Current (https://current.org/tag/people-in-public-media/page/8/)
Audie Cornish, who guest-hosted ATC during Michele Norris’s 2012 leave of absence, becomes permanent co-host of the NPR newsmag, alongside Robert Siegel and Melissa Block. Cornish has been a reporter and host for NPR since 2006.
Stephanie Bergsma, the KPBS fundraiser who opened the door for Joan Kroc’s $200 million bequest to NPR, retired Dec. 10 after 30 years with the San Diego station.
NPR has added two journalists to its six-person race, ethnicity and culture unit backed by CPB and preparing for launch in the spring. The network hired Gene Demby, a Huffington Post editor and founder of the blog PostBourgie, as blogger and correspondent; and Shereen Marisol Meraji, a Marketplace reporter and former NPR producer, as a reporter. Demby started PostBourgie in 2007 and continues to contribute to the group blog, which covers race, class, gender, politics and other subjects. In 2009 the blog won a Black Weblog Award for best news/politics website. Demby also worked for the New York Times for six years as a writer and news assistant. In 2011 he joined the Huffington Post, where he managed the Black Voices channel through its launch; he also reported for the channel and served as its senior politics editor for much of this year.
PBS has restructured its senior management, effective immediately, elevating programmer/producer Beth Hoppe to chief programming executive and general manager, according to a memo circulated to PBS stations today. Chief programmer John Wilson, who has worn many hats since joining PBS in 1994, will focus on fundraising programs as senior v.p., pledge strategy and special projects. Wilson will “build on the experiments undertaken this year to reshape our pledge programming and will continue to work closely with PBS colleagues, producers and stations to develop these plans,” said PBS Chief Operating Officer Michael Jones, in his memo announcing the management changes. Hoppe signed on at PBS last year as one of Wilson’s deputies. She has specialized in nonfiction programming during a TV career that includes a run as one of PBS’s hottest producers and a stint producing and developing science programming for Discovery Studios.
The NPR Board elected Kathryn “Kit” Jensen of Cleveland’s ideastream stations as chair for the new board term that began last month.
Pubcasting veteran Allan Pizzato will succeed Randall Feldman as president of WYES-TV in New Orleans.
Following this week’s media scandal over allegations that were aggressively rebutted and later recanted, award-winning Sesame Street puppeteer Kevin Clash remains on a leave from his role as Elmo, one of the show’s most beloved characters. An accusation that Clash had an inappropriate relationship with an underage boy, published online early Nov. 12 by gossip news site TMZ, prompted Clash to request leave so that he could defend his reputation. Sesame Workshop, which looked into the allegations after learning of them in June, granted the leave and issued a statement:
“We . .
Puppeteer Kevin Clash, the performer behind Elmo, one of Sesame Street’s most beloved characters, has taken a leave of absence following news reports of an allegation that he had an inappropriate relationship with an underage boy, according to a statement released today by Sesame Workshop. The accuser recanted Tuesday afternoon (see update, below). The Workshop heard of the allegation in June, when a 23-year-old who claimed to have had a relationship with Clash at the age of 16 first communicated with the company. “We took the allegation very seriously and took immediate action,” the Workshop said in its statement. “We met with the accuser twice and had repeated communications with him.
NPR added new positions to its executive ranks with two appointments announced Nov. 1 by President Gary Knell.
NPR continues reorganization of its executive ranks with two senior hires announced today by President Gary Knell. Emma Carrasco takes over Dec. 3 as NPR’s chief marketing officer Dec. 3, a new position. Carrasco has 30 years of experience in advertising, branding, digital, promotions, communications and media.
Mary Pruess, outgoing president and g.m. of WNIT Public Television in South Bend, Ind., told Current she feels “very confident that the station is in a strong position to build on for the coming years.” The local South Bend Tribune reported today that Pruess had resigned. Pruess told Current she resigned on Monday, effective immediately. Steven Funk, station vice president of development and marketing, will serve as interim executive director while the WNIT Board conducts a search for Pruess’s replacement. Pruess is immediate past president of the Affinity Group Coalition’s Small Station Association.
