PubMedia Commons

PBS Digital Studios further expands web video output

Andrew Lapin — Thu, 23 May 2013 18:00:58 +0000

PBS Digital Studios is expanding its web video output with three new YouTube series: Deep Prep, UnderH2O and Short of the Week. Continue reading →

NJTV will air new six-part American Songbook series this fall

Andrew Lapin — Thu, 23 May 2013 18:00:06 +0000

New Jersey Television and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) of Newark are partnering on a new six-part cabaret music television series, American Songbook at NJPAC, to debut on NJTV and WNET this fall. The series will be produced … Continue reading →

In a Fragmented Media Market, New Jersey Hopes to Thrive with Mobile, Collaboration

Zach C. Cohen — Thu, 23 May 2013 17:07:46 +0000

MONTCLAIR, N.J. — At a conference at Montclair State University titled, “New Jersey: A Laboratory for Media Innovation,” sponsored in part by the Knight Foundation, newsrooms large and small weighed the current problems and opportunities in New Jersey’s current media market, laying out a microcosm of the challenges facing the American news business and how [...]

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NPR, Its Member Stations, and Trust

RadioSutton — Thu, 23 May 2013 16:49:00 +0000

Trust is a funny thing in public radio. The industry’s business model is built on listeners trusting what they hear on public radio and public radio trusting that listeners will voluntarily pay for content they get for free. It’s been a pretty good business model for the last several decades.

Yet within the industry there always seems to be a large measure of distrust between NPR and its member stations, the very entities that deliver the highly-trusted, highly-valued content to listeners.

We’ve been reminded of that distrust quite a bit since Current published our proposal for NPR to raise money directly fromlisteners. Everyone agrees NPR-direct fundraising would be effective. Some think the idea is great, in principle, but need more details on how it would work. Equal numbers disagree with the economic model we proposed and believe that effective fundraising for NPR would be disastrous for stations. Almost all questioned whether NPR could be trusted to act in the best interest of stations if given this fundraising power.

This level of distrust isn’t new. It existed in the early days of NPR, through decades of impressive audience and revenue growth, and into this age of digital disruption. That distrust existed, to different degrees, no matter who was sitting in the President’s office or who was second-in-command at NPR. That distrust has spanned a couple of generations of station managers.

Multiple trust-building efforts and exercises haven’t been able to exorcise the distrust. It is institutionalized.

Institutionalized distrust goes all the way back to the early 1980s and NPR’s financial crisis. It’s worth reading up on that crisis if you don’t know the story.* In short, the entire public radio business model was overhauled to save NPR from going under due to financial mismanagement and many stations backed a loan to as part of the NPR bailout.

Back then member stations had to vote on NPR’s budget every year, with board members and some station managers questioning line item expenses of just a few hundred dollars. NPR’s annual membership meetings were rancorous affairs that always ended with NPR getting budget increases and all parties leaving with bitter feelings.

There were also difficult battles over macro and micro programming issues, from a 4pm Eastern Time start for All Things Considered to giving stations more local cutaway opportunities in the newsmagazine program clocks. Every year stations were paying NPR more money but not getting the attention, respect, or services they felt were needed to grow. Seeds of distrust were sown.

Fast forward to today.

Most stations are paying NPR somewhere around 15% of their gross revenues for the rights to broadcast NPR programs. That’s the highest percentage in the history of the industry.
NPR now requires stations to pay for digital services whether they want those services or not.
NPR is now competing directly with its member stations for listeners.
NPR is now competing with stations for major donors.
NPR is experimenting with raising money directly from listeners for the first time.

To summarize, stations pay NPR a lot of money and NPR remains an obstacle and threat to station audience and revenue growth. Some things never change.

There have been times when the bonds of trust have been stronger than others. Sometimes those bonds were strengthened by people at NPR and at stations. Those bonds lasted only as long as the people lasted in their jobs, sometimes less than that. On a few occasions, those bonds were strengthened by new policies at NPR. Those bonds had more staying power.

One policy in particular was NPR’s decision to “lockdown” pricing for its news programs at a fixed percentage of total station revenues. That change in policy -- how money changed hands in public radio – went a long way towards improving the NPR/station relationship. It put an end to the battles over NPR’s budget and created a stable and predictable economic model that allowed NPR and stations to invest their money and energy into program and revenue growth.

