Current (https://current.org/category/development/page/14/)
A Downton Abbey pledge show from PBS was the top fundraiser by far for December public television drives, but repeats of the hit Brit drama also possibly cut into station time to raise even more money on the air.
Grady the dog and other critters are becoming members of their local pubmedia stations, boosting donations and getting special premiums.
As a growing number of public media organizations turn to Kickstarter to raise funding for new projects — with mixed success — development professionals and others in nonprofit media have begun evaluating both the potential and limitations of this new fundraising method.
CPB recently released its Public Broadcasting Revenue report (PDF) for fiscal year 2012. Findings about the number of contributions, total contributions and the amount of cash business (direct revenue such as underwriting and payments for services, but not in-kind services) show that public radio’s fortunes have been rising as public television’s have been on the decline, to the point that they are close to intersecting in these areas.
Foundation support for media-related activities increased 21 percent between 2009 and 2011, according to a study that examined how private philanthropies responded to the increased fragmentation of the media landscape. Grants for traditional public media organizations grew at a slightly slower rate than other categories of media grantmaking, from $100 million in 2009 to $118 million in 2011, an increase of 18 percent. Yet major stations such as New York’s WNET and Minnesota Public Radio are among the top recipients of philanthropic aid. “Growth in Foundation Support for Media in the United States,” released Nov. 12 by the Foundation Center, is a comprehensive look at the scope and size of foundations’ investments in media.
Nonprofit news organizations have made significant progress in developing healthy and sustainable revenue streams, according to a recent study by the Knight Foundation.
Foundations and major donors are increasingly asking public broadcasters to demonstrate the impact of their work on their communities, prompting pubcasters to consider new metrics that go beyond traditional audience measurement. The new emphasis by funders has prompted a flurry of activity and discussion as some pubcasters work to identify best practices and standardize measurements, and others debate whether the impact of nonprofit journalism should be quantified at all. “We do have to talk about these things and think about them in our role as public broadcasters in the 21st century,” said Jack Galmiche, c.e.o. of the Nine Network of Public Media in St. Louis. “It’s a conversation we need to have in public media about the service we provide to the community.
Public radio stations are divided over whether to accept underwriting donations from what could be an up-and-coming source of income: marijuana dispensaries.
Pacifica has laid off the entire news department of WBAI-FM and almost all paid staff effective Monday in an effort to keep the cash-strapped New York outlet solvent. Pacifica Interim Executive Director Summer Reese made the announcement on WBAI’s air Friday afternoon. Reese told listeners that she had arrived at the station by cab directly from negotiations with the Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, which represents WBAI staff. “We have not been able to fully recover . .
A recent PBS Research analysis found that donors who contribute the most money to public TV rarely if ever watch its programming.
A woman who was training to become membership coordinator of KIXE-TV in Redding, Calif., has admitted to credit card fraud, according to local law enforcement. The Redding Police Department received a complaint in March from a KIXE donor who noticed a fraudulent charge on her credit card account after contributing to the public TV station. During their investigation, officers discovered items that had been purchased with the donor’s credit card in the Redding apartment of Stephanie Winchester. Winchester, 29, admitted that she had used multiple credit-card numbers that she had taken during her work at the station “to purchase goods and services for herself,” according to a police department press release. Winchester is also alleged to have “shipped KIXE property to her home address,” according to police.
ATLANTA — The positive associations that public radio listeners have with corporate sponsors and underwriters are as strong as ever, according to a report unveiled July 11 during the Public Media Development and Marketing Conference. Results of the 2013 NPR Underwriting Research project, presented by radio analyst Paul Jacobs, showed that the so-called “halo effect” that companies gain from public media sponsorships is unchanged since 2010, the last time researchers looked into it. A 2003 NPR study first identified the power of public radio sponsorships to influence listeners’ perceptions of the quality of the companies who pay for them. “We’re seeing absolutely no decline in how your listeners feel about you,” Jacobs said. “Despite the fact we live in a time of media fragmentation, one of the constants you have is that your audience loves you.”
“You have something that money can’t buy — your listeners trust in you so much that that trust transfers to the companies that sponsor you,” Jacobs told the audience at the PMDMC Thursday.
A “transformational gift” from an anonymous donor through KCPT will create a digital news center in Kansas City, Mo., as well as provide support for PBS NewsHour through the PBS Foundation.
The vehicle donation process that plays out from the donor’s first phone call to the check’s arrival at the station is opaque and can involve a number of for-profit and nonprofit companies that take 20 percent or more of the sale price in fees.
A grassroots initiative that encourages citizens to lobby Capitol Hill for continued funding to public media is changing its name, revamping its website and updating its social-media outreach. Starting July 15, the 170 Million Americans for Public Broadcasting initiative, which launched in December 2010, will become Protect My Public Media, according to a message sent to supporters July 1. In a statement posted June 14 on the National Friends of Public Broadcasting website, NPR’s Mike Riksen said pubcasting’s Washington representatives have been working over several months to make the campaign “a more capable and vital asset in our efforts to preserve federal funding for public broadcasting stations.”
NPR has been collaborating with the Association of Public Television Stations (APTS) to revamp the campaign, he said. Riksen is NPR’s v.p. of policy and representation. Representatives for NPR and APTS declined to discuss the changes with Current.
The next Public Media Futures Forum, the latest in an ongoing series of events examining topics of interest to the field, will take place Tuesday at Georgia Public Broadcasting in Atlanta. The city is also the site of this week’s Public Media Development and Marketing Conference, sponsored by DEI. The forum will explore differing philosophies of local service, such as the audience-loyalty approach championed for public radio by David Giovannoni and the “community impact” approach favored by CPB, foundations and other stakeholders. The more than 20 participants will include Michal Heiplik, director of the Contributor Development Partnership, a project of the Major Market Group and CPB; Ted Krichels, currently a project director for PBS, examining sustainable station business models; Arthur Cohen, president of Public Radio Program Directors; and Barbara Appleby and Valerie Arganbright, co-founders of the Minnesota sustainability consultancy Appleby Arganbright. The Forum will be streamed live from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Eastern Time.
Republican Colorado Congressman Doug Lamborn today reintroduced legislation to kill federal funding for NPR. Its language is identical to his bill that passed the House in 2011, which prohibited stations from using CPB funds to acquire programming or pay NPR dues. That bill never made it to the floor of the Senate. “At a time when millions of federal works are being furloughed, schoolchildren are barred from visiting the White House, and many military training flights are grounded to save money, it is unacceptable that taxpayers are still on the hook for millions of dollars each year to subsidize National Public Radio,” he said in a statement. “Additionally, it was highly inappropriate for NPR to move into a lavish new headquarters building partly paid for by taxpayers, many of whom continue to struggle under the worst economy since the Great Depression.”
Sesame Workshop, production home to the iconic pubTV children’s program Sesame Street, announced Tuesday that it is laying off 10 percent of its workforce, or about 30 positions. The workshop’s most recent audited statements, for fiscal 2012, reflect a $24.3 million loss. That compares with a $10.8 million loss for the previous fiscal year and a $130,000 loss for FY10. Cash on-hand also plunged over the past several years, from $50.5 million in FY10, to $29.1 million in FY11 and $10 million in FY12. For FY12, Sesame Workshop was able to pare $9 million in expenses from year-to-year, largely from a reduction in production and development.
CPB is reassessing its funding commitments to several grantees that provide specialized assistance and diverse programming to the public TV system.
“Sustainers,” as this increasingly commonplace breed of member is called, renew at higher rates than those responding to traditional pledge pitches.