Quick Takes

Onstage monologue goes swimmingly for Walters of “Radiolab”

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The fifth issue of Pop Up Magazine — self-described as “the world’s first live magazine” — unfolded onstage in New York last night (May 12) with a 25-member cast that included WNYC’s Radiolab producer Pat Walters. In a May interview, Pop Up’s Editor in Chief Dougal McGray explained the group’s origin in 2009: “We’re a small group of old friends — writers, editors and designers who have worked for the New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, Esquire, This American Life, The Atavist, Wired, Spin and Interview. On a whim, we decided to launch a magazine that would exist for just one night, live on stage. A live magazine. Nothing would get published, nothing would go online.

Quick Takes

Online viewers of PBS content complain to ombudsman over sponsorship “experiment”

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Late last month, PBS began “experimenting” with a new sponsorship format for online videos of its major broadcast TV programs, writes PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler. And now Getler is receiving letters of complaint from online viewers. Videos of shows such as Frontline and Masterpiece now have a couple 15- to 30-second sponsorship messages from commercial companies inserted within the program, not before or after as in TV broadcasts. While only a “handful” of people have written to Getler, ” it struck me as a potentially fundamental change in approach that was worth recording.” Jason Seiken, s.v.p. for PBS Interactive, told Getler that this potential revenue stream is necessary because PBS.org has become, in a sense, “a victim of our own success,” growing from two million to 115 million online video views monthly.

Quick Takes

Audie Cornish to helm NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday

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In a long-anticipated news anchor succession at NPR, Audie Cornish will become host of Weekend Edition Sunday after Liane Hansen, who helmed the broadcast for two decades, retires.”Audie is an outstanding journalist and wonderful storyteller,” said Ellen McDonnell, executive director of news programming, in this morning’s NPR announcement. “Audiences will connect with her warmth, curiosity and humor. We’re thrilled she is taking on this new role.”Cornish, who now covers Capitol Hill and guest-hosts NPR newsmagazines as a substitute, is an experienced news and feature reporter. She covered the campaign trail during the 2008 presidential election and spent three years reporting from the south as NPR’s Nashville-based correspondent. Prior to joining NPR, she reported for Boston’s WBUR.

Quick Takes

Jim Lehrer to depart anchor desk at “PBS NewsHour”

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Jim Lehrer, anchor of PBS NewsHour and its former incarnations for 36 years, is stepping away from the weeknight broadcast, the Washington Post is reporting. Lehrer, 76, said he would leave as anchor on June 6 but continue to appear on Fridays to moderate the show’s weekly news analysis segment featuring a panel of journalists. He will also continue to be involved with the program’s producer, MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, based in Arlington, Va.In a statement, Lehrer said the timing was based on “the complete integration of the NewsHour’s on-air and online operations” (Current, Jan. 11, 2010) and his “complete confidence in the current NewsHour team, both on-and-off-camera, to continue producing the nightly program and its companion website as a haven for ‘MacNeil/Lehrer Journalism’: serious, fair-minded daily reporting steeped in the traditions of the broadcast’s co-founders.”“I have been laboring in the glories of daily journalism for 52 years, 36 of them here at the NewsHour and its earlier incarnations,” Lehrer said, “and there comes a time to step aside from the daily process, and that time has arrived.”

Quick Takes

Now you too can sleep on, or autograph, Carl Kassell’s head

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This just in, the NPR Store is now offering a Carl Kassell Autograph Pillow and Pen, which it readily admits is an “odd homage” to the longtime NPR newscaster and Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me! scorekeeper and answering machine voice. The item’s existence immediately prompted a heartfelt apology from Cowering NPR on Twitter. The anonymous Tweeter/s also revealed that the eerie-looking pillow is actually last year’s NPR Labs creation.

Quick Takes

FCC receives more than 450 comments on upcoming sale of Orlando’s WMFE-TV

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The pending sale of WMFE-TV in Orlando to Daystar, a Texas-based religious broadcaster, has generated more than 450 comments to the FCC, the Orlando Sentinel reports today (May 12). Here’s one: “The contemplation of this sale was never pre-announced to the general public by the current governing organization,” writes Lawrence D. Stephey of Winter Park, Fla. “Had the public known, I’m sure a number of extraordinary fund raising campaigns would have been launched to preserve the frequency for educational use.”Meanwhile, two University of Central Florida students have launched a web campaign to save the station, via a website and Facebook page. One, Anna Eskamani, told the Sentinel, “I’ve lived in Orlando my whole life. We didn’t have cable.