The lesson – the bonds of trust between NPR and its member stations are just as much about policy as people, maybe even more so. A certain measure of trust can be institutionalized. Or perhaps more accurately, a certain measure of distrust can be prevented through good policy.

That’s going to be important in the next few years. Public radio continues to get severe warnings from experts inside and outside of public radio about the dangers of digital disruption. That disruption is already a source of increased distrust between NPR and stations. The disruption will only become more severe with time. Greater distrust will follow unless NPR and its board choose policies to minimize it.

One way to build trust is flip the public radio economic model on its head. NPR will never build sufficient trust with stations as long as it is charging stations more money than ever while actively taking listeners and donations away from those stations. Conversely, NPR could lay a strong foundation for trust by putting in place policies that put money in stations’ pockets and helps them grow audience.

We think our NPR fundraising proposal is a valid approach. We’ve also fielded several other ideas since our proposal was published. We will explore some of those in the coming weeks.

* Amazon link to "Listener Supported" by Jack Mitchell

With a $60K grant, Futuro Media Group asks: “News or Noise?”

Andrew Lapin — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:08:14 +0000

Using a $60,000 grant from the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, the Futuro Media Group has added a segment to its NPR-distributed program Latino USA encouraging critical thinking about news coverage. Continue reading →

Writing a tornado narrative, with Esquire’s Luke Dittrich

Paige Williams — Thu, 23 May 2013 14:58:27 +0000

The news out of Moore, Okla., couldn’t help remind us of the historic tornado in Joplin, Mo., and of one narrative in particular: Luke Dittrich’s National Magazine Award-winning Esquire piece on how a group of strangers survived by crowding into a convenience store cooler. The scenario, which happened two years ago yesterday, was echoed this [...]

BBC Online Briefing: Work plan

Andy Conroy — Thu, 23 May 2013 14:52:30 +0000

It’s spring (at last) and BBC Online is gearing up for another BBC Online Briefing, the fourth in the series. As last year, we are in London in Radio Theatre, right next to the BBC’s new HQ in New Broadcasting House. The Briefing is being held on Friday May 24.

Daily Must Reads, May 23, 2013

Julie Keck — Thu, 23 May 2013 13:56:58 +0000

1. After hijackings, Twitter adds two-step security feature (NYT) 2. Inside Google’s secret lab (Businessweek) 3. Objectivity and the decades-long shift from ‘just the facts’ to ‘what does it mean?‘ (Nieman) 4. Pilot program for digital measurement standardization announced at the Independent Magazine Media Conference (Folio) 5. BBC unveils experimental ‘Perceptive Radio’ that offers personalized content (The Next Web) 6. Nancy Lublin on capturing...

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Wasting energy? “Erratic” radio gives you wrong frequency on purpose

Matthew Lasar — Thu, 23 May 2013 12:48:46 +0000

I am reading Evgeny Morozov’s diverting book To Save Everything, Click Here: The Folly of Technological Solutionism. The conclusion mentions a variety of machines that act dysfunctionally in some way, but for a purpose—to alert the user that s/he is … finish reading Wasting energy? “Erratic” radio gives you wrong frequency on purpose

E-Books & Self-Publishing Roundup, May 23, 2013

Julie Keck — Thu, 23 May 2013 12:37:12 +0000

1. Can Stephen King impact the future of e-books? (Bright Side of News) 2. Amazon to launch commercial fan fiction platform (The Bookseller) 3. 5 things indie authors do very well (Indie Reader) 4. E-book publicity: A checklist for success (Digital Book World) 5. 10 challenges to innovation in publishing (Futurebook) Subscribe to get this newsletter delivered straight to your inbox!

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Soo Meta is a Storify for Video

Lauren Hockenson — Thu, 23 May 2013 12:30:34 +0000

As far as newsgathering tools go, Storify has radically changed how reporters navigate breaking news and information on social media. In just a matter of clicks, a writer can pull together dozens of tweets, videos and photos onto one platform and collate it into one thorough, complete story. Although it provides for media, there isn’t an easy transition from one video to another.

