• NPR Digital Services unveiled details about its forthcoming NPR One app in advance of presentations planned for this week’s Public Media Development and Marketing Conference in Denver. The app promises to “blend NPR and Member Station news reporting into a rich, localized, on-demand experience,” according to a post on the NPR Digital Services website. Another post displays an example of the sequence of NPR segments, local content and sponsorship credits in a listening session. In its earlier development stages, NPR One was known as Project Carbon.
• Public Radio News Directors have joined dozens of news organizations in signing an open letter to President Obama pushing for more transparency within his administration. “We call on you to take a stand to stop the spin and let the sunshine in,” the letter reads, citing the increased difficulties of reporters seeking on-the-record conversations with government officials and sources. Early in his presidency, Obama pledged unparalleled transparency within his administration; but journalists who cover the White House have complained that their jobs have become much harder than under previous administrations.
• After Anya Kamenetz, lead blogger for NPR Ed, tweeted last week that “only the white guys get back to me” for stories on deadline, the news organization is reminding employees to watch what they say online. “What we say can reflect on NPR and raise questions about our ability to be objective,” Mark Memmott, supervising senior editor, Standards & Practices, wrote in an all-staff memo Tuesday. Elsewhere, On the Media producer PJ Vogt sees a positive to Kamanetz’s tweet: “Kamentz had a stupid thought — that her lack of deep relationships with non-white sources reflected on those sources, rather than on her journalism. She aired her thought in public. People corrected her. She changed her thinking. That’s actually how social media is supposed to work for reporters,” he wrote.
I reach out to diverse sources on deadline. Only the white guys get back to me :(
— NPR's Education Team (@npr_ed) July 2, 2014
• NPR’s Latin-music podcast alt.Latino has broadened its scope over four years to encompass a wider swath of Latino culture through music, its producers tell VOXXI. With co-host Jasmine Garsd’s move to Mexico City last year, the program has evolved to have “one foot in Latin America and one foot in the U.S.,” she says. “We started out as a music show, but over the course of the four years we found the people who are listening appreciate a wider look at culture,” co-host Felix Contreras says.