System/Policy

Pittsburgh’s WQED implements layoffs as part of restructuring

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Pittsburgh’s WQED implemented layoffs this week as part of what it called a “minor reorganization” to help bring expenses in line with projected revenue. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported Tuesday that WQED laid off three full-time employees and one part-time employee. The station also reduced five full-time employees to part-time and cut four vacant positions from its budget. “With the start of its new fiscal year on Oct. 1, 2014, WQED will reorganize staff to reflect the changing media landscape,” the station said in a prepared statement.

System/Policy

Libertarian Senate candidate sues Kentucky Educational Television over exclusion from campaign forum

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A Libertarian candidate for the U.S. Senate is suing Kentucky Educational Television, contending that the station is barring him from an upcoming candidate forum due to his political viewpoint. In a complaint filed Sept. 28 in U.S. District Court in Frankfort, David Patterson, along with the state and national Libertarian parties, asked a judge to order KET to include him in its Oct. 13 forum. The suit requests a temporary restraining order to prohibit enforcement of KET’s requirements for participation.

Capital Public Radio

As methods for online giving grow, stations should prepare for ‘different fundraising landscape’

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A mobile tipping point came earlier this year. For the first time, mobile devices accounted for 55 percent of Internet usage, according to January data from comScore, while laptops and desktops accounted for 45 percent of usage. The proportion of Americans who read email on their mobile devices has also crossed the halfway point, with a 2013 Pew Research Center survey finding that 52 percent of cellphone owners used their devices to send or receive email. For development professionals planning email appeals for year-end fundraising campaigns, these technology shifts will support or undercut the effectiveness of your efforts. Most donors who open your messages will read them on smartphones and tablets.

Programs/Content

OPB, Center for Investigative Reporting launch public TV version of Reveal

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A new series from the nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting brings extensive investigative journalism to public television in four hourlong episodes. In its short run, Reveal aims to find new and engaging ways to tell investigative stories. Available to stations starting today, the show is presented by Oregon Public Broadcasting and distributed by the National Educational Telecommunications Association.  

An episode of Reveal is composed as a visual counterpart to a newspaper — starting with a topical, longer report, moving on to shorter reports and ending with an informative animation component. In one episode, a story early in the show focuses on a woman from Afghanistan who ran away from an arranged marriage to be with the man she loved, only to be found and sent to prison by her father.

System/Policy

Buyouts, increased giving help NPR on track to break-even budget in fiscal 2015

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NPR expects that a boost in revenue coupled with spending cuts resulting mainly from a staff reduction will lead to the network’s first balanced budget in three years. A fiscal year 2015 budget presented at a Thursday meeting of NPR’s board of directors projected $190.2 million in revenue and $188.7 million in expenses. Depreciation and other cash adjustments are anticipated to eat up the $1.5 million overage, leaving NPR with a balanced budget. “This will be the first balanced budget since 2011,” said Roger Sarow, chair of the board’s Finance and Administration Committee and g.m. of WFAE-FM in Charlotte, N.C. “It was unbalanced three years out of five, and that just wasn’t sustainable.”

NPR reported a $681,000 surplus as of the end of July based largely on a 4 percent reduction in expenses, compared to a $1.1 million loss at the same time last year. Regardless, NPR is still projecting a deficit by Sept.

Programs/Content

New public radio show convenes diverse panel for different take on events

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A new show from the African-American Public Radio Consortium examines issues through the views of artists, activists, academics and journalists — all of them women of color. Hosted by longtime broadcaster Esther Armah, The Spin now airs on WNAA in Greensboro, N.C.; a digital channel of WWFM in Trenton, N.J.; and the Internet station Radio Phoenix. It also airs on commercial radio in Accra, Ghana, and Armah hopes it will find a home on London airwaves as well. Stations in Atlanta and Chicago have also expressed interest. Armah formerly worked for BBC Radio 4 and Pacifica Radio’s New York station, WBAI.