Now, reporters can create high-impact story compilations with Soo Meta, a video mashup tool that enables users to piece together different Youtube clips to create a cohesive story based around a topic or idea. Users can pull in information from Youtube, Pinterest and Twitter and create full multimedia compilations. Each segment can be controlled and clipped, so only the most important parts of a video would make it into the final piece.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The Old Grey Lady: The Times Needs to Get Over ‘Snow Fall’

Karen Fratti — Thu, 23 May 2013 12:08:52 +0000

Like most people, I have a fear of getting really old. You know how sometimes you see an old, grey lady in the supermarket grumbling about the price of milk and scowling at the clerk who tries to help her? I don’t want to be her one day. Other times, I see a woman of the same, grey age on the street with a cooler handbag than I currently do, tweeting her way down 6th Avenue with friend and think, ‘there you go! That’s how I’m going to be!’

The New York Times is both of these grey ladies, all of the time.

By asking Scrollkit to take down their replica and reference to ‘Snow Fall,’ the Times looks a little cranky. I’m no Lawrence Lessig, but like Cody Brown, I can see how his video ‘could be’ fair use. Asking him to cease and desist using any mention of the Times on their site? That’s a little draconian. But what do I know.

In any case, the New York Times has been, and still is, a benchmark of decent journalism and decent survival rates online. But it’s going to have to play nice.

Cool Grey Lady: Experimentation continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

13 Lessons from Killing Our College Daily Paper and Pushing Digital

Ryan Frank — Thu, 23 May 2013 11:00:33 +0000

The party, the pizza, the beer and a duck changed everything for our campus newspaper. On a warm October night last fall, 500 students celebrated the start of our Revolution. They sipped Revolutionale beer and swarmed the free pizza. They danced to the DJ and goofed off at the photo booth with the Duck — the [...]

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The Crowd and the Mob: Opportunities, Cautions for Constant Video Surveillance

ccrittenden@citris-uc.org — Thu, 23 May 2013 11:00:00 +0000

Recent events in Boston highlight both the potential and hazards of ever-present cameras. In the hours following the April 15 bombing, law enforcement agencies called upon commercial businesses and the public to submit relevant footage from surveillanc...

New Sport Pilots from Connected Studio

Matthew Clark — Thu, 23 May 2013 08:00:28 +0000

Regular readers of this blog will know that Connected Studio has been a hot topic over the past year with most areas of BBC Online having a turn. It’s gone particularly well for my team, Sport, where 40 ideas from the initial sessions have been whittled down to the four strongest to take through to...

Tumblr CEO David Karp’s Wild Ride from 14-Year-Old Intern to Multimillionaire

Dorian Benkoil — Wed, 22 May 2013 23:08:29 +0000

Yahoo on Monday announced it had acquired Tumblr for $1.1 billion. A mentor to Tumblr creator and founder David Karp reveals new details about the formation of the platform and the genesis of the visionary entrepreneur. Media entrepreneur Fred Seibert ...

Julian Dawkins, shuttle driver for PBS NewsHour, fatally shot in Virginia

Andrew Lapin — Wed, 22 May 2013 19:50:06 +0000

Julian Dawkins, the shuttle driver for PBS NewsHour's Arlington, Va. employees, was fatally shot the night of May 21 in Alexandria, Va., by an off-duty deputy sheriff. He was 22. Continue reading →

Want an Affordable Infrared Camera? Give to Public Lab’s ‘Infragram’ Project on Kickstarter

shannon@publiclaboratory.org — Wed, 22 May 2013 19:31:37 +0000

This post was co-written by Public Lab organizer Don Blair. Public Lab is pleased to announce the launch of our fourth Kickstarter today, "Infragram: the Infrared Photography Project." The idea for the Infragram was originally conceptualized during...

Arizona PBS’s Eight will promote the miniseries Latino Americans May 23

Andrew Lapin — Wed, 22 May 2013 18:00:28 +0000

Two events at Arizona PBS’s Eight on May 23 will launch promotions tied to the three-part, six-hour documentary series Latino Americans, coming to PBS this fall. Continue reading →

Voice Recording in the Home Studio

Jeff Towne — Wed, 22 May 2013 16:51:18 +0000

Everything you'd want to know about how to record professional-sounding narration when you don't have access to a studio. From independent producer Yowei Shaw and Transom's Tool Guy, Jeff Towne.

