Programs/Content

NPR delays implementing new program clocks until at least November

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NPR will postpone implementing new clocks for its flagship newsmagazines until at least November after hearing concerns that an earlier transition could interfere with stations’ fund drives and coverage of midterm elections. The network initially proposed starting the new schedules for Morning Edition and All Things Considered Sept. 22. But stations and the board of the Public Radio Program Directors Association asked for more time. When setting the initial date for implementation, NPR “did a good job of trying to find a time not in the middle of fundraising,” said PRPD President Arthur Cohen.

Programs/Content

Documentary series The View From Here attracts national attention with multimedia, audience interaction

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A documentary series produced by Capital Public Radio in Sacramento, Calif., focuses solely on issues in the station’s home state yet has attracted attention from NPR and a national audience by creating digital content to accompany hourlong radio documentaries. Launched in 2011, The View From Here comprises two in-depth multimedia documentaries a year. Though the focus is local, the show’s producers choose topics that often transcend California’s borders, such as high-school dropout rates and autism among adults. The most recent documentary, “Who Cares,” examined the physical and emotional toll of caring for parents, spouses and children with disabilities. In addition to a radio documentary, “Who Cares” included photos, videos and a blog, Caregivers Speak, which collects stories about family caregivers.

System/Policy

Former intern sues NPR, alleging employment discrimination

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A deaf college student has filed a lawsuit against NPR for employment discrimination, claiming that the network misrepresented the terms of the internship and failed to properly accommodate her needs during her employment. Catherine Nugent, a student at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., filed the lawsuit in the District of Columbia Superior Court in March. Nugent, a major in business administration, alleges that the network did not give her tools she needed to communicate with supervisors. The suit also claims that Nugent was assigned to teach sign-language classes to her colleagues though she had expected to learn about marketing. Nugent claims that NPR did not provide interpreters or interpreting software and fired her two weeks into the 10-week internship after she asked for accommodation multiple times.

NPR

NPR Labs to end run as stand-alone unit after losing consulting work

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NPR will integrate NPR Labs into its general budget and tighten its focus on public radio after almost five years of running the division as self-sustaining. Under the restructuring, NPR Labs will transition from its status as a stand-alone unit and move from NPR’s distribution division to its technology and operations division. NPR Labs will also drop the Technology Research Center name that it used to market consulting work to clients. The restructuring eliminated the top job at NPR Labs, held by Rich Rarey, a 34-year NPR veteran. Rarey, who will leave July 31, took the job of director of NPR Labs in February when founding director Mike Starling took a voluntary buyout offer and retired.

Programs/Content

Day One of NPR One: Some first reactions

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NPR’s long-awaited mobile app NPR One launched yesterday, allowing iPhone and Android users to tune into a stream of curated and algorithm-powered newscasts, segments, podcasts and local content. After a brief introduction from NPR host Guy Raz, NPR One prompts users to log in using Google, Facebook or NPR accounts. The app allows users to choose a local station, search for stories and programs and donate via voice-activated prompts. NPR is delaying a marketing push for the app until the fall, after station pledge drives, but eager users are already downloading NPR One and giving it a test run. At Nieman Lab, news analyst Ken Doctor discussed NPR’s aim to appeal to younger audiences and the risk NPR One might pose to stations.

People

Margot Adler, veteran NPR correspondent, dies at 68

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Margot Adler, a longtime NPR correspondent and former contributor to Pacifica Radio, died July 28 after a three-year battle with cancer. She was 68. The granddaughter of renowned Viennese psychotherapist Alfred Adler, she began her radio career in the mid-1960s as a volunteer reporter for Pacifica’s KPFA in Berkeley, Calif. Adler then moved to New York and joined Pacifica’s WBAI in 1972, launching and appearing on local talk shows. In 1978 she joined NPR as a freelance reporter covering New York and became full-time the following year.

People

Madison Hodges, longtime station manager and pubradio advocate, dies at 66

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Madison Hodges, a longtime manager of public radio stations and advocate for the system who worked to increase the community impact of pubcasters nationwide, died July 18 in Tallahassee, Fla., from cardiac arrest following treatment of a rare bone cancer. He was 66. Hodges ran several university-licensed public radio stations over the course of his career and served as executive director of the University Station Alliance. He also oversaw station services at NPR and spearheaded initiatives with the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program to increase community involvement, help licensees secure CPB funding, identify gaps in public radio’s coverage and quantify stations’ community impact for license-holders. He began his broadcasting career as a reporter for a commercial radio station in Little Rock, Ark., before joining the city’s public radio station, KUAR.

