Quick Takes

More reactions to the shake up at NPR News

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The exit of Ellen Weiss as NPR’s top news exec — a departure linked to the hasty and controversial firing of long-time news analyst Juan Williams — stirred up lots of opinion last week. Here’s a sampling: NPR Ombudsman Alicia Shepard: “Any damage that Williams may have caused NPR with his occasional intemperate remarks on Fox — which was definitely a problem for NPR —was infinitesimal to the damage NPR management did to the company with its ungracious firing.”David Carr of the New York Times: The entire incident leaves NPR President Vivian Schiller “leading a divided organization into a critical budget battle.”James Rainey of the Los Angeles Times: “NPR would be wise to do more than just give lip service to some of the reforms it proposed Thursday.” Kelly McBride, ethics expert at the Poynter Institute: NPR isn’t the only organization struggling with outdated standards and a star system rife with conflicts. John Sutton, public radio marketing consultant: It was Ellen Weiss who led “one of the most significant steps in public radio’s growth as a national news outlet,” the 1995 expansion of All Things Considered.

Quick Takes

Head of Bay Area Video Coaltion departing for upcoming project

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Ken Ikeda, executive director of the Bay Area Video Coalition, is departing after four years. “I was presented with an opportunity to help build a new organization and considering its objectives, it was something I couldn’t walk away from,” he said in an online exit interview. “I wish I could share more but I can’t right now. It’ll be public shortly, and in the end what I’ll be doing is not far from the work we do at BAVC.” The coalition is a pubmedia pioneer; it’s going strong after 35 years.

Quick Takes

Who are the lapsed pubTV members? TRAC knows.

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TRAC Media Service’s primer on “Everything You Should Know About Your Members” was first up today (Jan. 11) in its pre-NETA development workshop in Nashville. Kristen Keubler, director of station research for TRAC, fleshed out its continually updated 2001-03 survey of lapsed pubTV members and talked about the good news (many are longtime, enthusiastic viewers and have “formed a quasi-human relationship” with their station) and bad news (there are “practically no new adult viewers. Everybody has sooner or later sampled the station’s programming and decided to view or not to view”). Fear not: There are strategies that work to better connect with local viewers, and bring them along as members. Encourage e-mail and website interaction.

Quick Takes

Stay tuned for NETA conference coverage

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Greetings from chilly Nashville, where even the Loews Vanderbilt Hotel lions need coats. Current is here to cover the annual NETA conference, and will be blogging (and photographing) the action through Thursday (Jan. 13). If you’re here, stop by Current’s Lucky No. 13 table to say hi and pick up a homemade brownie – and find out why they’re called “Darwinians.”

Development

Into the gig economy

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The author is president of Western Reserve Public Media (WNEO/ WEAO), which serves Akron, Youngstown and Kent in northeast Ohio. Right after I finished reading Barbara Cochran’s paper for the Knight Commission, “Rethinking Public Media: More Local, More Inclusive, More Interactive,” the phone rang. The 1990s called, and they want their White Paper back. Public television has been local, inclusive and interactive since its inception. No doubt there is always room to be “more,” but getting there by building up staff and tinkering with governance structure is a repeat of the past and will lead to more reliance on taxpayer support from state and federal sources that cannot or will not provide it.

Programs/Content

For LPFMers, radio act brings ‘a ton of joy’

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Low-power FM advocates are celebrating a hard-won victory with enactment of the Local Community Radio Act, approved in the last days of the 111th Congress and signed Jan. 4 by President Obama. The law clears the way for expansion of low-power FM stations, a noncommercial licensing category established by the FCC a decade ago but confined to small markets and rural communities by interference-protection rules demanded by full-power broadcasters. Their transmitter power is limited to 100 watts, reaching from three to five miles. Approved with bipartisan support in both houses of Congress, the law gives the FCC more flexibility in assigning channels to LPFMs and resolving interference problems with full-power FMs and their translators.

Quick Takes

Who needs mini-pies when you have PBS’s programs?

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No, PBS didn’t give each writer at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour a mini-pie like HBO did. But at least one critic was more impressed with the network’s actual programming. Todd VanDerWerff writes in today’s (Jan. 10) AV Club that “the kind of arts, news, and science programming PBS offers just doesn’t pop up anywhere else. What other network would air Frontline?

