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The U.S. public wants more news coverage of climate change, surveys find

As hurricanes, floods, wildfires, and heat waves have intensified over the past decade, public concern about climate change has grown dramatically. Today, 65% of the U.S. public is worried about the issue, up from 52% a decade ago, according to nationally representative surveys conducted by scientists at Yale University and George Mason University.

System/Policy

Funding boost from universities helps Iowa Public Radio after difficult year

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Iowa’s Board of Regents voted to increase funding for Iowa Public Radio Thursday after hearing details of the pubcaster’s financial struggles in the wake of a CEO’s departure. The seven regents unanimously agreed to boost IPR’s fiscal year 2015 funding by $236,000. The decision restores support from the state universities to its FY2013 level of $944,800, almost a quarter of IPR’s total revenues that year. IPR, comprising six stations licensed to three public universities, has been adjusting to reduced subsidies from the schools, which have scaled back aid by 10 percent each year since 2011. IPR aims to be free of university funding in 2017.

Tech

NPR factors ‘mixed response’ from client stations into plans for Digital Services

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With contract negotiations looming this fall, leaders at NPR member stations are getting increasingly vocal about what they see as shortcomings of the products offered by NPR Digital Services. In 2011, NPR leaders convinced the majority of stations large and small to sign a three-year agreement for the newly formed unit to provide a fixed slate of tools and services for online streaming, website design and donation management. With the contract term ending Sept. 30, station leaders are raising questions and concerns about the offerings and whether to renew the contract as-is. A recent informal survey of heads of 30 stations gathered mixed reviews of the package of technology tools and services designed to help stations distribute and publish news reports and other online content.

Programs/Content

PBS’s Sepulveda: Stations can do more to engage Latinos, broader communities

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PBS stations need to share more information among themselves as they work to increase their community impact, PBS’s new senior v.p. of station services Juan Sepulveda said at the two-day “Understanding Impact” symposium, convened by the Public Media Futures Forum and the Center for Investigative Reporting April 17 and 18. The forum, which took place at American University, explored how public media organizations can measure and analyze the impact of their work. Sepulveda, who started at PBS in January, said he was still trying to get a sense of how actively stations are working on issues of impact and how much information they’re sharing. So far, he’s concluded that a small number of stations are “doing it right,” he said, adding that “if we’re honest, a big chunk of the system is not.”

Sepulveda saw firsthand the success of digital outreach and community-organizing tactics when he worked to mobilize Texans and Latinos for President Obama’s campaigns. Public TV can apply those strategies to get stations “more directly involved in what’s happening with each other,” he said.

Quick Takes

Monday roundup: NYC mayor taps POV‘s Lopez, controversial Rogers out at GPB

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• Cynthia Lopez, who has helped shape POV for the past 14 years as its executive vice president and co-executive producer, is the new commissioner of the New York City Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting. The agency markets the city as a prime location for production and assists production companies throughout the five boroughs. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the appointment at a Friday afternoon press conference, calling Lopez “a remarkable media professional.” He noted that this is the first time the office will be led by a person of color and that Lopez has long been “a force for greater inclusion in this industry.”

Simon Kilmurry, POV executive director, told Current that the appointment is “fantastic for Cynthia, and it’s very exciting for us to have a public media person — and a documentary person — in that job.” He said POV has “a deep bench,” with many experienced candidates in-house. “We’ll take our time to find the right person” as Lopez’s replacement, he added. Watch video of the announcement here:

• Controversial politician Chip Rogers is out at Georgia Public Broadcasting, just over a year after he landed a six-figure job there, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.