Current NEWS FOR PEOPLE IN PUBLIC MEDIA
April 2020 | Vol. 39, No. 3 Fundraising tactics for a new kind of crisis
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NPR, stations join forces again to land major gifts
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L.A. collaboration defines at-home learning model
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PUBLIC MEDIA RESPONDS TO CORONAVIRUS CRISIS
Reporters overseas adjust to hazards of working in a pandemic BY AUSTIN FAST
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he coronavirus essentially froze Chinese public life in late January, but Marketplace China Correspondent Jennifer Pak kept hitting the streets of Shanghai to document the pandemic’s economic fallout. “Any reporter will tell you that all they want is to go out and speak to people,” Pak said. She loves visiting sources’ homes and businesses, finding it fascinating that people “open their doors and their hearts and tell us everything.” That’s not so easy in an era of social distancing. Security guards posted at practically every office, apartment building and shopping mall registered her name and passport number, and checked for fevers. In a day’s reporting, Pak could have her temperature checked up to a half-dozen times and not see more than 10 people on the streets. “A lot of it was just me, miking myself up and walking around and just explaining what was happening, so that I wasn’t necessarily talking to people,” Pak said. Two months later, cars and pedestrians had returned to the streets of Shanghai, but Pak said masks in public spaces, daily office disinfections and fever checks are still in full force. While U.S.-based journalists have adapted to remote reporting as social distancing has shut down American public life, inter-
PTV’s daily news shows reinvent their workflows on the fly BY JULIAN WYLLIE
W Marketplace China Correspondent Jennifer Pak interviews Shanghai resident Wu Lingmei, who says she will not dine at restaurants anymore because of the coronavirus outbreak. (Photo: Charles Zhang/Marketplace) national correspondents are making tough choices, like uprooting their lives to return home or braving the pandemic’s Italian epicenter in journalistic pursuit of the story.
Remote reporters without borders
Amid worries that border crossings might close in March, Phoenix’s KJZZ brought two of its foreign correspondents to Tucson, where they’re continuing to report on the northern Mexican state of Sonora from afar. KJZZ Mexico City Bureau Chief Rodrigo Cervantes opted to remain south of the border because he has dual citizenship. It’s a point of pride for News Director Al Macias that KJZZ opened a Mexico City bureau about four years ago to contribute to the station’s Fronteras Desk initiative, joined by a second Mexican bureau nearly two years ago in Hermosillo, Sonora. “As far as I know, we’re the only local NPR station in the country with foreign bureaus,” Macias said, noting they provide Arizonan listeners with coverage they won’t get elsewhere. “With the people that we have [in Mexico], we’re able to cover a lot of the issues that do have a direct impact on Arizona.” KJZZ pulled reporters Kendal Blust and Murphy Woodhouse out of Hermosillo just a few days before nonessential travel between the U.S. and Mexico ceased March 21. Macias said the reporters developed
a good book of sources during their time in Mexico to continue reporting, even as safety precautions limit them to internet or phone calls across the international border. These limitations are no different from the challenges facing many of the other journalists in KJZZ’s newsroom and around the country, Macias added. Although KJZZ’s foreign correspondents are itching to get back to Mexico, Macias said he’s prepared for his team to skip in-person reporting for weeks or even months. “We want to make sure the risk of anything with the pandemic is, if not eliminated, at least minimized. We want to make sure all the other political and transportation issues are not up in the air,” Macias said. Cervantes’ continued presence in Mexico City will give KJZZ “a good sense of what is going on from the Mexican government standpoint.” Recordings of action and ambient sound helps draw radio listeners into a scene, so Macias said his reporters have gotten creative. Deputizing National Guard members to gather cellphone recordings as they delivered food boxes was one way they added a little flavor to a story when the reporters couldn’t get into the field. In Shanghai, even Pak’s own radio turned into a source of ambient sound Continued on page 7
INSIDE THIS ISSUE KUOW’S JILL JACKSON SHARES LESSONS ON COVERING COVID-19 10 BUSINESS DIRECTORY 13 PEOPLE 5 Current.org
@currentpubmedia
hen Hugo Balta began directing news as EP of Chicago Tonight, he did not suspect that his first months on the job would be spent covering a global health crisis. “I’m walking on my third month at WTTW and if you were to have asked me in January how my first six months would go, I thought I would be just getting to know the team, observing and absorbing,” he said. “But then the second month this global pandemic hit, and things changed very quickly. I’m very fortunate and very grateful to be working with a team that’s experienced, talented and generous.” Like many newsroom leaders, Balta has Continued on page 15