Quick Takes

NPR news head apologizes for network report that Arizona congresswoman had died

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In an editor’s note on NPR.org, Dick Meyer, executive editor of NPR News, said the network committed a “serious and grave error” when it reported that U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords had been shot to death in Tucson, Ariz.In its 2:01 p.m. Eastern broadcast on Saturday (Jan. 8), NPR informed listeners that Giffords was dead. That erroneous news also was posted on NPR.org, and sent as an e-mail news alert to subscribers. But Giffords had survived the shooting, which happened at a mall during a public appearance, and remained hospitalized Sunday night in critical condition after neurosurgery.”The information we reported came from two different governmental sources, including a source in the Pima County Sheriff’s Department,” Meyer said. “Nonetheless, in a situation so chaotic and changing so swiftly, we should have been more cautious.”He said that corrections were issued within minutes, along with “properly updated reports.”

Quick Takes

“PBS NewsHour” touts its calm, reasoned approach to the news

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Emphasizing its non-ideological news coverage, PBS Newshour tried out a new catch phrase Jan. 9 during the Television Critics Association press tour in Pasadena: “Brave enough not to take sides, strong enough not to shout.” “We haven’t actually used it before today and we thought it might be a good opportunity to kind of roll that out,” said Simon Marks, president of MacNeil/Lehrer Productions. Marks said that slogan survived scrutiny while others didn’t. “At one point, we were looking at ‘The original no-spin zone,’ but we decided not to go there.”

Quick Takes

“Masterpiece” is reaching out to enthusiastic fans in two new and unique ways

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Now, fans of Masterpiece can become part of the series that’s celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. They can join a special trust to help directly fund the program, or literally retrace the footsteps of Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple and other characters.Executive Producer Rebecca Eaton (right, PBS photo) announced yesterday (Jan. 8) at the TV Critics Association Winter Press Tour in Pasadena, Calif., that a “Masterpiece Trust” has been established. That financial support — which would go directly to the show — could go toward replacing some of the funding lost when longtime sponsor ExxonMobil pulled out as of 2005. So far, four couples will be listed as part of the trust in the credits on tonight’s presentation of “Downton Abbey” (which, by the way, has been receiving rave reviews: The Los Angeles Times proclaimed the Edwardian drama “possibly the best show of the year”).The trust “is a unique way we have come up with to allow those devoted, loyal Masterpiece fans who want to give money directly to Masterpiece to continue its legacy,” Eaton said, adding that further details will be coming later this week.

Quick Takes

It’s TCA Winter Press Tour time once again …

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PBS President Paula Kerger today (Jan. 8) told the Television Critics Association crowd that she doesn’t anticipate stations to start pulling out of PBS now that KCET has done so. “I don’t see any other stations poised to go down the same path as KCET,” she said at the annual Winter Press Tour in Pasadena, Calif. “These are difficult times for all our stations. We’re particularly focused to really looking at opportunities to help our stations (financially).”More press tour pubcasting news:— PBS reunited former Laugh-In cast members Lily Tomlin, Jo Anne Worley, Ruth Buzzi (on stage, right, PBS photo) and announcer Gary Owens, along with producer George Schlatter, for its announcement that it’ll carry the legendary comedy show for spring pledge.

Quick Takes

Outcry over Weiss resignation continues

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Radio pubcasters are reacting “with shock and anger” at the departure from NPR of news chief Ellen Weiss, reports the Washington Post today (Jan. 8). “We have allowed Fox News to define the debate,” wrote Peter Block, a member of the board of Cincinnati Public Radio, on an e-mail group for public radio managers. “I do not think this kind of capitulation [by NPR] assures the future of an independent press. …

Quick Takes

So far, ratings down 50 percent at KCET

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KCET’s ratings in its first week independent of PBS are down 50 percent from the same time last year, the Los Angeles Times reports. The Los Angeles station averaged a 0.3 household rating, according to Nielsen. For primetime, an average of 22,000 viewers tuned in, as opposed to last year, when 41,000 were watching. The station is averaging just 10,000 viewers throughout the day.KCET spokesperson Cathy Williams told the paper, “We think it is much too early to evaluate the ratings, particularly since we’re coming off a holiday weekend.”

