WBEZ Workers Unionize

I admit that I'm a bit behind on news and trends in public media. My three paying gigs are taking up more of my time.

I find it intriguing that another public media outlet is unionizing. Chicago Public Media workers voted 40 - 7 in favor of joining the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

Does the need to organize represent that public radio is growing up, at least at the larger stations? It might also mean that workers feel a need to protect themselves against management. I do recall putting in a lot of hours and getting little in return because I believed in the mission. Being let go a few times flies in the face of those beliefs.

You can find more in Trib-Town with a link to an article in the Chicago Sun Times.

Contributions to Public Radio and TV intersect

As contributions to public radio continue to increase...the contributions to public television continue to decline.

This trend has everything to do with programming. The reasons for the sad decline in programming can be attributed to the splintering of the marketplace but, public radio is feeling the same pressures. Public TV has done, at least in part, this to itself.

Those of us who have been around the system for a while remember the research put out by Audience Research Analysis called the Stairway to Given.

ARA called it the Stairway to Given
1.      Aware of the services/a user of the service.
2.      The user relies on the service.
3.      The content or service must be personally important.                    

Personal importance and sense of community. This is the idea that the content and                     the services are the ties that bind together people with certain shared values.  

4.      Funding Beliefs – Users must believe their support is crucial. They must understand that funding from other sources is only a piece of the fiscal puzzle. Individual support is the most reliable source of income.  

5.       Household income is a contributing factor in whether someone will give, but that it is not nearly as significant as the other steps of The Stairway to Given. People give because they rely on the service, find it personally important and believe their contributions are truly needed.

It starts with the content. There's a direct correlation between the loyalty of the audience and its willingness to contribute. PTV seems to have lost that along the way. Each time I stumble across another showing of Celtic Woman or another broadcast of the Moody Blues, I've wondered if others have found this to be as far off mission as I do. Do these fundraisers really appeal to the core audience? And, if PTV can't fundraise around core programming, what does that say? The answer always seems to be more fundraising!

There's a really good graphic published in Current.Org that shows this trend. The statistics are provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Maybe Fox News should be renamed

Obamacare v. Philippines typhoon: How cable covered two big stories

Pew Research offered information on coverage of two major stories during the same time period last week.

Pew did analysis of the amount of time spent on each story by Al Jazeera, CNN, FOX and MSNBC.
The two channels with a political agenda, Fox and MSNBC, spent most of their time on Obamacare. Al Jazeera and CNN were much more balanced in their approach.



Al Jazeera focused more on news. The American counterparts were more focused on opinion instead of news.  The report points out, "In the sample studied, it offered by far the least amount of opinion (41%) when it came to commentary and opinion versus reporting or fact-based statements. That compared with 72% opinion on CNN, 86% on MSNBC and 97% on the Fox News Channel."
The report also pointed out that Al Jazeera's audience is really small. Does that mean the American audience prefers opinion over news? ( I think the avoidance of Al Jazeera runs much deeper.)

Since Fox News is 97% opinion...are they really a news organization? Maybe they should just be FOX.

Layoffs Continue in Houston

Houston radio station fires its main on-air talent

Bold Predictions Fall Short

The news from Houston is stunning...but not in a good way. Four mainstays KUHT's classical service (KUHA) were let go. Back when KUHT acquired KUHA from Rice University...management predicted Houston Public Media would double its audience. Despite the predictions, layoffs started in 2011 and have continued. The article in Culture Map - Houston says the layoff came shortly after a disastrous on-air drive for KUHT and KUHA. An update to the article states, "A media relations representative claims that the leaked results of the recent fundraising drive are not accurate — and that they did not play a role in the layoffs."
The four let go include Bob Stevenson, Elaine Kennedy, Chris Johnson and Chris Hathaway. Bob Stevenson has been a part of Houston Public Media for decades.

