its coverage of Outrage, a documentary about closeted politicians who support anti-gay legislation. Film critic Nathan Lee, who reviewed the film on Friday, objected when NPR scrubbed his references to two Republican pols profiled in the movie. Lee asked that his name be taken off of the review, IndieWire reported yesterday. NPR’s Dick Meyer explained the decision by citing a “long-held policy” of respecting the privacy of public figures and “not airing or publishing rumors, allegations and reports about their private lives unless there is a compelling reason to do so.” But bloggers at Movieline took some delight in pointing to recent NPR stories as evidence that the rule only applies to politicians. Their examples: last month’s Monkey See blog posting by Linda Holmes, who poked fun at the mainstream media’s speculation over the sexuality of American Idol frontrunner Adam Lambert; and, a November 2008 Tell Me More segment discussing whether Queen Latifah would come out as a lesbian.

Quick Takes

Ford invests $1 million in EDCAR service for classrooms

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PBS has received a $1 million Ford Foundation grant to support the development of EDCAR, public TV’s planned online repository of short instructional videos and other “learning objects” for classroom use, net execs said in the kickoff of its Showcase conference in Baltimore today. In an EDCAR pilot, stations have begun loading instructional resources into the online system, which shares a back-end infrastructure with the PBS Video Portal launched in April. More on this in this week’s Current and in coming days on this blog. Earlier EDCAR story.

Quick Takes

More cable channel change woes

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Time Warner cable customers in York, Maine, are peeved that two Boston television stations, including WGBH, have been dropped from their familiar spots on the cable channel lineup. Town Manager Rob Yandow said he’s been receiving calls and emails from upset residents, and has been given a petition with 15 names asking that the lineup be restored. Yandow said he contacted Time Warner to no avail. “I’ve had a number of conversations with Time Warner, it’s a business decision,” he said. “It’s somewhat firm, it’s a business decision they made.”

Quick Takes

NPR Members meeting goes electronic

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NPR hopes to boost participation in its annual Members Meeting by providing a forum for online participation via WebEx, the Web conferencing provider. The June 9 meeting, which convenes at 1 pm in the board room at NPR headquarters, will accommodate up to 300 registered participants. The conferencing system provides telephone connectivity, video streaming of presentations, document sharing, determination of a quorum, and interactivity such as real-time voting and comment-sharing. NPR added the option for electronic participation because so many stations and public radio organizations have had to cut their travel budgets, according to Joyce Macdonald, v.p. of member and program services. The remote conferencing capabilities give NPR a shot at convening a quorum of authorized representatives for the first time since 2003, she said.

Quick Takes

More news on upcoming PBS NewsHour

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Here’s a transcript of NewsHour e.p. Linda Winslow’s remarks at PBS Showcase detailing the many changes coming to the show in the fall. One nugget: “Today we are announcing that we are creating a new correspondent position, which we are calling our ‘Face of the Internet.’ We’re looking for an experienced journalist with solid broadcast credentials who is comfortable with both new media and the more traditional kind. The assignment will be to link our nightly broadcast with our online news operation.”

Quick Takes

Kerger addresses membership criteria

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PBS chief Paula Kerger, in her State of the System address to pubcasters at the PBS Showcase yesterday, touched on the ongoing controversy surrounding changes in critieria for PBS membership. “The Station Services Committee is still reviewing criteria for PBS membership and will issue its recommendations in this area soon,” she told the crowd in Baltimore. “As I stated during our GM Planning Meeting earlier today, I recognize that some of these changes will be painful for some of your stations. But I believe they will help our system to achieve greater equity and ensure our membership policies better reflect the realities of the digital era in which we live.” Membership discussion continues over “the three nons,” and PDP stations are lamenting new rules for fundraising programming.

Quick Takes

A bright future for WBGH mural

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WGBH’s digital mural is back. “We are just very, very happy,” said WGBH spokeswoman Lucy Sholley. This is a tale of a 30-by-45 foot LED display, a technical glitch, lawsuits, “insufficient ventilation,” and, finally, a happy ending starring Curious George, all told by The Boston Globe.

Quick Takes

A new NewsHour coming

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Big changes at NewsHour. No, the rumors aren’t true: Jim Lehrer isn’t stepping down. Not exactly. What will happen is he’ll have a co-anchor. That spot will rotate among Gwen Ifill, Judy Woodruff and Jeffrey Brown, all currently with the show.

Quick Takes

PBS hopes to grow news content with cross-pollination

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Ever pondered the possibilities of news shows on PBS such NewsHour, Nightly Business Report and Frontline co-mingling resources and cooperating to produce content? That was a “what if” question posed to PBS’s John Wilson at today’s PTPA meeting in Baltimore. Wilson, the network’s senior veep and chief TV programming executive, hinted that the concept is being eyed. Wilson said that through a Pew grant, the network has hired Tom Bettag, a former producer for ABC’s Nightline and the innovative pubTV series Life 360. Bettag “has been meeting with news and public affairs producers and trying to get at how to integrate, cross-promote and cross-pollinate among the series in a way that will make more sense to the consumer.”

Quick Takes

TV critic optimistic about pubTV fall shows

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Baltimore Sun TV critic David Zurawik predicts a strong fall pubTV lineup, despite ongoing funding problems. ” … Even in this time of downsizing in media from newspapers to network TV, the people who run the nation’s only free TV service can celebrate a fall lineup as promising as any the commercial networks will show at their previews next week in New York, he writes in today’s paper. PBS Showcase runs today through Thursday in Baltimore, with the Public Television Programmers’ Association also meeting there today.