Quick Takes

Study backing subsidies for local journalism calls for sweeping pubcasting reform

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Another report on the future of American journalism takes aim at public broadcasting for failing to develop the local news gathering capacity that would enable it to deliver on its mission to inform the public.The study, distilled over the weekend by David Carr of the New York Times, Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post, and Poynter’s Rick Edmonds, recommends a new mechanism for supporting local journalism and calls for an overhaul in how resources are allocated within public broadcasting. Leonard Downie, former executive editor of the Washington Post, and co-author Michael Schudson of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism collaborated on “The Reconstruction of Local Journalism,” commissioned by the j-school.After surveying the field for news chops and innovative thinking, Downie and Schudson conclude that too much of the money spent on public broadcasting is directed to maintaining local television and radio stations and not enough to independent news reporting. “Overall…, local news coverage remains underfunded, understaffed and a low priority at most public radio and television stations, whose leaders have been unable to make or uninterested in making the case for investment in local news to donors and Congress,” they write.They find exceptions at big pubcasters operating multiple outlets–San Francisco’s KQED-TV/FM and Minnesota Public Radio and its California cousin KPCC in Pasadena–and with NPR’s new Argo Project. But they also point to the “often dysfunctional, entrenched culture” of public TV and the recommendations of Tom Bettag, longtime producer of Nightline with Ted Koppel, whose study on creation of a Web-based public news site for public TV and radio has yet to be released by PBS.Pubcasting’s failure has as much to do with inadequate federal funding as it does with the allocation of the money that is available from the government and private donors, the co-authors say. They call for several reforms at CPB, including requirements of local news reporting by every publicly funded station.

Quick Takes

Low-power FM bill headed to House floor

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The House Energy Commerce Committee yesterday unanimously approved the Local Community Radio Act of 2009, a bill revising channel spacing requirements in the licensing of new low-power FM stations. H.R. 1147, expected to be taken up quickly by the full House, eliminates third adjacent channel protections for full-power broadcasters with one exception: LPFMs cannot be licensed within three channel spaces of noncommercial full-power FM stations that operate radio reading services, nor can they be adjacent to their FM translators and boosters. Other provisions in the legislation lay out new procedures for dealing with interference complaints and order the FCC to address concerns about potential interference between LPFMs and FM translators of full-power broadcasters.

Quick Takes

PMD set to launch redesigned pubmedia site

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Public Media Digest has announced a redesign of the now privately owned website. Keith York of KPBS in San Diego and Garry Denny of Wisconsin Public Television took over the public media news site after CPB and the Public Television Programmers Association dropped support, Denny told Current. The new site will feature improved video capacity along with Flash and multimedia advertising; future plans include live chat and video conferencing. Four contributors write or report PMD’s blogs, news coverage and Twitter. PoGo Promotions heads up sales and sponsorship.

Quick Takes

SHVERA pubcasting amendment passes House committee

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The Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act was okayed by the House Energy and Commerce Committee yesterday, Broadcasting & Cable reports. It includes an amendment by Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) that DISH Network carry public TV stations in HD; DISH has carried some local HD programming but is legally required to carry pubcasting in HD in Alaska and Hawaii only. The Association of Public Television Stations issued a statement thanking the committee and Eshoo for “ending this discriminatory behavior.” APTS had secured voluntary agreements with every major multichannel video programming distributor except DISH. Negotiations between DISH and APTS had been ongoing for three years.

Quick Takes

CPB Inspector General’s office issues report on KMBH violations

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The CPB Inspector General’s office has issued findings from its audit of KMBH (PDF) in Harlingen, Texas, that looked into the station’s compliance with grant rules and examined its financial documents related to CPB (Current, March 16, 2009). KMBH is linking to the report on its home page. The 30-page investigation of RGV Educational Broadcasting Inc., controlled by the Brownsville Catholic archdiocese, was for fiscal years 2007 and ’08. The report found that KMBH didn’t fully comply with requirements to: establish a community advisory board, maintain certain documents for public inspection, describe and document station policy for complying with donor list and political activities rules, establish separate accounting records for CPB grants, and exclude from nonfederal financial support reports transactions that do not qualify as contributions. In his response included in the report, Msgr.

Quick Takes

PBS rejects last minute appeal to re-edit “Obama’s War”

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The Marine Corps leaned on PBS to remove explicit imagery from Obama’s War, the Oct. 13 Frontline documentary that took viewers into Afghanistan’s Helmand province with rank and file Marines. Opening minutes of the film include a firefight in which Marine Lance Cpl. Charles S. Sharp was fatally wounded. Frontline had followed rules of embedded reporting in filming and presenting the footage, Marine Corps Col. B.F. Salas acknowledged in a letter to PBS President Paula Kerger, but he appealed to her on the basis of “journalistic good taste,” according to this column by PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler.

Quick Takes

FCC asking for responses to Berkman Center broadband policy report

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The Federal Communications Commission is seeking comments on a broadband study by Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, asking, among other items, how much weight it should be accorded as the FCC develops a broadband strategy. The 232-page draft report by the Center, which works to “explore and understand cyberspace,” is a comparative study that seeks to define what broadband is and examines how it was developed and is used in Denmark, France, Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland. From the study: “All countries we surveyed include in their approaches, strategies, or plans, a distinct target of reaching their entire population. Many of the countries we observed explicitly embrace a dual-track approach in the near future: achieving access for the entire population to first-generation broadband levels of service, and achieving access to next generation capabilities for large portions of their population, but not necessarily everyone, in the near to medium term.” Recent findings of the blue-ribbon Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy also recommended that broadband policy makers “set ambitious standards for nationwide broadband availability and adopt public policies encouraging consumer demand for broadband services.”