Quick Takes

Burns signs as regular guest on Olbermann’s Current TV series

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Ken Burns, star PBS documentarian, and Michael Moore, a onetime sensation on PBS’s POV series, will among the regulars on Countdown with Keith Olbermann, scheduled to appear weeknightly on Al Gore’s Current TV channel starting June 20. Olbermann left the MSNBC cable channel in January after NBC execs discovered to their dismay that their lead anchorman, known for ceaseless, vehement criticism of the Bush administration, had contributed to Democratic campaigns. Current TV is carried on cable systems reaching 60 million households in this country and on its website, Current.com (or Current.tv). 

Quick Takes

FCC commissioner heading for Comcast

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Federal Communications Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker is leaving the agency to oversee government affairs for Comcast, the New York Times reports. The move comes just four months after Baker voted to approve the merger of Comcast and NBC Universal. Craig Aaron, president of the media reform group Free Press, said the departure is “just the latest, though perhaps most blatant, example of a so-called public servant cashing in at a company she is supposed to be regulating.”

Quick Takes

PBS claims top spot in daytime Emmy nominations

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Nominations for the 2011 Daytime Emmy Awards were announced today (May 11) and sitting atop the pack is PBS with 57 nods. Kids shows did well: Sesame Street had the third-highest total of nominations for a program, at 16; Electric Company, seven; Between the Lions, four; three each for Biz Kid$, FETCH! with Ruff Ruffman and SciGirls; and two each for The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!, Dinosaur Train and Word Girl. America’s Test Kitchen also got two nods. Awards will be presented on June 19 from Las Vegas.

Quick Takes

KPBS Radio format change builds on news-driven gains in online audience

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KPBS Radio in San Diego will go all-news, dropping classical music from its evening and overnight schedule as of May 23. The format change, announced late yesterday, includes an overhaul of its local midday talk show These Days, which will reduce its footprint to a one-hour broadcast and be re-titled Midday Edition. A Friday news round-up will scale back from a stand-alone show to a segment within Midday Edition.The changes position KPBS’s local talk show in the noon timeslot when more listeners tune in, and allow producers to focus the on news of the day, rather than news of yesterday, according to the Voice of San Diego. “We wanted to have more quality and less quantity” as KPBS’s TV, web and radio operations work toward a vision of being the “premier source” of news in San Diego, KPBS chief Tom Karlo told the Voice.KPBS is one of a handful of major market pubcasting stations that have made impressive gains in Web traffic by expanding their capacity for multi-platform news delivery. Public media analyst Mark Fuerst reported on the tactics behind KPBS’s success in the May 2 edition of Current.KPBS’s classical music service, which is essentially a feed of American Public Media’s Classical 24, has moved online and to an HD Radio channel.

Quick Takes

Political ambitions, inconsistencies behind Gov. McDonnell’s line-item veto

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When Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell used his line-item veto to slash another $424,000 in state subsidies for public broadcasting, it played well to his Republican conservative base, but his decision to target public radio and television stations was fueled more by political ambitions than fiscal responsibility, according to newspaper columnists who weighed in on the last minute, irrevocable cut.McDonnell’s supporters were “thrilled by the veto,” writes Peter Schapiro of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, but they probably don’t recognize the inconsistencies in McDonnell’s stances on various culture war issues. He pointed to McDonnell’s endorsement of a $4.6 million package of tax breaks for a Stephen Spielberg movie about Abraham Lincoln that will be filmed in Virginia. Spielberg is “a symbol of the deep-pocketed, film-colony strain of Democratic liberalism that some conservatives say permeates public broadcasting,” Schapiro wrote. Not only that, the moviemaker contributed more than $125,000 to Democratic candidates last year.Roanoke Times columnist Dan Casey ridiculed McDonnell for the veto, comparing him to a screeching peacock with outspread tail feathers. “This is what passes for political machismo in national GOP politics these days,” Casey wrote.

Quick Takes

Genachowski, Minow discuss “Vast Wasteland” speech

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Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski and former FCC Chair Newt Minow met to discuss the state of the media on Monday (May 9) in Washington, D.C., to mark the 50th anniversary of Minow’s famous “Vast Wasteland” speech.Broadcasting & Cable reports that Minow said that the two words he wished had been remembered from that speech were “public interest.” Genachowski said the speech is still relevant today because it is “a speech for all time,” primarily about the power of technology and communications to connect and empower people.The event, at the National Press Club, was sponsored by George Washington University’s Global Media Institute.

Quick Takes

Help Youth Radio investigative team pick up its Peabody Award

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Youth Radio won a Peabody last month for its series on child sex trafficking, and its investigative team would like to show up to claim the honor. The judges called it “a wide-ranging expose of America’s child-sex trade made especially powerful by first-person accounts by teen victims.”But the young journos need $20,000 to travel to the awards presentation in New York. They’re so close — just $5,000 more. And the May 23 ceremony is quickly approaching. Want to help?

