System/Policy

WHYY prototypes dashboard to measure audience engagement

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An attempt by Philadelphia’s WHYY to measure the impact of its news website has its execs asking bigger questions about the best ways to gauge success in public media. In July 2013, WHYY needed an accurate and effective way to measure the progress of NewsWorks, the station’s digital news venture, launched in 2010. The station talked with CPB, a primary funder of NewsWorks, about integrating an R&D budget for site analytics into the next phase of NewsWorks’s grant. “At some point during that conversation, we got to talking about Google Analytics and how many phantoms Google Analytics make people chase,”said Chris Satullo, v.p. of news and civic dialogue at WHYY. The popular analytics service provides data that, according to Satullo,“sound really important but [are] really set up for e-commerce” rather than public service.

Programs/Content

New This American Life podcast will serialize investigative stories

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This American Life announced today that it will launch a new podcast this fall, titled Serial. TAL host Ira Glass said on the show’s blog that the weekly podcast will feature longform investigative stories broken into chapters, with a chapter per podcast. It will launch with a crime story that will run for 12 weeks. “Our hope is that it’ll play like a great HBO or Netflix series, where you get caught up with the characters and the thing unfolds week after week, but with a true story, and no pictures,” Glass wrote on the blog. “Like House of Cards, but you can enjoy it while you’re driving.”

System/Policy

There once was a public radio station from Nantucket…

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A public radio station in Nantucket, Mass., that previously aired a simulcast of Boston’s WGBH has recast itself as a full-fledged service hyperfocused on the resort island. Nantucket Public Radio’s 89.5 FM WNCK signal had aired WGBH’s classical music programming for the better part of a decade. When talks broke off over increasing WGBH’s payments to the station’s operator, the parties decided to walk away amicably. “We thought, so what do we do with the station now?” said Jeff Shapiro, owner of Nantucket Public Radio.

Programs/Content

StoryCorps launches initiative to collect LGBT oral history

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The oral-history project StoryCorps is expanding its vast archive of Americans’ personal stories with OutLoud, a special initiative focusing on the LGBTQ community. In particular, OutLoud is seeking stories of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people who were born before the Stonewall riots, the watershed moment that sparked the modern gay-rights movement. OutLoud launched June 28, the 45th anniversary of the riots in which the patrons of the Stonewall Inn, one of New York’s most popular gay clubs at the time, retaliated against the police department vice squads that frequently raided gay bars. StoryCorps is collecting OutLoud stories at its venues in Atlanta, San Francisco and Chicago, and elsewhere with its mobile recording booth. It is also partnering with public radio stations and local LGBT organizations.

System/Policy

WCNY in Syracuse, N.Y., cuts seven from staff

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WCNY in Syracuse, N.Y., has laid off seven employees in a staff restructuring. “We are being prudent as we grow,” station President Robert Daino told Current. “We are continuing to hire in some areas of the organization. And we’re realigning staff to where we believe we need to focus.”

The cuts, first reported June 23 by the local Post-Standard newspaper, were made across several departments. Daino said that programming and community services “will not be impacted in any way.”

The station is currently advertising for a radio program director, web developer and part-time producer.

System/Policy

Supreme Court declines to review ban on political ads on public TV

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The Supreme Court rejected a request Monday from the Minority Television Project (MTVP), licensee of public TV station KMTP in San Francisco, to review a circuit court ruling that upheld a ban on political and public-issue commercials on public television. The justices turned down the case without comment, allowing the December 2013 decision of the 9th Circuit Court to stand, which upheld barring the advertisements. In its petition, MTVP asked the court to overturn its 1969 decision in Red Lion Broadcasting Co. v. FCC, which allowed the government to restrict some broadcast content. That aspect of the case prompted amicus briefs from organizations including the libertarian-oriented Cato Institute.

System/Policy

GSU considers options to keep student-run WRAS programming on FM

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Georgia State University announced Friday that it is searching for a new FM frequency for student-hosted music programs, which will soon be cut from daytime hours on GSU’s WRAS-FM. Starting Sunday, GSU will air public radio news and talk programming provided by Georgia Public Broadcasting from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m., replacing the student music shows. The agreement, announced May 6, has drawn criticism from GSU students and WRAS fans. In its announcement, the university said it has hired engineers and media consultants to look into broadcasting the student-produced content on an FM translator. That idea was first suggested by a group of WRAS supporters known as Album 88 Alumni in a proposal sent to the university Wednesday. The deal between GSU and GPB included providing a 24-hour HD Radio stream for the student station, but few people own the radios needed to pick up the digital signals.