Quick Takes

“Unconference” PubCamp gearing up for this weekend

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More than 300 community organizers, bloggers, tech developers and pubmedia staffers are expected at the first national PublicMediaCamp (or “PubCamp”) this weekend in Washington (Current, Aug. 3). It’s a sold-out PBS-NPR initiative to “strengthen the relationship between public broadcasters and their communities through the development of collaborative projects, both online and offline,” according to a joint statement. Oct. 17 and 18 is the national kickoff, with local events then hosted by stations.

Quick Takes

“Bruising blow” in Pennsylvania from funding elimination, pubcaster says

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Pennsylvania’s pubcasters continue to react to Gov. Ed Rendell’s elimination of state money to stations. The Pennsylvania Public Television Network agency, the 40-year-old state entity that administered the funding, also was shut down. According to The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, “what’s left from what had been an $11.26 million category in the state budget is $1 million to help stations cover operating costs and $1.5 million for technology services.” Kathleen Pavelko, president and c.e.o. of WITF in Harrisburg, called it “a bruising blow.” That station’s operating grants fell from about $917,000 last year to around $114,000.

Quick Takes

NPR News app adds tune-in feature for live coverage

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An upgrade of the NPR News app for iPhone has been released for downloads from the iTunes Store. A Listen Live feature alerts users when NPR is feeding live coverage of major news events; improved audio streaming capabilities and content-sharing features are among 32 enhancements for the app. Since the NPR News app was first released on Aug. 15, it has topped 1 million downloads, and its users are generating more than 10 million page views per month, according to an NPR spokeswoman.

Quick Takes

PBS videos and games increase literacy, research shows

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A study shows the literacy skills of low-income children measurably increased after their participation in a curriculum using educational video and interactive games from PBS, according to SRI International, one of the firms that conducted the study. Nearly 400 children in 80 preschool classes in New York City and San Francisco participated. Some children learned up to 7.5 more letters than children in a comparison group during the brief, intensive curriculum. The games were from Super Why!, Between the Lions and Sesame Street, produced for PBS Kids as part of the Ready to Learn initiative. The evaluation was funded by the U.S. Department of Education and CPB, in partnership with PBS.

People

Dyson to try again for pubradio stardom

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Two daily public radio programs for African American audiences have risen from the ashes of News and Notes, a talk show that NPR cancelled in March. But acrimony over plans, funding and personalities involved in the midday programs has split the African American Public Radio Consortium, a key station constituency for any broadcast aimed at black listeners.

Quick Takes

Burns barnstorms a year-plus for National Parks

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Ken Burns’s 4-year-old daughter Olivia eats her meals atop a U.S. map so she can track her father. The documentarian has been absent from his family in Walpole, N.H., more than 200 days this year — so far. Before the broadcast of his National Parks series in late September, the last time Burns had been home to sup with Olivia was Aug. 21. He’s been on the road promoting the series, while squeezing in work on at least eight other PBS projects planned for future seasons.

Quick Takes

Nicole Childers heads content development for L.A. Public Media

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Nicole Childers, former executive producer of NPR’s News and Notes, will lead content development for the L.A. Public Media Service, a CPB-backed multimedia outlet targeting young, ethnically diverse listeners in Los Angeles. “We are in the midst of a cultural and media paradigm shift in this country and Nicole is one of those writing the story,” said Hugo Morales, executive director of Radio Bilingue, the California-based Latino radio network that is spearheading development of L.A. Public Media. “She is a world-class journalist, an African American who counts Latinos and Anglos in her family journey, and a leader with deep sensitivity and drive to serve diverse audiences.” With Childers on board, L.A. Public Media is preparing to hire a national media research firm to help design, test and develop content for the new service, which is slated to launch next year.

Quick Takes

Pennsylvania zeroes out pubcasting funds

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Gov. Ed Rendell’s signature Friday on the Pennsylvania state budget eliminated the state’s pubcasting subsidy of $11.3 million. Ramifications at the eight stations have begun: Due to the cut, PBS-39, which covers Lehigh Valley, is canceling production of its 10-year-old local issues mag, Tempo!, according to The Morning Call in Allentown. The station had previously laid off about half its staff. WQED had cut 11 staff positions in July, citing the state budget. Meanwhile, reps of the Commonwealth Foundation, a policy research group in Harrisburg, Pa., backed the governor’s decision, saying government-supported pubTV is no longer necessary due to all the choices on cable.

Quick Takes

New “Upstairs, Downstairs” coming

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The Beeb is remaking the wildly popular show on PBS in the 1970s, Upstairs, Downstairs. Stars Jean Marsh and Dame Eileen Atkins return in this version, which will be set in 1936. The original program followed the lives of both an upper-crust British family as well as their servants. The new series will air in Britain first then on PBS in 2011.

Programs/Content

It’s a beautiful day for return to Make-Believe

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In honor of its 40th anniversary on public TV, the famous Mister Rogers Neighborhood of Make-Believe set, including King Friday XIII’s castle, will be assembled for public viewing one last time, Nov. 6–8 [2009] at Pittsburgh’s WQED. Much of the large set has been warehoused …