Quick Takes

Morning roundup: CPB Board plans a field trip, Downton ratings grow

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The next CPB Board meeting, Feb. 10, will take directors on a field trip. While the morning session will be at headquarters in Washington, D.C., the board will head to WETA in suburban Arlington, Va., in the afternoon for a look inside PBS NewsHour. Also on the agenda: updates on diversity work, spectrum issues and American Graduate activities. If you thought ratings for the Season 4 premiere of Downton Abbey were high, wait until you read these numbers: PBS and WGBH announced Monday that the Jan.

Programs/Content

Knight Foundation, INN partner on $1M innovation fund

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The Knight Foundation and the Investigative News Network (INN) are teaming up to award $1 million in microgrants for innovation at public media and nonprofit news operations. The INNovate Fund is one of several initiatives totaling $5 million that Knight has planned in response to its 2013 in-depth study of nonprofit news sustainability. Knight will provide the funding, while INN will manage the two-year grant program and select recipients. Online applications will open March 1 and are open to all nonprofit and public media news organizations. Successful applications should meet three criteria, according to INN CEO Kevin Davis.

Quick Takes

Bresnahan one of three finalists for top job at KBTC-TV

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Moss Bresnahan, former president of KCTS in Seattle, is one of three finalists for the position of executive director and general manager of KBTC Public Television in Tacoma, Wash., according to licensee Bates Technical College. The three were interviewed Jan. 24 for the post. Bresnahan exited KCTS in August 2013, citing family issues in an email to fellow executives. The two other finalists are Karen Olstad, chief operating officer of WOSU Public Media in Columbus, Ohio; and Ed Ulman, development director and interim g.m. of KBTC.

Quick Takes

Research notes dropoff in use of educational media content as kids age

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A new study from the Joan Ganz Cooney Center finds that while 2- to 4-year-olds spend 78 percent of their screen-media time with educational content, that figure drops to 39 percent among 5- to 7-year-olds and to 27 percent for 8- to 10-year-olds. The research, “Learning at Home: Families’ Educational Media Use in America,” also found that children spend an average of 42 minutes a day watching educational television compared with five minutes each day with educational content on mobile devices and computers and just three minutes per day with educational video games. The children of parents surveyed also read an average of 40 minutes per day, which includes 29 minutes with print, eight minutes on computers, and five minutes using e-readers and tablets. The national survey of more than 1,500 parents is part of the center’s Families and Media Project.