Quick Takes

After 40 years, folk-music host will hear songs meant just for him

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For 25 years, Dick Pleasants hosted the Folk Heritage show on WGBH-FM, playing countless songs from up-and-coming folkies. For the past 15 years he’s been behind the mic on WUMB-FM in Boston. And tonight (Jan. 7) he’ll be the guest of honor at “A Pleasant(s) Evening at Sanders Theater: A Tribute to Dick Pleasants from his Friends.” Folk music icon Tom Rush told the Patriot Ledger in Quincy, Mass., that Pleasants is “one of the heroes who have championed this music for decades. He’s been enormously important playing the new stuff as it has come along and keeping the old stuff out there in people’s ears.” A dozen performers will pay tribute at this evening’s show, which is sold out.

Quick Takes

IndiesLab helps “Parking Lot” find its space on iTunes

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The Independent Digital Distribution Lab — that’s IndiesLab to you — continues to help filmmakers maneuver through that great digital assortment of online platforms. Check out these details on its project with The Parking Lot Movie. The quirky doc managed to crack the Top 10 on the iTunes documentary list for three weeks straight.

Quick Takes

Former WXEL exec says station deal “violates the wishes of the community”

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Longtime pubcaster Fred Flaxman, a former vice president for development of WXEL in West Palm Beach, Fla., speaks out against the station’s recent deal with Classical South Florida in a letter to the editor of the Palm Beach Post Wednesday (Jan. 5). “The community advisory board of WXEL opposes the sale of WXEL-FM to Classical South Florida,” he writes. “As mandated by federal law, the board represents the community served by the public broadcasting station. Thus, selling to an out-of-state owner violates the wishes of the community the station serves and should not be permitted by the Federal Communications Commission, which has to approve any broadcast license transfer.”

Quick Takes

In wake of Williams’s firing, Weiss resigns as NPR News chief

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NPR News Chief Ellen Weiss resigned today as the board of directors concluded its review of the dismissal of former news analyst Juan Williams.Weiss was the news exec who dismissed Williams by telephone last October, igniting a controversy over public radio’s news values and a political attack on public broadcasting’s federal funding.NPR President Vivian Schiller, whose public remarks about Williams fueled outrage over the dismissal, retains the confidence of the NPR Board, according to a statement issued this afternoon. But the board voted to deny her 2010 bonus.The review, initiated weeks after the controversial firing, found that Williams was dismissed according to the terms of his contract. “The facts gathered during the review revealed that the termination was not the result of special interest group or donor pressure,” the board said. “However, because of concerns regarding the speed and handling of the termination process, the board additionally recommended that certain actions be taken with regard to management involved in Williams’ contract termination.”The board recommended that NPR take several steps to address issues identified during the review, which was conducted by the law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges, LLP. These include reexamining NPR’s ethics code and its policy guiding NPR journalists’ appearances on other media outlets.

Quick Takes

Rep. Lamborn reintroduces bills to end federal support of CPB, NPR

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Congressman Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) on Wednesday (Jan. 5) reintroduced two bills to defund public broadcasting. H.R. 68 would end all federal appropriations for CPB, while H.R. 69 would specifically deny federal money to NPR. Both would take place after fiscal year 2013.“While I like much of NPR’s programming, the fact is, it is luxury we cannot afford to subsidize,” Lamborn said in a statement. “This effort to cut government spending should be part of the larger push from this new Republican Congress to cut spending and get our nation’s fiscal house in order.” Both bills have been referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Quick Takes

“Charlie Rose” finds schedule spot on PBS SoCal/KOCE

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As PBS SoCal/KOCE shifts to primary station status in the Los Angeles market, some viewers are complaining about losing favorite programs. Once KCET went independent Jan. 1, the popular talk show Charlie Rose migrated to KVCR; not all local cable systems carry that station. And PBS SoCal was obligated to carry late-night tele-courses. But now, due to budget cuts at Coastline Community College, that programming is being dropped. So Charlie Rose will run at midnight on KOCE starting Jan.