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.

Poor Health Coverage/Poor Reporting

Public says news coverage of health care law shortchanges practical information

Pew research says most of us are unhappy with the way the Affordable Care Act is being covered. According to Pew a majority of Americans say the news media’s coverage of the law has been focused on politics and controversies, rather than how it will impact people. By focusing on the rhetoric, the public is being shortchanged on the facts on how the plan will affect them.

The Kaiser Health Track Survey (the source for the survey) suggests the reporting on the issue has resulted in a lack of trust of the media on this issue.

"More than half (53%) of those surveyed say there is not a news media source that they trust for information about the health law; 44% said there were news outlets they trusted. Of those who said they trust one or multiple news sources, 19% cited cable TV, with 10% naming Fox News and 5%  naming CNN. Broadcast TV outlets and newspapers ranked second at 7% each."

I clicked through to the Kaiser Health Tracking Poll. Only 3% trust NPR's coverage and 2% trust PBS' coverage. The coverage of late on NPR has been more about how the ACA will be implemented but, public perception is that public broadcasting's coverage is not to be trusted. This runs counter to public broadcasting's perception that it the nation's most trusted news source.  http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2013/02/4th-annual-tv-news-trust-poll.html

Stretching the Meaning

This may be a stretch but, an interpretation of the research may be that the public is tired of the partisan politics perpetuated by cable news outlets like Fox, MSNBC and conservative pundits. The controversy is wearing all of us out when the real story is how the ACA is going to work. "How is this change going to affect my health coverage?" Partisan politics and partisan media coverage that fuels the partisan divide is getting us nowhere.

WNPR.ORG coming back Updated

This is long overdue. Wnpr.org was supplanted a few years ago by yourpublicmedia.org in an effort to create a more robust news website. WNPR took a risk when they did this. The move abandoned a really effective branding...WNPR. It also led to confusion. They were always talking about two websites and one of them took the listener away from WNPR. When the change was made it was deemed necessary because the experience of navigating through the CPBN site was frustrating. Unfortunately the move to yourpublicmedia.org left listeners confused. The question was...are you WNPR or are you Your Public Media?

Why did the change fail? I think the motivation for the change was internally driven. It was not driven by the user experience. To make things worse, the partnerships developed with yourpublicmedia never really evolved. It was always hard to find WNPR's content on the site. At least from my perspective, the user experience was frustrating when trying to find stories aired on WNPR. I gave up.

Now all they have to do is find the resources needed to keep the site updated and relevant.