Pubradio contenders dominate radio division of Sigma Delta Chi Awards

Erica Sanchez — Wed, 22 May 2013 16:00:13 +0000

Public radio reporters took all nine awards for radio reporting in this year’s Sigma Delta Chi Awards, which recognize outstanding reporting on radio, TV and the Web by national and local news organizations. NPR’s Ina Jaffe, Quinn O’Toole and Steven … Continue reading →

YPPubmedia young professionals’ group welcomes first advisory board

Dru Sefton — Wed, 22 May 2013 15:27:48 +0000

YPPubmedia, a nonprofit group affiliated with DEI dedicated to “connecting young professionals in pubmedia to supportive national networks,” today announced members of its first advisory board. Serving are Chris Bay, interactive web producer, KDHX, St. Louis; Vanessa Harris, marketing director, … Continue reading →

Left, Right & Center host launches new KCRW podcast

Andrew Lapin — Wed, 22 May 2013 15:03:43 +0000

Matt Miller, host of KCRW's weekly news-analysis show Left, Right & Center in Santa Monica, now also hosts the biweekly This . . . Is Interesting, 15 to 20 minutes of conversations with thinkers and public figures about ideas in politics, economics and culture. Continue reading →

TV News Search and Borrow: Knight Foundation Funds Expansion of Internet Archive Service

Karen Fratti — Wed, 22 May 2013 15:01:19 +0000

The Internet Archive announced this week that it received a $1 million donation from the Knight Foundation to expand it’s TV News Search and Borrow archive of television news clips. As of now, the archive has just over 400,000 clips that the public can access, link to, or borrow a hard copy for a fee.

“We want to make all knowedge available to everyone, forever, and for free. So it’s an ambituous mission,” laughs Roger Macdonald, the archive’s television news project director.

And it all comes down to closed captioning.

The San Francisco based non-profit records broadcasts, and teases out the news using closed captioning tags and other meta-data. Twenty-four hours after the first airing, the clip is available in the archive. It’s an invaluable resource for journalists, researchers, and documentarians to study what was said, when, where, and in what context. Want to play John Stewart? Go ahead and search clips of ‘Benghazi’ on Fox last week. It can also be used for more noble causes, like tracking political speech. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Sesame Workshop partnering with educational publisher Teaching Strategies

Dru Sefton — Wed, 22 May 2013 14:47:29 +0000

Proclaiming that “it’s time for the positive impact of Sesame’s educational content to be felt in schools as well,” Sesame Workshop on Tuesday announced a multi-year partnership between Sesame Street and Teaching Strategies, a Bethesda, Md.-based educational publishing company. Teaching … Continue reading →

WYSO Moves from University to College

Hollis — Wed, 22 May 2013 14:32:00 +0000

WYSO in Yellow Springs, OH is returning to its original owner.The station was founded in 1958 as a student station at Antioch College. But, in 2008, when the college closed, WYSO was taken over by Antioch University. The two are not affiliated.An...

FCC to allow waivers for pubcasters to raise funds for tornado damage relief

Dru Sefton — Wed, 22 May 2013 14:04:18 +0000

The FCC announced on Tuesday procedures for noncommercial television and radio stations to raise money on the air to assist victims coping with tornado damage in Oklahoma. The commission has already received and granted one waiver request related to relief … Continue reading →

Daily Must Reads, May 22, 2013

Julie Keck — Wed, 22 May 2013 13:39:00 +0000

1. Oklahoma governor thanks media for tornado coverage, local news social media sets records (Poynter) 2. Teens are tired of Facebook ‘drama,’ find refuge on Twitter and elsewhere, says Pew (The Verge) 3. Obama says journalists shouldn’t be prosecuted for soliciting information (Washington Post) 4. Sorry, Media, America couldn’t care less about the government taking AP’s phone records (Business Insider) 5. From Cronkite to [...]

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Pop Up Archive Makes Audio Searchable, Findable, Reusable

popuparchive@gmail.com — Wed, 22 May 2013 11:00:00 +0000

After an insane and memorable week at SXSW Interactive in Austin in March, we came away with our work cut out for us: improving Pop Up Archive so that it's a reliable place to make all kinds of audio searchable, findable and reusable. Thanks in no smal...

NowThis News’ Ed O’Keefe: Making Video News for Mobile ‘Changes Everything’

Jenny Xie — Wed, 22 May 2013 11:00:00 +0000

Typically, web content flows from a website into social media and mobile apps. NowThis News, founded last September by veterans of Huffington Post, anchors its content in its mobile apps. Original videos, in digestible lengths and narrated by young voices, stem from iOS and Android apps and flow to a minimal website and the network’s [...]

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