National Public Radio has become an “incredibly effective” outlet for music promoters, according to the Hollywood Reporter, in a feature that doesn’t dwell on the distinctions between public radio stations like Santa Monica’s KCRW, music features presented on NPR’s national programs, and NPR Music, the website that features exclusive preview streams of new releases. “NPR moves more albums and downloads proportionately than the commercial big boys, yet labels spend millions trying to penetrate those markets,” Shirley Halperin reports. “Call it ‘Yindie Rock,’ as in yuppie indie rock, modern music for boomers with loads of disposable income.”

The Columbia Journalism Review has launched the News Frontier Database with profiles of an initial 50 prominent digital news sites. The database “is a searchable, living, and ongoing documentation of digital news outlets across the country,” the industry mag said. “Featuring originally reported profiles and extensive data sets on each outlet, the NFDB is a tool for those who study or pursue online journalism, a window into that world for the uninitiated, and, like any journalistic product, a means by which to shed light on an important topic.” CJR aims to make the database “the most comprehensive resource of its kind.”

The recommendations of the PBS membership dues review committee are not a done deal, PBS President Paula Kerger told NETA attendees in Nashville. “It’s not a case of the train has left the station and is gone.” And Kerger noted that PBS and the committee are aware of concerns in the system, particularly regarding the older population figures used in the dues formula. The committee is meeting Friday (Jan. 14) in Washington, D.C. to examine the station feedback, and there will be another opportunity for comment as the process moves ahead. And whatever is decided, she added, will be phased in over a number of years to minimize the effect on stations.

The NETA crowd at the national confab in Nashville is joking that the top pubcasting orgs collectively known in the system as the G4 – CPB, PBS, APTS and NPR – are slowly morphing into the P4: Leaders Pat Harrison, Paula Kerger, Pat Butler … oh, wait, Vivian Schiller needs to get onboard with this.

Elvis Mitchell, host of the KCRW pubradio program The Treatment, has landed a film reviewing gig at the Movieline website after mysteriously departing Roger Ebert Presents At the Movies. When Movieline issued its press release Wednesday (Jan. 12), Ebert Tweeted: “Must every story about Elvis mention our TV show? We like him, we admire him, and there’s no big story about how we didn’t come to agreement.” Oops. Sorry Roger.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) said Wednesday (Jan. 12) said he sees freeing up spectrum a “priority,” and any legislation will “likely include voluntary incentive auctions,” which will require Congress to authorize paying broadcasters to give up their spectrum. Also on Wednesday, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said at the Brookings Institution that he was hopeful, but not sure, Congress would approve that authority.

Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.), who reintroduced two bills to defund public broadcasting last week, is engaging in a war of words with NPR. The Hill reports that in an e-mailed response to his legislation, NPR called Lamborn’s goal misguided and said it would insert the federal government into news decisions at local stations. “It seems ironic that Congressman Lamborn, who seeks to withdraw federal support for public radio, wants federal legislators in turn to assert control over how local public radio stations can make use of programming funds,” NPR said. Then Lamborn e-mailed a statement to the conservative Daily Caller website to disagree.

Sure, she was snowed in. But WGBH’s media archivist Karen Cariani in Boston was still able to interact with the audience in Nashville via the wonder of technology for the American Archive session today (Jan. 12) at NETA’s national conference. (“It’s not snowing anymore, but still blowing,” she reported.) That’s e.p. Amy Shumaker of South Carolina ETV to the left of Cariani, and Matthew White at the podium, he’s the executive director of the ambitious project to identify, digitize and organize countless hours of historic pubcasting content. Before updating attendees (don’t forget, Jan. 31 is deadline for inventory grants), White showed an American Archive promo that brought a delighted round of applause: It contained a grainy, black and white recording of legendary newsman Edward R.

The Directors Guild of America has announced its nominations for best documentary directors for 2010, and Lixin Fan is on the list. His film, “Last Train Home,” airs on P.O.V. this year. It’s the latest in a long line of nominations and awards for the film, which follows migrant workers as they travel from Chinese cities to their home villages for the New Year’s holiday.

How did NPR News make such a huge and serious error in misreporting that Rep. Gabrielle Giffords had been killed during the Jan. 8 shooting in Tucson? NPR Ombudsman Alicia Shepard reports that information fed to the newscast unit by KJZZ News Director Mark Moran and NPR Correspondent Audie Cornish was from anonymous sources and and neither provided accurate, first-hand accounts. “Typically, in a big, fast-breaking news story like this, senior editors should have been consulted before going on air with devastating news based on sources NPR would not name,” Shepard writes. “But that didn’t happen.” Andy Carvin, NPR senior social media strategist, posted the erroneous news on two NPR twitter accounts, but opted not to delete the tweets.

CPB announced at the NETA conference that within the next two weeks, it will issue a request for proposals for its $12 million Public Media Project 12: Operation Graduation. Nine Network of Public Media in St. Louis and WNET/Thirteen in New York City are partners in the project, which aims to raise awareness nationwide of the high-school dropout crisis and develop innovative local solutions. Twelve stations will be selected as community hubs, based on the severity of the dropout rate in its market, existing educational partner relationships, and station capacity to sustain the initiative for at least 18 months. Also, the National Center for Community Engagement will provide grants to any CPB-funded licensee to participate in the work.

Think the DTV transition complicated life at your station? Just wait for the FCC’s spectrum repacking and stacking. In a crowded session at the NETA conference today (Jan. 12), CPB, APTS and PBS reps detailed the challenges that await pubcasters. “All stations will be impacted,” even those that don’t participate in an anticipated spectrum auction (Current, Feb. 8, 2010), said Mark Erstling, CPB’s v.p. for system development and media strategy. The shift in channels “will have a cascading effect” on channels nationwide, he said. As John McCoskey, head of PBS technology, added, “It’ll be a big turn of the crank that will shuffle stations across country.”

Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) has proposed the first series of spending cuts in this year’s newly GOP-controlled House – and eliminating CPB funding on the list. As the Washington Post’s Federal Eye blog points out, “Brady chairs the Joint Economic Committee and is a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee – perches likely to put him at the center of the Congress’s forthcoming debate on government spending and deficits.” Brady calls his bill the Cut Unsustainable and Top-heavy Spending, or the CUTS Act.

There were more questions than answers in today’s (Jan. 11) NETA session on the Editorial Integrity for Public Media project. Ted Krichels, director of Penn State Public Broadcasting, and Tom Thomas, co-c.e.o. of the Station Resource Group, updated attendees in Nashville on the public TV and radio work to develop a framework of principles, policies and practices for a pubcasting system facing increasingly complex ethical challenges. What are appropriate boundaries between funders and subject matter? Is it acceptable for a funder to be an editorial partner? Do funding standards differ between news and non-news programming? How can a station ensure that a collaborative, multiplatform project is handled ethically when it is just one partner in the work?

The exit of Ellen Weiss as NPR’s top news exec — a departure linked to the hasty and controversial firing of long-time news analyst Juan Williams — stirred up lots of opinion last week. Here’s a sampling: NPR Ombudsman Alicia Shepard: “Any damage that Williams may have caused NPR with his occasional intemperate remarks on Fox — which was definitely a problem for NPR —was infinitesimal to the damage NPR management did to the company with its ungracious firing.” David Carr of the New York Times: The entire incident leaves NPR President Vivian Schiller “leading a divided organization into a critical budget battle.”