Covering Issues and Ideas

Transcending Geography

This article is not about local vs national coverage. It is about getting the most out of what stations can offer locally. Thinking about coverage from the perspective of the listener will help guide the focus of your content. It is an argument I made for years in music programming. It is an argument that often fell on deaf ears. That is, until we found ourselves creating barriers between our programming and the audience we were hoping to serve. Change came about slowly, but I like to think at WNPR we learned our lesson. It bears repeating.

Users of public media transcend local. Research I was a part of at Connecticut Public Broadcasting demonstrated clearly the world perspective public radio listeners have. This worldly view is not just a phenomenon in Connecticut. Broader research conducted for the public radio system through The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), The Public Radio Program Directors Association (PRPD) and others demonstrated the preference of public media users to look at issues from a broader perspective. The Sense of Place Study clearly pointed out that local coverage for the sake of being local was not an effective use of the media's resources.

Covering Issues

At WNPR we decided in 2006 when looking at format change to look at the issues and ideas that defined where we live rather than geography. Part of reason was pragmatic. Connecticut is governed by over 160 town governments. The attitude in Connecticut is that the issues in Hamden have no relationship to the issues in Waterbury. Or, that's in Hartford...not here. The thinking in the system at the time was to center coverage on a region like Chicago, New York or the Twin Cities. Connecticut did not have a regional center. Focusing on one area would make WNPR local and irrelevant to much of the state.. We decided to look at issues and ideas from a much broader perspective.

Others are taking this approach. WAMU recently announced they would realign their news coverage to key issues rather than geography. The key areas of their coverage will be Transportation and Development, Education and Inequality, Race and Ethnicity, Power and Influence, and Arts and Culture.

WUWM in Milwaukee is also covering news from an issues perspective. The news drop down  menu on  their website reveals coverage in the Environment, Economy & Business, Politics & Government, Education, Health & Science, World, Arts & Culture, and Project Milwaukee. Station Manager Dave Edwards mentioned that this approach is working out well for his station.

A Lucrative Decision

The decision at WNPR to focus on issues and ideas proved beneficial to the audience and the station. Increases in audience and loyalty followed. The launch of Where We Live by a very talented staff highlighted and enhanced coverage engaging the stations audience, Opportunities to develop partnerships in the community followed and so do did funding opportunities.

A Collaborative Effort

CPB announced in February a collaboration they are funding for regional coverage among several stations in New England. The geographic coverage will focus on issues and ideas. According to a release from Vermont Public Radio, "The New England News Collaborative (NENC) will produce multimedia coverage focusing on the region's energy usage, climate, transportation infrastructure, and its people and immigration issues. This robust partnership will produce dynamic reporting projects for on-air broadcast, digital and web presentations, and a series of public Town Hall-style meetings centered on issues facing New England and its residents."

WNPR will run the collaboration which will depend on the talents of reporters and producers across the New England states. The stations involved in the project are Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network, WBUR,Maine Public Broadcasting Network, New Hampshire Public Radio, Vermont Public Radio, New England Public Radio, Rhode Island Public Radio, and WSHU Public Radio.

Beyond Seed Money

The ability of the stations to keep the project going after the grant runs its course will depend on how willing they are to play nicely with each other. Certainly, the coverage will present opportunities for growth on all platforms. It will be up to the station to use the content to leverage partnerships and funding opportunities and put that revenue back into the partnership. It can work. 

SEO and Public Radio

I was doing a search on stories about the power outages in Connecticut. Around 800,000 power company customers were without power after the pre-Halloween storm. Many of those customers were still without power last night, the seventh night after the storm. Because of the slow response, CL & P (Connecticut Light & Power) has come under increasing criticism.  I was curious about how the public radio stations were covering the story. I went to Google and typed in CL & P and Connecticut Light & Power.

When I did a news search under CL & P, I scanned through 15 pages. When I searched under Connecticut Light & Power I scanned through 15 more pages. The primary NPR news stations serving Connecticut, WNPR, WSHU and New England Public Radio, did not appear.

A disclaimer or two - When it comes to website optimization, I'm a neophyte. I worked at WNPR for 21 years and at New England Public Radio for a month.

According to Wikipedia, Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results. In general, the earlier (or higher ranked on the search results page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine's users. 


Despite the resources and efforts put in by these stations to cover the storm and the outages, finding a web presence through Google was futile. (I did notice a lot of links to Patch.com.) In order for potential listeners to find public radio on the web in Connecticut, I think it is going to take a better effort to use Search Engine Optimization. Perhaps, a concerted effort to use keywords when posting? Google says that would make a difference.

Public Radio Expanding Reach in New England

WSHU is acquiring two stations from Cox Radio. According to The Hour online Cox has agreed to sell WNLK (1350 AM) and WSTC (1400 AM) -- both based in Norwalk -- to WSHU.
WNPR added another set of calls to its legal ID. WAIC, Springfield was added to their groups of stations Tuesday afternoon. WAIC was or is licensed to American International College.


Here's the release from CPBN about the deal with American International...
HARTFORD, Conn. (October, 2011) – WNPR/Connecticut Public Radio and WAIC 91.9 FM at American International College (AIC) in Springfield, Massachusetts, recently signed an agreement to exclusively air WNPR programming on the college’s radio station. The new 24/7 service will provide listeners with popular National Public Radio (NPR) programs, such as “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered,” as well as WNPR’s award-winning signature talk shows: Where We Live, The Colin McEnroe Show and The Faith Middleton Show.


http://www.cpbn.org/waic-and-wnpr-launch-collaboration-bring-new-programming-springfield-market

WDUQ's Uncertainty May Make Them Stronger

The Pittsburgh Post Gazette has published a thoughtful and hopeful article by Adrian McCoy about the future of WDUQ in Pittsburgh. The strength of WDUQ's community support may make it possible for WDUQ to support itself. The help of Public Radio Capital an organization with previous experience with this type of situation, might make it possible.

The article sites a similar situation on Long Island at WLIU. I think WDUQ is in a much stronger position. The Pittsburgh station already gets 50% of it's funding from members and gets considerable support from corporations. They have robust audience figures. And, they have very little competition for the NPR news they offer (plus program offerings from Public Radio International and American Public Media). WLIU is starting from scratch. Listener Sensitive Income at WLIU was almost non-existent before the sale of the station to Peconic Public Broadcasting, and their fundraising efforts are still short of what they need. WLIU's audience is small. And, there's plenty of competition for the NPR news audience from WSHU and Connecticut Public Radio.

Also important to both stations is their community service. Local programming can create networks of support throughout their communities if done well. I think it was Audience 98 that concluded, "Community service begets community support." The formula worked for us at WNPR.