Election Coverage Down

33% - This Time Around, Less News from the Campaign

The Pew Research Center says election coverage is down 33% in 2012 from 2008. One of the reasons might be that in 2008 both parties had contested primaries. The Democratic Primary was not decided until May. This year there was no Democratic Primary. The Republican Primary started off strong but fell off the 2008 pace in February and March.

Now that the general election is off and running, coverage should pick up again.


Could the drop in coverage be the result of downsizing in print media?

Steve Myers wrote for Poynter that Media General Execs finally realized that the downturn in print media was not part of a cycle.  Media General sold most of its papers to Berkshire Hathaway. Clay Shirky is quoted in the article as saying, "many of the papers (Warren) Buffett has invested in will have reduced both print days and their newsroom staff, and journalists will be writing the “What went wrong with the Media General deal?” story."


Many other papers have already cut back. In my region, The Hartford Courant has been cutting staff for over a decade. The New Haven Register has been teetering on the brink for years. Drops in reporters has an effect on coverage.

KWPA Moves to the Web

Low Power KWPA could no longer afford to be the on the air. The signal was available to only a few hundred people around Coupeville. The listener supported, all volunteer station serving Whidbey Island, Washington could no longer support the broadcast operations. It went off the air last year and has re-emerged on the web. The potential audience is now worldwide.

In an interview in the Whidbey News Times, Board President Gwen Samuelson says the station still needs to raise an operating budget. They're looking to raise $15,000 by the end of the summer to remain in operation. $15,000 is considerably less than the cost of operating the broadcast signal according to Samuelson.

Is internet radio a better option than LPFM? It's less expensive and it can reach more listeners.

The Whidbey Island Center for the Arts still own the licence for the 30 watt station.

Whidbey Map

NPR Informs Its Listeners

Fox Viewers are the Least Informed
Fox Reacts

A poll from Fairliegh Dickinson University found that NPR listeners, the Sunday Morning Talk show and The Daily Show are best informed. Viewers of partisan sources like Fox News and MSNBC are least informed. The results were released by the University's Public Mind Poll. NPR listeners were well informed on international stories and domestic stories. Fox News viewers were less informed than those who watched or listened to no news at all.

Andrew Beaujon reported in Poynter.org Fox News responded by attacking the university instead of addressing the poll and its results.
Fox used an unnamed source. Was that for deniability?

You can read the results here:  Public Mind Poll

Buffett Shows Faith in Local Journalism

Warren Buffet is buying newspapers. He recently purchased 63 dailies and weeklies including Media Generals newspaper chain.
The Omaha World Herald is reporting that Berkshire Hathaway purchased the papers because Buffet believes that local journalism is important and that the papers, if run by his people, will improve their profitability.
Deal shows Buffett's faith in community newspapers - Omaha.com


And, Julie Moos writes in Poynter.org that Buffet is not done buying papers. Poynter's business analyst Rich Edmonds says the deal is attractive to Berkshire because of real estate and other hard assets.
Combined, it's a real boost for local journalism which has been in decline in the past few years.

Fact Checking David Sedaris

After the Mike Daisey controversy, some in the media are questioning if it is appropriate for NPR and This American Life to air segments by humorist David Sedaris. An article in the Washington Post's Lifestyle section wonders if the segments by Sedaris are appropriate for news programming? You can read the article  here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/david-sedariss-exaggerations-in-memoirs-npr-nonfiction-program-raise-questions/2012/05/13/gIQAm9QONU_story_1.html

I've always understood that Sedaris was telling stories based on events in his life embellished to add humor but, the issue is being seriously considered.

This American Host Ira Glass says there are three courses of action being considered. "Fact-checking each of Sedaris’ stories to ensure their accuracy, labeling them to alert the audience that the stories contain “exaggerations” or doing nothing."


Is this examination taking this issue too far? 

New Buyer for WMFE-TV

The Orlando Sentinel is reporting that Independent Public Media is helping a community group put together a plan to buy WMFE-TV. The former PBS affiliate went up for sale over a year ago. Initially a faith based group wanted to buy the station but, that deal fell through after the group had difficulty meeting the requirements of the FCC.

IPM is developing a new model for community television that helps struggling public television stations "operate sustainably and in ways that reflect the full spirit of the legislation upon which educational public television was founded." Funding support for IPM is coming from five non-profits that make up The EBS Companies. 

For opera on WVPR, is the fat lady singing?

WVPR West Virginia Public Radio is facing what so many other public radio stations have faced in the past. The traditional programming model model of the 80's included NPR news in drive time with with some other format mid days and perhaps a third format in the evening. Weekends often included a potpourri of programming. I worked at a few stations that followed the same programming model. As funding sources changed, pressure increased to present programming that would generate listener and underwriter support. Decreasing support from taxes put more pressure on this situation.

Programs with declining or small audiences don't generate enough listener sensitive income to keep deficits away and offset declining government support.

An interview in Gazette Mail with WVPR's James Muhammad takes you through the reasons for his programming changes.

I've been through this several times. The changes can result in lots of negative feedback. In the instances I was involved with we rode out the storms. The result were a better community service. It doesn't always work out that way.

About 15 years ago Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) and West Virginia Public Radio tried to move The Met off the air. In both cases there was enough pressure brought about by listeners, major donors and legislators to pressure the stations into putting The Met back on the air. In WPR's case it was a majot contributor to the University that forced the station to reinstate The Met.

So far...published comments and responses to the news has been light

Have you been through similar changes? What was that experience like? What did you learn? What would you do differently?

For opera on WVPR, is the fat lady singing?  - A&E - The Charleston Gazette - West Virginia News and Sports -

WUIS Moves Classical - Changing Focus

Changes on the horizon for WUIS

Public radio affiliate switches weekday focus from music to news

The IllinoisTimes reports that WUIS, Springfield announces they will take classical music off WUIS-FM and replace the midday offering with News/Talk programming. Classical music will be available on-line through the station's Website and on HD2. The programming will be provided by APM's Classical 24.
The launch of the new programming will coincide with the station's launch of a locally produced Illinois Central. The first half hour will focus on news. The second half hour will focus on the arts.

Compare this coverage to the coverage WNPR got from the Hartford Courant when the station changed it's programming. The Courant was able to include some immediate reaction from the classical music audience.

Jacobs Media’s All-Format Techsurvey8 Results

Jacobs Media’s All-Format Techsurvey8 Results
Jacobs media is sharing the initial results and info-graphics from their eighth annual tech survey. After all these years...companionship is still one of the main emotional triggers to listen to radio. Local personalities and favorite songs are still the main reasons to tune-in.   Could compelling local content keep listeners tuning in?

There are survey results from the Media Audit that suggests  Pandora is the number one radio station in Los Angeles. The method used to retrieve the data is a bit wonky. They use phone surveys once every two years. According to the Tech 8 survey, Pandora is now used by 18% of radio listeners. 43% of radio users consider Pandora to be radio.

Celebrities as News Source

Study: Celebrities played role in spreading news of bin Laden death | Poynter.
Steve Myers reports for Poynter that Celebrities played a major role in spreading the news about Osama bin Laden's death on Twitter. Myers sites research from the Georgia Institute of Technology. They found that initially traditional news sources led the way. As time went on...a select group of celebrities became the source of tweets about bin Laden's death.

News organizations fared well early.

What does this have to say about where people are getting their news? The top two celebrities being followed on Twitter are Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber. I can imagine the water cooler conversation (or social media buzz)  "Hey did you hear? Lady Gaga just tweeted that bin Laden is dead!"