Development

Public Media Platform to focus on business planning in project’s second phase

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DENVER — The Public Media Platform is moving into the next phase of its CPB grant, shifting its focus to developing a sustainable business plan and more ways for public media stations to access the content. PMP Executive Director Kristin Calhoun announced the project’s next phase July 9 during the “Digital Day” conference leading up to the Public Media Development and Marketing Conference in Denver. CPB’s five-year, $8 million grant to PMP provided $6 million for the nearly completed build-out and $2 million for the “operational phase,” which winds down on an incremental basis through 2016, according to Michael Levy, CPB executive v.p. of public affairs. The PMP is an application programming interface (API) that provides easy access to both public radio and public television digital content. Public media’s top distributors — NPR, PBS, Public Radio International, American Public Media and Public Radio Exchange — have guided its build-out phase as project partners; they will continue their support, Calhoun said.

Tech

Demo Day marks ‘rite of passage’ for Matter startups

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Matter, the first startup accelerator backed by public media, unveiled the latest iterations of its inaugural class’s technology products June 13, introducing its first six teams of entrepreneurs to the venture capitalists of Silicon Valley.

Programs/Content
Meyerowitz photo of ocean with headline LISTEN in orange

From scratch at Cape & Islands

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There are now enough public radio stations to reach more than 90 percent of the American public, and pubcasters have adding specialized stations to increase listening options in areas where pubradio already exists. So it’s rare that all-new stations arise, especially in the East, or can afford to get going with sparse populations. An exception: the twin stations of Cape & Islands Public Radio, WCAI on Cape Cod, Mass., and WNAN on Nantucket Island. Founder Jay Allison, a nationally prominent independent radio producer, surveyed colleagues nationwide for advice on the stations’ sound. A selection of the responses:

Jeffrey Dvorkin, [then] v.p., news, NPR, Washington, D.C.

This is an opportunity that doesn’t come along very often.