Quick Takes

WHYY resignations reportedly disrupt talks about large grant

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The departure of Chris Satullo from WHYY has complicated talks about a potentially large grant to the station, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported Saturday. According to the paper, Satullo, former v.p. of news, and Matt Golas, managing editor of WHYY’s PlanPhilly, recently pitched to four major philanthropies the idea of starting PlanBurgh, a website about urban planning in Pittsburgh. The site would be similar in scope to PlanPhilly, a Philadelphia website that WHYY acquired in February. Golas and Satullo sought to raise $1.5 million, according to the Inquirer. The two were meeting with foundation representatives before Satullo’s departure was revealed Sept.

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.

Quick Takes

Tuesday roundup: Dingell to retire, PBS vs. NPR in March Madness, #SheDocs returns

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• U.S. Rep. John Dingell, who helped sign the 1967 Public Broadcasting Act into law and remained a staunch supporter of pubcasting, is retiring after a record 58 years in Congress. “I find serving in the House to be obnoxious,” the 88-year-old Michigan Democrat said at a Monday luncheon. “It’s become very hard because of the acrimony and bitterness, both in Congress and in the streets.”

• March Madness is approaching quickly, but this bracket competition has nothing to do with basketball. WHYY in Philadelphia is sponsoring PBS vs. NPR: Public Media Madness, which encourages pubmedia fans to vote for their favorite TV and radio personalities.

Tech

Start the presses: WHYY releases “print edition” of NewsWorks web site

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To promote its online local news platform NewsWorks, Philadelphia’s WHYY developed an unconventional campaign mimicking over-the-top advertising techniques and the limitations of news published in print. A team of designers and editors created a “print edition” of the online news site and used various tactics to distribute more than 36,000 copies to Philadelphia residents.  Beginning Oct. 22 commuters could pick up copies as a handout offered at public transit stations and temporary newsstands. In addition, residents of some neighborhoods received copies that were delivered to their doorsteps.

People

Pubcasters capture 21 national Edward R. Murrow Awards

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WLRN in Miami won large-market radio Murrows for feature reporting and use of sound. Chicago’s WBEZ also won for news documentary and hard-news reporting. The award for investigative reporting went to KQED and the Center for Investigative Reporting, both based in San Francisco, for “Broken Shield: Exposing Abuses at California Developmental Centers.”

Firelight Media

PBS discount plan a ‘no-brainer’ for WLVT

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The public TV station serving eastern Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley recently decided that the best way to survive as an independent station was to step back from its status as the primary station serving its market. For WLVT in Bethlehem, a small city less than 70 miles north of Philadelphia, becoming a PDP station “was a natural,” said Tim Fallon, acting c.e.o. “It just doesn’t make sense that two stations, just two channels away from each other, have exactly the same programming.”

WLVT, which is locally branded as PBS39, was hard-hit by budget cuts in 2009 when the state sliced its $1 million in annual support to $100,000. Nearly half of its staff was laid off. When longtime C.E.O. Patricia Simon stepped away in March, the board appointed Fallon, a businessman and longtime station board member and volunteer. After taking over at WLVT, Fallon came to an “alignment of vision” with WHYY President Bill Marrazzo on how the stations could complement each other.

Programs/Content
Chris Satullo

Satullo: You’ll make mistakes, so be sure to learn from them

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Do you have the courage to fail? I asked that leading question during a keynote address to public media journalists who attended “Taking News Digital,” a June 7–9 workshop exploring the lessons we’ve learned at WHYY since launching NewsWorks.org in November 2010. We have two years of experience launching and running NewsWorks as a digital, multimedia news operation with its own distinct brand. It blends reporting by WHYY’s news staff with the work of freelancers, content partners and users. CPB provided two grants totaling nearly $1.2 million to support the NewsWorks project.

Programs/Content

New Jersey’s pubradio operators step up coverage of Garden State

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Nearly a year ago, two of the East Coast’s largest metropolitan pubcasting powerhouses took over nine New Jersey pubradio stations, casting uncertainty over the future of public radio news coverage for Garden State listeners. The outlook has begun to brighten as New York Public Radio, operator of WNYC and WQXR, and Philadelphia’s WHYY have brought the New Jersey stations into their operational systems and refined plans to expand and deepen their reporting on New Jersey. For four decades, the New Jersey state government owned and subsidized public radio and TV services delivered through the New Jersey Network. Then last year, New Jersey policymakers decided they wanted out of the broadcasting business. WHYY acquired five stations and NYPR bought four.

People

Reber leaves NPR; Arganbright, Appleby launch firm; and more…

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CIR has hired ex-NPR investigative news head Susanne Reber. As senior coordinating editor for multiplatform projects and investigations for the nonprofit newsroom, Reber will lead national and international investigative and enterprise reporting projects, and guide the center’s team of health and environment reporters. Reber joined NPR in January 2010 to build and lead the network’s first investigative unit as deputy managing editor of investigations. She left NPR this month, according to a May 8 memo by NPR News chief Margaret Low Smith that was published on the Poynter Institute website. Smith put Senior National Editor Steve Drummond in charge of investigations while NPR determines “next steps for the unit’s leadership,” she wrote in the memo.