People

Independent Lens films take home honors, Midwest pubcasters receive Emmys, and more awards in public media

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INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY ASSOCIATION
Independent Lens took home four wins from the 30th annual IDA Documentary Awards. The public TV documentary series won the award for best curated series for the second year in a row, along with the Humanitas Documentary Award, ABCNews VideoSource award and Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award. The Humanitas Documentary Award recognizes films that, according to the IDA, explore what it means to be human when facing differences in “culture, race, lifestyle, political loyalties and religious beliefs” that create barriers between people. Thomas G. Miller’s film Limited Partnership, about the struggle of a legally married same-sex couple fighting for U.S. citizenship for one of the partners, won the award. The ABCNews VideoSource award honors films that make the best use of news footage.

About Current

Tyler Falk joins Current as assistant editor

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Current’s reporting roster has grown with the addition of Tyler Falk. As a freelance journalist, Tyler has written about topics including food, energy and business innovation. He’ll now turn his attention to the world of public radio, picking up that beat from Senior Editor Ben Mook. Ben will cover development and digital media. As a contributing editor for CBS Interactive, Tyler blogged daily about business innovation for SmartPlanet.com.

Programs/Content

Study of engaging digital stories helps stations’ newsrooms set priorities

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A new vocabulary is emerging in public radio newsrooms to help journalists communicate and make decisions about online coverage that attracts and builds digital audiences. Developed through the Local Stories Project, an NPR Digital Services initiative that began as a geotargeting experiment on Facebook, the vocabulary includes phrases like “topical buzzer” — a story that provides a unique take on a subject that everyone is talking about — or  “curiosity stimulator,” for a piece with a science or technology angle. The concepts are explained in this blog post, “9 Types of Local Stories that Cause Engagement.” As newsrooms around the country adjust to the demands of producing distinctive coverage within their local markets, reporters increasingly are required to serve two news platforms, each with a different audience, without spinning their wheels. “It’s like growing a new arm, while your other arms are busy doing what you do.

Tech

“Evolution and revolution” coming as ATSC readies new broadcast standard

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Five years after pubcasters switched off the last of their analog TV transmitters and advanced into an all-digital world, planning is underway for the next generation of digital TV. The ATSC 3.0 standard has been years in the making, and years of work and many questions remain before pubcasters are ready to put it on the air. ATSC is the Advanced Television Standards Committee, an international nonprofit comprising broadcasters, regulators, consumer electronics manufacturers, broadcast equipment companies and other experts. It developed the ATSC 1.0 standard that was adopted for broadcast digital TV in the early 2000s and is now charged with replacing that standard to keep up with rapid advances in the technologies used in broadcast TV. ATSC is working on two sets of standards.

System/Policy

Auction delay allows time to think hard about selling spectrum

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Selling or keeping spectrum is perhaps the most consequential decision that the current generation of public television station executives and their boards will ever make about the future of public media, not just in their communities but the nation as well. The FCC chairman’s postponement of the spectrum auction until at least 2016 is an opportunity for greater scrutiny of that weighty decision. Pitches from speculators and their FCC allies have focused on the one-time financial windfall to local licensees from selling noncommercial spectrum. However, balanced deliberation requires examining some key issues. Here’s my own short list:

Know when to hold ’em: Next-generation broadcasting technology will open up important new revenue streams for public and commercial stations.

Programs/Content

PBS to test whether core series can bring in pledge dollars

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PBS has set the lineup for an upcoming fundraising test that will use a full week’s schedule of first-run National Program Service shows. Seventeen stations will take part in the experiment, running Nov. 28 through Dec. 5. PBS is trying to determine whether using core series, rather than pledge specials that veer from the regular lineup, will lead to a more stable member and donor base and perhaps even prompt more major gifts.