Programs/Content

New digital offerings from NPR, PBS promise closer look at how users consume content

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New digital offerings from NPR and PBS aim to give public media additional platforms for building online audiences while gaining insights into how listeners and viewers interact with digital content. These digital initiatives — PBS’s Membership Video on Demand service and NPR’s long-awaited NPR One app — were demonstrated and discussed during the Public Media Development & Marketing Conference in Denver July 9-12. The frequent name-changes for NPR’s mobile app during its development — it has been variously referred to as “Project Carbon,” “Infinite Player” and “MPX” — prompted laughter among PMDMC attendees when recounted by Zach Brand, NPR’s v.p. of digital media. But the roulette wheel has stopped, and the name NPR One is now locked in. The app, which will be released in a soft launch later this month, uses an algorithm and user feedback to create an audio stream fusing NPR content with newscasts and segments provided by stations.

Programs/Content

After criticism, NPR gives freer rein to upcoming ombudsman

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NPR has stepped back from plans to curtail its ombudsman’s duties after receiving criticism from journalists and leaders of its member stations. The blowback began with a blog post by New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen, who pointed out Monday that a job posting for NPR’s next ombudsman specified that the in-house watchdog should refrain from “commentary” and “judgment.” Edward Schumacher-Matos, NPR’s current ombudsman, will end his three-year term in September. Rosen saw the change in language as an effort to defang the ombudsman, which he argued would remove a valuable check on NPR’s reporting. Some station leaders noted Rosen’s post and shared his concerns.

Margaret Low Smith

Margaret Low Smith, NPR’s senior news veep, will depart for The Atlantic

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Margaret Low Smith, NPR’s senior vice president for news, is leaving the network to take a position with The Atlantic as president of its live-event division, AtlanticLIVE. Smith has worked for NPR for 32 years, heading the news division since 2011. Before holding that job, she worked as VP of programming. She started at NPR in 1982 as an overnight production assistant for Morning Edition. “Her departure will be felt as profoundly as any in recent memory,” NPR Chief Content Officer Kinsey Wilson wrote in an email to station executives.

Programs/Content

Stations find no easy replacements for soon-to-be-canceled Tell Me More

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The cancellation of NPR’s Tell Me More is leaving pubradio program directors struggling to fill the gap left by the show, which presented diverse viewpoints that some programmers say will be difficult to replace. Program directors still have a month to come up with an hourlong replacement. Tell Me More goes off the air Aug. 1, a victim of budget cuts at NPR and its limited reach through carriage on 136 NPR stations. Its core constituency within NPR’s membership consists of stations licensed to historically black colleges and universities and other stations seeking to reach minority listeners.

Programs/Content

Proposed NPR clocks would add morning newscasts, longer underwriting credits

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A proposed revamp of NPR’s newsmagazines would allow for longer underwriting credits, expand the number of morning newscasts, and incorporate American Public Media’s Marketplace Morning Report as a baked-in segment within Morning Edition. NPR is announcing the changes today to staff and member stations after working with stations on the revisions for more than a year. The network will solicit and review feedback from stations over the next two weeks, aiming to implement the changes by Sept. 22. “These changes give Member Stations new flexibility to meet local audience needs while ensuring that Morning Edition and All Things Considered remain vibrant national programs that continue to fuel the public radio economy,” NPR said in a memo to stations.

American Public Media

Salt Lake City’s KCPW hits fundraising goal to keep programming

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With a day to spare, Salt Lake City’s KCPW-FM hit its goal of raising $42,000 to pay off delinquent programming fees and avoid going dark. KCPW was six months in arrears on payments in programming fees to American Public Media. Station staffers took to the airwaves, sidewalks and online starting June 29 to try raising the money by July 3. The station hit the goal Wednesday afternoon. Of the $42,000, $12,765 came in from an Indiegogo crowdsourcing campaign.

Programs/Content

Pubradio news stations join iTunes Radio lineup

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Expanding NPR’s footprint as the first news provider on Apple’s iTunes Radio, 42 member stations join the  lineup today. iTunes Radio, which is integrated into Apple’s iTunes software, already features a 24-hour stream of NPR content that includes national newscasts and stories from Morning Edition and All Things Considered. As of today, web streams of 42 stations are being offered to iTunes users, including: KPCC in Pasadena, Calif.; WBEZ, Chicago; KWMU, St. Louis; KUT in Austin, Texas; North Country Public Radio, Canton, N.Y.;  KQED, San Francisco; WNYC, New York; Minnesota Public Radio and Colorado’s Aspen Public Radio. The 42 stations on the inaugural launch make up about 55 percent of all member stations that provide online streams of their broadcasts, said Bob Kempf, NPR Digital Services general manager.

Tech

Engineers seek solution to varied volume of satellite-fed programs

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A recent NPR study confirmed that what many have surmised for years is true: Public radio shows sent through the Public Radio Satellite System vary widely in loudness. An NPR working group that has been studying the issue found that roughly 53 percent of the content they examined deviated from standards PRSS recommends to keep volumes consistent. The group is looking at creating new best practices and implementing a software fix that could cheaply curb the problem. “It’s a big issue in the system,” said Paxton Durham, chief engineer at Virginia’s WVTF-FM and Radio IQ. “I’ve been here 24 years, and as long as I can remember there’s always been a problem.”

Research cited by NPR found that anything more than a 4-decibel change in volume can prompt listeners to adjust volume levels.