Kinsey Wilson, formerly chief content officer at NPR, has landed at the New York Times.
Wilson
Wilson’s position at NPR was eliminated in October when CEO Jarl Mohn restructured the company to make a senior v.p. of news report directly to him instead of a chief content officer. Wilson had been executive v.p. and chief content officer since February 2012.
In February, Wilson will move into a newly created position at the Times, editor for innovation and strategy. According to the Times, Wilson will collaborate with the editorial and business divisions and will be responsible for “expanding mobile strategy and creating new digital products inspired by Times journalism.”
“A pioneer in digital journalism, Kinsey is joining us at a crucial time as we accelerate our transformation into a news organization that delivers great journalism on all platforms,” said Dean Baquet, executive editor of the New York Times, in a statement. “I have known him for years and am delighted that he has agreed to bring his substantial talents to the Times as we continue down the path to our digital future.”
A panel of public TV station executives will meet over the next several months to recommend updates to CPB’s TV Community Service Grant policy.
The 14 managers, along with observers from PBS, the Association of Public Television Stations and the National Educational Telecommunications Association, are discussing a range of issues, including support for rural and local services, issues related to nonfederal financial support, collaboration and consolidation, and how the FCC spectrum incentive auction scheduled for early 2016 could impact CSG policy.
Participating are Ronnie Agnew, Mississippi Public Broadcasting; Steve Bass, Oregon Public Broadcasting; Don Boswell, WNED, Buffalo, N.Y.; Malcolm Brett, Wisconsin Public Television; Jack Galmiche, Nine Network of Public Media, St. Louis; Ben Godley, WGBH; Shae Hopkins, KET; Eric Hyyppa, MontanaPBS; Tom Karlo, KPBS, San Diego; Becky Magura, WCTE, Cookeville, Tenn.; Rick Schneider, WETA; Lisa Shumate, Houston Public Media; Brian Sickora, WSKG, Binghamton, N.Y.; and JoAnn Urofsky, WUSF Public Media, Tampa, Fla.
The group initially met Nov. 6 and 7 in Washington, D.C., and will reconvene in January.
Jacobs
New leadership for the board of Greater Public, the public broadcasting development and fundraising organization in Minneapolis, takes over Jan. 1.
“The Greater Public Board has spent the last year preparing for a series of board leadership transitions,” said Mikel Ellcessor, current board chair and owner of Ellcessor Media & Consulting, in a statement.
Paul Jacobs will assume the chair. Jacobs manages Jacobs Media, a radio consulting firm. Jacobs also co-founded Jacapps, a mobile strategy and design company.
Connie Walker, g.m. at WUNC in Chapel Hill, N.C., will be secretary. She also sits on the NPR Board.
Norm Silverstein, president of WXXI in Rochester, N.Y., and current Greater Public Board secretary, will become treasurer.
Programming
Longtime WAMU-FM Programming Director Mark McDonald is leaving the Washington, D.C., station at year’s end. McDonald, who has been programming WAMU since 2001, previously worked at BBC TV and Radio News and was managing editor for WNYC in New York. McDonald is departing to pursue multimedia opportunities, according to a station spokesperson.
Mitchell
Fundraising
Deirdre Gabriel joined PBS in November to direct fundraising programming, working with Joe Campbell, fundraising v.p. Previously, Gabriel served as v.p., public media client services at Member Benefits, which runs local member benefit programs for more than 140 pubcasting stations. This is Gabriel’s second stint at PBS: She previously worked nearly a decade, from 2000-10, as assistant director of development and on-air fundraising.
Tracy Mitchell has joined dual licensee WUSF in Tampa as fundraising producer. She will be responsible for on-air fundraising and communications aimed at encouraging community support. Mitchell formerly was director of donor engagement at WFYI in Indianapolis and also worked in the sales and membership offices at Eight Arizona in Phoenix.
Nonprofit news
Five staffers have joined the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR), a nonprofit newsroom in Emeryville, Calif. Fernando Diaz takes over as senior editor. Diaz was formerly managing editor of Hoy Chicago, one of the largest Spanish-language newspapers in the U.S., and vivelohoy.com, where he directed multiplatform content and technology development. Reporter Nathan Halverson will cover business and finance. Previously he spent five years at the Press Democrat in Santa Rosa, Calif., and also worked as a contract reporter for CIR. Abbie VanSickle will report for CIR and the Investigative Reporting Program at University of California, Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism. She has worked in South Africa on immigration issues and in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where she advocated for survivors of the Khmer Rouge before an international tribunal. Jim Briggs is the new lead sound designer and engineer for Reveal, CIR’s investigative reporting program produced with PRX. He’s worked on sound for public radio (Radiolab, Freakonomics Radio, Here’s the Thing) and pubTV (American Experience, We Shall Remain). And Emmanuel Martinez, a former KPCC intern, is now a data reporter.
Engineering
WAMU Engineering Director John Holt left the station last month. Holt had directed engineering since 1994. Before that, he headed up engineering at Jefferson Public Radio in Oregon.
Digital
A revamped PBS Digital Advisory Council will assemble Dec. 11 and 12 at headquarters in Arlington, Va., after the departure of several members. The group works with Ira Rubenstein, PBS Digital s.v.p., and Don Wilcox, v.p. of digital marketing and services, to shape direction of PBS’s digital work and communicate with station leaders. New to the council are Deanna Mackey, station manager, KPBS, San Diego; Alex Rapo, v.p. for digital media, WGBH, Boston; Dana Robling, associate g.m. for marketing and development at Eight, Arizona PBS in Phoenix; Larry Rohrer, content director, South Dakota Public Broadcasting; Dolores Sukhdeo, c.e.o., WPBT, Miami; and Colleen Wilson, executive director of interactive, KQED, San Francisco. Rotating off the council after serving the three-year term limit are Anne Gleason, v.p., marketing and new media, WTTW, Chicago; David Dickinson, online manager, Wisconsin Public Television; and Teresa Peltier, digital content manager, WSKG, Binghamton, N.Y. Also departing are Cheryl Spitale-Jones, digital media director, Detroit Public Television, who chose not to serve an optional third year; and Christiane Wartell, formerly of interactive production at WNET, who recently left the New York station.
David Beard, digital content director for the Washington Post, takes over as executive editor at Public Radio International’s PRI.org next month. Previously Beard was digital editor at the National Journal and also worked as editor of Boston.com, the website of the Boston Globe. His reporting experience includes serving as a foreign correspondent in Latin America for The Associated Press.
Governance
Chris Bannon, v.p. of content development and production at WNYC, New York, is the new secretary of the Public Radio Program Directors Association board of directors. Bannon replaces Gabe DiMaio, who accepted a position outside of public media last month. During his tenure at WNYC, Bannon has led the teams that launched WQXR and New Jersey Public Radio. The PRPD board’s development committee is working to fill DiMaio’s board position.