Recurring Fundraising Dream

There was a time when I was responsible for the fund drives at WNPR. That continued even after Connecticut Public Broadcasting united donor development into one department. The fund raiser became a partnership...a collaboration.

Dreaming about Fund Drives
Just before every drive I had a recurring dream. In that dream nobody called. Since I was also responsible for content, the dream also meant that my choices for programming had no appeal to the audience. The axiom of "Significant Programming for a Significant Audience" proved false. The implications of the dream was that the programming was not significant and the audience it generated was not interested in voluntarily supporting the programming. The dream never came true. I worked with some talented content people who worked hard at programming that appealed to a significant audience.

There were ways of measuring what we were doing that helped predict what areas of our scheduled would be successful during the fund drive and what areas would be more difficult. I wrote a couple of articles with the help of the folks at Audience Research Analysis for Audience 98. You can read about it. Public Service Economics and Connecticut Public Radio By The Numbers. It's public radio geek. When I presented this stuff to upper management and the board, their eyes glazed over. They didn't get it. Because of the time put into the research, because we did our homework trying to understand how the audience used the content, the bad dream never came true.

That Same Old Feeling
I'm experiencing some of the same foreboding. We're about to launch an appeal for donations for the FOCUS Center for Autism. I'm working for them as Development and Marketing Coordinator. The audience is much smaller but, the content is significant and meaningful. FOCUS Center for Autism became a non-profit organization in 2000 under the name of FOCUS Alternative Learning Center. What began in 1996 as an after-school program and a camp in the summers for children and adolescents on the Autism Spectrum is now an intensive and growing clinical continuum of care. In 2009 we expanded our Extended Day Treatment Program to include the morning hours and to offer a Clinical Education Program that targets children who are having a difficult experience in their traditional school system. This program coupled with our After School Program offers a comprehensive clinical model that promotes social, emotional and academic growth. The FOCUS Extended Day Treatment Program has developed into a well respected community-based model of treatment that has now served over 500 children and families.

The challenge is getting the word out to a much smaller audience.
 

Lead in Mugs

An Unsafe Premium
Vermont Public Radio discovered that one of the mugs it offered in the middle of the last decade has high levels of lead. VPR reports they tested all 34 of the mugs produced in the past decade after concerns were raised recently. 11 mugs contained lead. One was found to have unacceptable levels. Members are being notified not to use the mug. The issue is being reported in Foster's Daily Democrat.

What's Next?
Many of public radio's and public TVs mugs come from a couple of sources. Where they are actually manufactured might be an issue. Does this mean public broadcasting (and other non-profits) should get their mugs tested? I have several mugs I got as premiums. I'm drinking out of one right now. It does give me pause.

Public Radio Fundraising

Fundraising Off Message 
What would happen if a portion of the pitches focused on outcomes?

So much of what I'm hearing locally is all about premiums. There are long descriptions about mugs, holiday wreaths and CD's.  Are these things really the reason listeners tune-in to public radio?

Outcomes
Part of the pitch should be about outcomes. The outcomes should be from the listener's perspective instead of the station's internal focus. An internal focus might be something like, "With your contributions, we were able to hire two new reporters. We're hoping for more this year!" An example of a positive outcome from a listener's perspective might be testimonials about the value of reporting from a listener's perspective. "You're reporting on the plant closure in the Quiet Corner" gave me a greater understanding to the implications of long term unemployment on the economy. The stories in your series brought home the human toll of joblessness." Something like this takes preparation but, is effective in driving home the unique value proposition  of Public Radio's content.

Balance
It is not about what we need. It is not about the premiums. Premiums are inducements. The real reason people listen is the compelling content. If the content matches the lifestyle and values of a large enough portion of the audience on a consistent basis, listeners become contributors. There needs to be a balance in the message points. Talent needs to make sure there is a balance between the case and the close. Long pitches focusing on a mug or a bouquet of flowers as a premium might motivate some donations but, they are off point. They ignore the built-in advantage of listener loyalty to content that matters.