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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.

Quick Takes

Friday roundup: WUGA cuts local programming; channel sharing is “feasible”

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• WUGA-TV in Athens, Ga., is cutting all local programming from its schedule and eliminating six staff members as of June 30, the University of Georgia announced Thursday. The changes come as a result of a study requested by Jere Morehead, president of UGA, the station’s licensee. The study determined that the cost of ramping up local programming and student involvement for the station “was just too great relative to the cost of the operation,” according to the release. WUGA will switch to carrying the PBS World Channel full-time beginning July 1. The move will save the university about $565,000 annually, the release said.

Quick Takes

Thursday roundup: Pacifica standoff gets TV coverage, POV doc travels to Cuba

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• The standoff at Pacifica’s headquarters in Berkeley, Calif., got coverage on a local news program on Oakland’s KTVU. Executive Director Summer Reese is defying the board’s efforts to dismiss her and has camped out at the office, with supporters and even her mother in tow. Watch KTVU’s video and see the barricaded door, an air mattress used by the holed-up staff, and more trappings of this unusual episode. The report also features Pacifica Board Chair Margy Wilkinson, who is trying to fire Reese. Wilkinson alleges that at some point employees were shredding documents, which Reese denies in an oddly clipped statement in the segment.

People

KQED expands, Mundt returning to Louisville, and more comings and goings in pubmedia

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KQED has created two new multiplatform desks to expand the San Francisco station’s coverage of culture and politics. Two executives will oversee the Arts Desk. David Markus is executive in charge; he spent the past five years as editorial director of Edutopia, the George Lucas Education Foundation’s K–12 education support website. Arts Managing Editor Joe Matazzoni was the founding senior supervising producer of the Arts & Life section and NPR Books on NPR.org. The desk’s staff includes Arts Partner Manager Siouxsie Oki, previously KQED’s director of external affairs, and Arts Education Manager Kristin Farr, who has produced arts videos for the station.

Programs/Content

Women and Girls Lead goes global, extending outreach to five countries

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Women and Girls Lead, a public media–based outreach and empowerment program, has evolved into a broader international effort, seeking to drive positive societal change in Kenya, India, Bangladesh, Jordan and Peru. The public-private initiative grew out of the national documentary-based campaign created in 2011 by the Independent Television Service with funding from CPB. It is designed to build engagement around issues such as women’s leadership, violence prevention and economic empowerment. Films presented through the initiative include the five-part Women, War & Peace; The Interrupters, about a Chicago woman working to defuse gang violence in her community; and Strong!, profiling a champion woman weightlifter. More than 50 films have been distributed through the initiative so far, according to ITVS, and they have attracted an audience of more than 42 million through broadcast and online distribution.

Quick Takes

Wednesday roundup: Pew releases annual media report, advocacy group protests renewal of WGBH license

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• NPR’s monthly listenership hit an eight-year high in 2013 with an average of 27.3 million listeners each month, according to the State of the News Media study from the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, released Wednesday. NPR’s average monthly audience was up from 26 million in 2012. On public television, the weeknight broadcast audience for PBS NewsHour continued to slide, dropping 3 percent from 2012 to an average of 947,000 viewers. The average audience in 2012 was 977,000, down 8 percent from 2011, when the average audience was 1.06 million viewers. The Pew study also found that while legacy media, especially newspapers, continued to provide the bulk of content, audience for online news outlets continued to grow at a brisk pace.

Quick Takes

Monday roundup: TAL squelches PRX rumors; NPR Books boosts New Directions sales

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• This American Life has yet to decide on a new distributor, contrary to Chicago media writer Bob Feder’s report over the weekend that the show would go to Public Radio Exchange. Feder posted a correction today with a statement from TAL host Ira Glass. TAL hasn’t even started negotiations, Glass said. “We’re about to begin a round of talking to possible distributors,” Glass told Feder. “There’s also the option of self-distribution, which is attractive.”