Programs/Content
NEA grants boost public media groups, filmmakers
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The endowment provided nearly $880,000 to public media organizations and other nonprofits that create or support media projects centered on the arts.
Development
Iowa Public Radio secures funds to develop innovation projects
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A new fund backed by an anonymous donor will allow IPR to “test and develop new ideas … that have the potential to make a big impact for our listeners.”
Programs/Content
How Scott Carrier is navigating the plight of the lone, listener-sponsored podcaster
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Producers who have left public radio to go solo as podcasters have made some outstanding work. But the work has sometimes made them emotional wrecks.
Ethics
Survey finds ‘areas of sensitivity’ in foundation support for nonprofit news
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Most newsrooms lack clear guidelines, and funders are upfront about agendas.
System/Policy
Republicans’ proposed budget would zero out CPB funding
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Though its chances of advancing in Congress are considered slim, the proposed budget put forth this week by House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan would zero out funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Ryan said in the budget document released Tuesday that federal subsidies for CPB and the National Endowment for the Humanities could “no longer be justified.”
“The activities and content funded by these agencies go beyond the core mission of the federal government,” the document reads. “These agencies can raise funds from private-sector patrons, which will also free them from any risk of political interference.”
The proposed budget does not stipulate whether the zeroed-out funding would apply to the already appropriated two-year funding cycle, or whether it would be implemented after the forward-funded cycle. Patrick Butler, president of the Association of Public Television Stations, said the proposal was expected. Ryan’s staffers told Butler a few weeks ago that the proposed budget would include zeroed-out funding.
Quick Takes
House Appropriations subcommittee reportedly will propose eliminating CPB
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The House Appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over CPB is pushing once more for eliminating government funding to public broadcasting in its fiscal year 2014 budget proposal, according to the New York Times.
Quick Takes
House Appropriations proposes cutting NEA, NEH funding in half
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The House Appropriations Committee has proposed cutting funding to the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities by 49 percent for fiscal year 2014.
System/Policy
Reimagining public media outside of its ‘ever-shrinking box’
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At a Media Impact Funders event, attendees considered new funding models and new ways to measure the impact of public media’s efforts.
Programs/Content
Pacifica orders austerity cuts after grim auditors’ report
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Responding to a June 15 auditors’ report expressing “substantial doubt” that the Pacifica Foundation has the financial wherewithal “to continue as a going concern,” Executive Director Arlene Engelhardt recently notified the five Pacifica radio stations to prepare for deep cuts in their budgets and staffing. The audit, which examined the foundation’s finances for fiscal year 2011, was the second consecutive report questioning Pacifica’s financial viability. Although Engelhardt disputed the auditors’ warnings — “We can always take to the air and raise money,” she said — she directed the stations to make cuts of at least $1 million from their collective budgets. The reductions were to be made immediately, but at Current’s deadline, decisions being made at local stations could not be confirmed. While Pacifica has made substantial progress in reducing its operating deficit from $2.7 million in fiscal 2009 to $564,000 in 2011, “we still have not made inroads on the debt,” Engelhardt said in a telephone interview.