Madeleine Brand, who quit KPCC Sept. 21, told Current that “outside offers just became too attractive” for her to remain at the Pasadena station. Her hourlong morning Madeleine Brand show, which premiered on KPCC in September 2010, morphed last month into Brand & Martinez, when former ESPN sportscaster A Martinez signed on as co-host. The show also grew into a two-hour program for national distribution and will include a mix of segments intended to appeal to minority audiences. The changes were backed by a $1.8 million CPB grant to Southern California Public Radio in December 2011 as part of the One Nation Media Project, bolstering reporting and programming for and about Latinos and other people of color in the diverse Los Angeles area.
Patricia Cahill, former g.m. of KCUR in Kansas City, Mo., is the first radio broadcaster to serve as CPB chair.
Israel “Izzi” Smith signs on at NPR in November as director of programming. His predecessor in the job is Eric Nuzum, who was promoted to v.p. of programming earlier this year. Smith has worked as a pubmedia consultant for almost 15 years, helping to introduce and manage programs such as Radiolab, PRX’s The Moth Radio Hour and State of the Re:Union. “Izzi is a true ‘connector,’ always trying to link good ideas, people and stations to serve audiences in bigger, more inclusive ways,” Nuzum wrote in a Sept. 5 memo announcing the hire to NPR staff.
Utah Education Network, the only public TV licensee to receive a federal broadband grant and to join the national US Ignite project to develop broadband apps, has appointed a Utah school superintendent, Ray Timothy, as its c.e.o. and executive director, effective Oct. 1. Timothy is superintendent of the Park City School District, former super of the rural Millard County district and a former deputy super of the state Office of Education. He succeeds Mike Petersen, who took a faculty position with Utah State University. Since Petersen left in January, the network’s interim chief has been Eric Denna, co-chair of the UEN Board and chief information officer of the Utah System of Higher Education and the University of Utah.
NPR has hired Monique Hanson, from YMCA of the USA, as its chief development officer. Hanson joined the YMCA in 2004 and served as senior v.p. and chief development officer for the $5 billion organization. In her position at NPR, Hanson will oversee NPR’s fundraising programs and work with stations and the trustees of the NPR Foundation Inc., a private nonprofit. “Monique has the experience needed to take NPR to new heights in fundraising,” said NPR President Gary Knell in a press release. “She brings vision and a collaborative spirit that will help us forge innovative partnerships with NPR member stations across the country.
The promotion, announced during the Television Critics Association Press Tour last month, was widely reported as an indication that Aronson will succeed founding Executive Producer David Fanning atop PBS’s investigative news centerpiece.
Bates, a producer/director who rose through the ranks to become network chief in 1996, announced his retirement plans June 22, initiating the second leadership transition for the state network’s top job since its founding 58 years ago. Bates arrived at NET in 1975 as a producer/director working on a one-year assignment. He ended up devoting his career to NET, earning a promotion to senior producer and eventually moving into fundraising. He became director of development for Nebraskans for Public Television Inc. in 1985 before being appointed to succeed Jack McBride, NET’s founding general manager, in the mid-1990s. “Rod Bates’ leadership has brought NET to the highest level of service in our history,” said Ron Hull, a semi-retired NET veteran who hired Bates as a TV producer more than three decades ago.
John Goberman has produced more than 200 live national telecasts since launching the PBS performance series more than three decades ago. Goberman was cited by Symphony Magazine as one of the 50 most important individuals making a difference in American music. He pioneered the video and audio technology by which concerts, opera, ballets and plays could be telecast during live performances without disruption of performers and audiences. His television work has garnered 13 national Emmy Awards, three Peabodys and the first Television Critics Circle Award for Achievement in Music. Goberman plans to focus on producing another type of performance that he helped to pioneer — “Symphonic Cinema,” in which orchestral scores are performed live to the films for which they were originally commissioned.
Leila Fadel, Cairo bureau chief for the Washington Post, signs on as NPR’s Cairo-based correspondent in July. She covered the Iraq War for almost five years and won a George Polk Award in 2007 for her reporting from Baghdad. She replaces Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, who will report from Kabul, Afghanistan, and then Berlin. Gregory Warner, a senior reporter for American Public Media’s Marketplace, will join NPR as East Africa correspondent, based in Nairobi, Kenya, in December. Warner now covers the economics and business of healthcare, but he’s previously reported from Afghanistan, Pakistan and the DR Congo.