Current (https://current.org/2012/12/page/4/)
The start-up accelerator unveiled a year ago as an experiment in bringing Silicon Valley’s culture of innovation to public media has rebranded itself in a move to attract a wider range of ideas and investors.
Public radio stations trying to diversify their audiences, staffs and programming have found an increasingly active ally in NPR, whose leaders have been travelling to stations in recent months to help broadcasters walk the difficult walk of achieving diversity.
For the next year StoryCorps, the public radio group collecting and presenting life stories told between family members and friends, will undertake a new initiative to record oral histories of veterans and active-duty members of the armed forces serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Military Voices Initiative, or MVI, plans interviews of more than 2,000 people, enough to produce more than 700 stories. Funded by CPB and the Boeing Company, MVI is StoryCorps’ eighth initiative focused on a specific ethnic community or news event. The Griot initiative, for example, collected stories of African-American family life. Some of interviews conducted for MVI will be broadcast on NPR’s Weekend Edition while the entire collection will be housed at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. CPB and StoryCorps, a nonprofit founded by indie radio producer David Isay, officially launched the initiative Dec.
PBS President Paula Kerger is No. 31 of the Hollywood Reporter’s “Women in Entertainment 2012: Power 100.” The 21st annual ranking tallies up the most powerful women in the entertainment industry. Topping the list is Anne Sweeney, co-chair of Disney Media Networks and president of Disney/ABC Television. Just above Kerger is Hannah Minghella, president of production, Columbia Pictures; right below is Jacqueline Hernandez, c.o.o. of Telemundo Media.
The Copyright Royalty Board of the Library of Congress has issued new regulations for pubcasting royalty rates from 2013 to 2017, reports Courthouse News Service. The federal Copyright Act requires the government to update its license terms for noncoms every five years. PBS and NPR will pay slightly more across the board, in eight categories, to use musical compositions. For instance, PBS will pay $232.18, up from $227.58, for performance of a work in a feature presentation. NPR will pay $23.53, up from $23.07, for the same use.
WDDE-FM signed on in August 2012, becoming the first public radio station based in the state of Delaware. Governor Jack Markell cut the ribbon at a ceremony at WDDE’s Dover headquarters Dec. 3.
Local members of NABET (National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians — Communications Workers of America) at WGBH in Boston voted Dec. 1 to accept a new five-year contract. “The negotiations were collaborative and productive, and reflected the NABET members’ understanding of the challenges facing the media industry,” said Ben Godley, WGBH c.o.o., in a statement. “We appreciate their focus on the issues, their commitment to WGBH’s mission, and their dedication to their members and their craft.”
“Our members have dedicated years to the success of WGBH,” said Brad Hawes, engineer and president of NABET, in the statement. “We hope the ratification of this contract will lead to a stronger WGBH.” Union members are radio and television engineers who shoot, edit, run sound and lighting, and operate and maintain all broadcast equipment.
Pubcasters and their advocates in the state capital credit the change of heart to help from sympathetic lawmakers, the governor’s willingness to change his mind and agreement by pubcasters to strengthen their case for support.
Chip Rogers, the outgoing Georgia State Senate majority leader, is resigning from office to work for Georgia Public Broadcasting, according to the Marietta Daily Journal, in a move that was initiated by Republican Gov. Nathan Deal. Rogers, also a Republican, made news in October when he organized a lecture for GOP lawmakers “in which a birther activist said that President Barack Obama and the United Nations are using ‘mind-control’ to implement a sustainability agenda,” reports Huffington Post. “A state lawmaker needs a quick exit from the Legislature, and a position at Georgia Public Broadcasting appears,” writes Jim Galloway, political columnist for the Atlanta Journal Constitution. “Life can be magical that way.” Galloway wrote in June about Rogers’ previous broadcasting experience, as a pitchman on a sports betting show.
Public radio is adapting too slowly to the competitive challenges it faces from Internet-based media platforms, and the pace of change must increase if local stations are to thrive in the years ahead. It’s a warning that public broadcasters have heard many times before, and research that I conducted this fall revealed that a large majority of radio station leaders have absorbed and begun acting on it. What were the most important changes you made in the last three years? Changes cited among
the 89 managers surveyed
How many cited this
Added news programming
65
Made organizational changes, including replacing a ce.o. or developing a new strategic plan
65
Invested in new media and or planned for digital convergence
39
Developed major-gift and other fundraising activities
38
Made non-news program changes
20
Took steps to “go local”
19
Developed new facilities
20
Expanded broadcast range or acquired new signals
13
Undertook promotional and community engagement activities
4
Invested in social media
3
Found and developed community partners
4
Source: Public Media Futures, November 2012 survey
In an online survey initiated in collaboration with Public Radio Regional Organizations, nearly three-quarters of 96 respondents, mostly general managers and chief executives, agreed that public radio must adapt more quickly to shifts in media consumption. Most station leaders see the expansion of local newsgathering capacity as the best strategy for bolstering their value to local listeners.
A four-year-old nonprofit news service established by two professors at Youngstown State University is taking on an expanded role in investigative news reporting and journalism training in northeast Ohio and beyond.
The News Outlet and its website, TheNewsOutlet.org, recipient of a two-year $302,000 matching grant in July from the James L. Knight Foundation and Cleveland-based Raymond John Wean Foundation, will increase its news coverage on the effects of the increase of oil and gas drilling in Ohio, Pennsylvania and western New York.
William Lake, FCC Media Bureau chief, discussed options for upcoming broadcast spectrum incentive auctions in a webcast Monday sponsored by Pricewaterhouse Coopers, reports TVNewsCheck. The commission could conduct a single-round auction using sealed bids, or a multi-round option, also known as a “descending clock auction.” For that, “rather than have the broadcasters give us a price, the commission would set a price,” Lake said. Here’s how that would work: The FCC would ask broadcasters to sell bandwidth for, say, $100. “If we pick that opening price high, we should get a lot of offers,” Lake said.
The NPR Board elected Kathryn “Kit” Jensen of Cleveland’s ideastream stations as chair for the new board term that began last month.
KPBS Associate G.M. Stephanie Bergsma, best known in the pubcasting system for cultivating the historic $200 million bequest in 2003 from the late Joan Kroc to NPR, will retire on Dec. 10 after 30 years with the San Diego station. “Stephanie is a dedicated fundraiser,” said longtime KPBS (and Masterpiece) donor Darlene Marcos Shiley in the announcement. “Her ability to connect people’s passions to the mission of KPBS is what made her so successful – and respected. I always looked forward to a meeting with Stephanie because I knew she would have an amazing opportunity for me to make a difference in KPBS.” Shiley has given more than $4 million to the station over the years.
One of the most promising new membership initiatives to come along for public television in years doesn’t involve phone banks, on-air pitches or premium packages. It’s door-to-door canvassing, the grass-rootsy technique for talking up causes and soliciting donations face-to-face.
KQED in San Francisco, Public Radio Exchange (PRX) and the Knight Foundation today announced a $2.5 million media entrepreneur initiative, Matter Ventures. Project spokesman Jason Gordon confirmed to Current that Matter Ventures is the new name for the Public Media Accelerator (PMX), announced earlier this year (Current, March 12). “Matter captures the mission of this accelerator in a more powerful way than PMX,” Gordon said. “The accelerator aims to create new media ventures that do in fact matter and that can create a positive, meaningful impact on society.” The four-month accelerator program is designed to assist media start-ups with early-stage prototypes such as participatory platforms, mobile applications, B2B media services and content production engines.