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Project Core: A vision for scale and growth

Over the past three years, CentralCast has been hard at work implementing critical upgrades that lay the foundation for a more resilient and advanced future. And now, the culmination of these efforts is taking shape in our most ambitious initiative yet: Project Core.

Development

Knight Foundation grants $750,000 to three public media projects

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DENVER — Three public media projects aimed at developing new audiences, revenue and content will each receive $250,000 from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The grants to the investigative series Frontline, Boston’s WBUR and the Public Media Co. were announced Thursday morning at a Knight breakfast that’s kicking off a CEO symposium sponsored by the Contributor Development Partnership. The event is running concurrent with the Public Media Development & Marketing Conference. “In this day and age we’re competing with Game of Thrones, Candy Crush and Reddit,” said John Bracken, director of journalism and media innovation for Knight, in announcing the support.

Programs/Content

Barriers to newsroom collaborations lower than pubcasters think

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“Neither journalism nor public life will move forward until the public actually rethinks and reinterprets what journalism is: not the science or information of culture, but its poetry and conversation.” — James Carey, “The Mass Media and Democracy,” Journal of International Affairs, June 22, 1993

Since 2009, CPB has provided approximately $23.2 million to establish more than 40 journalism partnerships at public broadcasting stations. These included Project Argo, a collection of topically focused local blogs produced by NPR and 12 public radio stations; and the Association of Independents in Radio’s Localore, a cross-platform radio and television content partnership that paired indie producers with 10 stations. CPB’s investments in nine Local Journalism Centers have been the most ambitious of these initiatives. These collaborations involved 56 public stations of various licensee types and enabled multimedia production across public radio, television and digital platforms.
Many of these collaborative projects operated independently of host stations’ newsrooms, and they departed from the normal broadcast-centered practices and routines to create additional content about specific topics. Public radio distributors and outside journalism organizations have also laid the roadbed for collaborative journalism through projects such as NPR’s State Impact initiative, Public Radio International’s state-accountability series and Public Radio Exchange’s new investigative program, Reveal.

Quick Takes

Wednesday roundup: Forest creates sustainer premiums, Curious George pitches NYC

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• Pubcasting fulfillment company Forest Incentives is launching Forest Music Express, an experimental sustainer premium service for pubmedia stations. The service will allow stations to offer legal music downloads to sustaining members. Forest Incentives is working with major music labels to offer more than 20 million songs to stations, according to a press release. The company has piloted the service with Philadelphia’s WXPN and KPLU in Tacoma, Wash. • PBS Kids’ favorite monkey Curious George is taking on a new role, as New York City’s official family ambassador.

People

Rocky Mountain PBS restructures exec ranks, Fraser heads KMUW-FM and more comings and goings in pubmedia

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Rocky Mountain PBS in Denver has restructured its management team. “It is critical that we have leaders at the helm of our ship who can help shape the future of public media for all of Colorado and beyond,”said Doug Price, c.e.o. of the Rocky Mountain Broadcasting Network, in an announcement. “We have made tremendous strides over the past year with the merger of Rocky Mountain PBS, KUVO jazz public radio and I-News, our public-service journalism team, and I look forward to continued growth and success up ahead.” The organizations joined forces in January 2013. Harris Ravine, network c.o.o., is also now president and general manager of KRMA-TV, one of the network’s five stations. His previous experience includes chairing the board of Twin Cities Public Television in St.

Development

PBS to track behavior of viewers pledging to core-schedule programs

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In an experiment signaling public TV’s resolve to address concerns about the long-term effects of transactional pledging on its donor base, PBS plans to test whether fundraising around regularly scheduled signature series can convert more viewers into loyal members and donors. Though traditional fundraising programs generate more cash for stations, many development professionals believe that pledging around core programs could yield better-quality donors who are committed to public TV’s mission. Stations such as Maryland Public Television and PBS SoCal in Orange County, Calif., have successfully pledged series from PBS’s National Program Service, as well as popular British dramas and comedies acquired from other distributors. Their results prompted PBS to take a deeper dive into the approach. “As we transition from a goal of gross dollars into a broader philosophy of the long-term value of donors, this seemed like a great time to look seriously at best practices with emphasis on sustaining donations,” said Joe Campbell, v.p. of fundraising programming.

Programs/Content

Stations find no easy replacements for soon-to-be-canceled Tell Me More

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The cancellation of NPR’s Tell Me More is leaving pubradio program directors struggling to fill the gap left by the show, which presented diverse viewpoints that some programmers say will be difficult to replace. Program directors still have a month to come up with an hourlong replacement. Tell Me More goes off the air Aug. 1, a victim of budget cuts at NPR and its limited reach through carriage on 136 NPR stations. Its core constituency within NPR’s membership consists of stations licensed to historically black colleges and universities and other stations seeking to reach minority listeners.

Quick Takes

Chair of rival public radio station criticizes GPB’s entry into Atlanta

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Three days after Georgia Public Broadcasting took over daytime programming on Georgia State University’s WRAS-FM, Atlanta’s other public radio station, WABE, released an open letter criticizing the channel-sharing agreement. Dr. Louis Sullivan, chair of the board of directors at Public Broadcasting Atlanta, which owns and operates WABE, called the deal between GPB and GSU “bad public policy.”

The agreement, which took effect June 29, gives GPB control over the 100,000-watt station’s programming between 5 a.m. and 7 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekends. The arrangement also provides GPB with a presence in on Atlanta airwaves for the first time. Previously, the news/classical format WABE was the city’s only public radio station. In his letter, Sullivan pointed out that WRAS is now airing NPR’s Morning Edition and All Things Considered at the same time that WABE runs those programs. WABE is already serving the Atlanta market, said Sullivan, who called on GPB and GSU to modify or terminate their agreement.

Programs/Content

Proposed NPR clocks would add morning newscasts, longer underwriting credits

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A proposed revamp of NPR’s newsmagazines would allow for longer underwriting credits, expand the number of morning newscasts, and incorporate American Public Media’s Marketplace Morning Report as a baked-in segment within Morning Edition. NPR is announcing the changes today to staff and member stations after working with stations on the revisions for more than a year. The network will solicit and review feedback from stations over the next two weeks, aiming to implement the changes by Sept. 22. “These changes give Member Stations new flexibility to meet local audience needs while ensuring that Morning Edition and All Things Considered remain vibrant national programs that continue to fuel the public radio economy,” NPR said in a memo to stations.