Quick Takes

Upcoming PBS primetime lineup brings first Arts Fall Festival

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PBS announced today (May 9) its primetime lineup for this fall, which includes its long-awaited arts initiative and a refocus for WNET’s Need to Know.The network’s first Arts Fall Festival, on the drawing board at least since 2009, will begin Oct. 14 and air Fridays through December with broadcasts of classic and contemporary performances including Women Who Rock, inspired by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum exhibit; Give Me the Banjo, narrated by Steve Martin; and “The Little Mermaid” from the San Francisco Ballet on Great Performances. There’ll also be artist and performer profiles, behind-the-scenes documentaries and mini-films about the art scenes in Miami, San Francisco, Cleveland, Chicago, the Blue Ridge Mountains and other areas of the country. Plans call for related online content educational tools.The newsmag Need to Know relaunches on Sept. 16 “with a new format and focus,” PBS said.

Quick Takes

Flooding is latest disaster for Gulf Coast pubcasting consortium to cover

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Public Media Exchange, a consortium of 10 Gulf Coast pubTV and radio stations led by Louisiana Public Broadcasting, has expanded its website content to cover Mississippi River flooding and the aftermath of recent tornadoes that ripped through the South.The GulfWatch section of the website was originally set up last year with a grant from CPB to examine the environmental, economic, legal and social implications of the massive BP oil spill. LPB is now providing live coverage of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s news conferences from the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness center. There are also updates on the potential record flooding along the Mississippi, and disaster resources on flooding and tornadoes.Exchange members are Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi Public Broadcasting networks; WSRE-TV in Pensacola, Fla.; WEDU-TV and WUSF-TV in the Tampa, Fla., area; WWNO-FM in New Orleans; KRVS-FM in Lafayette, La.; WBHM-FM in Birmingham, Ala.; and WVAS-FM in Montgomery, Ala.

Quick Takes

Casual visitors important even to top news websites, Pew discovers

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The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism today (May 9) released an in-depth study of Web news behavior, using detailed Nielsen audience statistics. The study examines the top 25 news websites in the United States, drilling down into four areas of audience actions: how users get to the top news sites, how long they stay, how deep they go into a site and where they go when they leave. Among the findings:— Even top news sites depend greatly on “casual users,” those persons who visit a few times per month and spend only a few minutes on the site.— An ongoing core of loyal and frequent visitors to news sites return more than 10 times per month and spend more than an hour there.— At five of the top sites, Facebook is the second or third most important driver of traffic. Twitter, on the other hand, barely registers.”All of this suggests that news organizations might need a layered and complex strategy for serving audiences and also for monetizing them,” note the study’s authors, Kenny Olmstead, Amy Mitchell and Tom Rosenstiel. “They may need, for instance, to develop one way to serve casual users and another way for power users.

Quick Takes

Incoming journalists reflect on becoming reporters in the digital age

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A group of young journalists finishing their studies at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism today (May 9) launch FastForwardNews.org, a collection of videos exploring the hurdles and possibilities for reporters in the digital age. In the videos, the 18 aspiring newsmakers examine subjects including the use of “crowdfunding” stories, computer-assisted reporting, content farms, the New York Times’ new paywall, and the response to Al Jazeera English by American cable companies.

Quick Takes

APTS, DEI get more than $920,000 from CPB to expand Grant Center

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The Association of Public Television Stations (APTS) and DEI (Development Exchange Inc.) have received a $923,310, two-year CPB grant to expand their Grant Center (password protected). For the past 18 months the center has focused on identifying new sources of federal and foundation funding for pubcasters; now it will concentrate on assisting CPB-qualified pubTV and radio stations in applying for the support. Meegan White directs the Grant Center, coordinating with Amie Klempnauer Miller. White has been working with APTS since 2000 on federal grant strategy, grant writing and project management. Miller, DEI Foundation development adviser, has more than 20 years of experience in fundraising and has written successful grant proposals raising more than $20 million for public media.

Quick Takes

Organic food advocates link “Marketplace” story to agribusiness sponsor

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The Organic Consumers Association, an advocacy group that campaigns on food safety and agricultural sustainability issues, launched an online campaign objecting to a May 4 Marketplace story on how to feed the world’s growing population. “The Non-Organic Future,” reported by Adrienne Hill, concluded that organic food movement caters to a niche market, and that the future of farming involves wider acceptance of genetically modified foods and other commercial agricultural practices. The association described the report as a “biased and inaccurate story that sounds as if it was written by its major underwriter: Monsanto Inc,” and urged its members to demand that local pubradio stations drop the program. In an editor’s note responding to the story’s critics, Marketplace’s George Judson urges listeners not to dismiss the show’s credibility on the basis of one report. “In practice, Marketplace, like most news organizations, thinks of its coverage as ongoing and cumulative.