Graham
• Matt Graham, co-founder and senior director of PBS Digital Studios, starts work next week as v.p. of British television streamer Acorn TV, reports StreamDaily. At PBSDS, the web-original programming division of PBS, Graham helped launch the scripted drama Frankenstein M.D. on YouTube. During his tenure since 2010, PBSDS won six Webby Awards for online video, and two Mashies honoring digital work in marketing, advertising and social media.
• The new and much-discussed NPR clocks debut Nov. 17, and news programmers are offering tips to prepare stations on PRPD’s blog. Scott Williams gives advice about handling promotion and underwriting, while Tanya Ott shares details about NPR’s plans for the new newscast schedule coming to Morning Edition.
• In grant news this week, the Knight Foundation awarded Public Radio International $35,000 to develop StoryAct, “a Drupal-based module to give people clear options to act on news stories,” according to a Knight announcement. “Shaped by journalists, StoryAct will display relevant user-actions within the story, integrating them into the body copy where it contextually makes sense.”
And the Investigative News Network announced recipients of a second round of INNovation Fund grants, a fund established with support from — guess who? — the Knight Foundation. Among the recipients is WKAR in Lansing, Mich., which will develop an app based on a TV show about state politics.
• Nieman Lab checks in on BizLab, a (Knight-funded!) initiative at Boston’s WBUR announced in July. The project aims to identify new funding strategies to support public radio as listeners increasingly tune in on new platforms. “When they listen to the stream on their phone or a podcast or other platforms our content is on, they have to have a relationship with us or we will go away,” says Charlie Kravetz, WBUR’s g.m.
• If you missed it, you can watch this webinar presented by the Public Media Platform, featuring several public media projects in the works (including My2Cents Radio, which we wrote about earlier this year). Probably someone in this webinar has Knight funding. Or might get some, someday.