Stations brace for downturns in underwriting income, seek new clients BY JULIAN WYLLIE
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evelopment executives and sponsorship sales consultants say public media’s underwriting income is in jeopardy as businesses absorb substantial financial losses due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Among the categories taking the biggest hits are entertainment and dining, two usually reliable sources of public media underwriting revenue. Many restaurants are closing their doors, and arts venues are postponing and canceling events until the disease is contained. Business income, which includes underwriting, accounted for nearly 14% of public broadcasting’s revenue in fiscal year 2018, the most recent year for which data is available. It’s the third-largest income source after subscribers and CPB’s appropriation. Public broadcasting revenue from corporate underwriting declined sharply during the 2008 recession, as corporations cut back on spending, and has not returned to pre-recession levels, according to CPB. It’s too early for WGBH in Boston to estimate potential underwriting losses, but clients are pulling back on spending, said Suzanne Zellner, VP of corporate sponsorship. The Continued on page 14
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CURRENT THINKING
How to recalibrate and press ahead with fundraising Emphasize public media’s enduring values and commitment to serving local communities
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Visit Current.org for more coverage:
BY MICHAL HEIPLIK
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any public media leaders have worked through challenging times before, steering our fundraising programs through natural disasters, terrorist attacks, domestic mass shootings and financial meltdowns. Today we find ourselves adjusting our fundraising approaches in the face of a global health crisis and unprecedented turmoil in the economy. We are navigating our way through uncharted terrain — a crisis without a defined horizon. The rapid rate of change, worsening news about the spread of coronavirus and uncertainties about when we will turn a corner toward recovery have left many of our colleagues at public media stations searching for answers on how to move forward. One thing is clear to me: Now is not the time to pause fundraising in public media; it is the time to adjust and press on. At Contributor Development Partnership, we are able to draw upon the largest repository of fundraising data in public media to identify fundraising trends, and develop and adjust strategies and messaging. Our entire team is working tirelessly, and remotely, to help stations manage through this unprecedented challenge. Recognizing this is a very fluid situation, here are some immediate thoughts on the best path forward from where we collectively stand right now.
Strengthening our community role
Many public media stations around the country are serving their communities in ways that are at the core of their public
COMMENTARIES
How the COVID-19 crisis points to a new path forward for public media (Photo: Gajus/Shutterstock) service mission: by producing and distributing programming that educates, inspires and entertains; by acting as conveners of community leaders, policymakers and subject-matter experts; by deploying educational, public safety and other community services; and by reporting as a trusted source for clear, concise, fact-based information. During this crisis, stations have unique opportunities to remind their audiences of the critical roles they play in the ongoing health of their communities. This work is possible only with donor support. The public is distracted, nervous and uncertain about when we might reach a turning point back to something akin to normalcy. With COVID-19 affecting a disproportionate number of senior citizens, some of public media’s most loyal donors are at greater risk than the general public. The lives of our donors stand to be far more disrupted than the population at large. With devastating losses in the stock market, donors will begin making tough decisions about their philanthropy. While the circumstances we’re dealing with today may be different from previous crises, know this: In such situations, donors don’t stop giving. They simply give to fewer organizations. This is why it’s critical that public media
remains high on the consideration lists of individual donors. When it comes to positioning and messaging, stations must accentuate the brand attributes that are the hallmark of public media — clarity, accuracy, accessibility, truthfulness, trust, objectivity and reliability. Most importantly, they must reaffirm the notion of being a local public service. Now more than ever, it is time to remind donors of our time-tested role in local communities.
Adjusting our fundraising channels
CDP draws upon data from 180 public media stations and collaboratively manages more than 700,000 active donors in support of our partner stations. We oversee nearly $100 million in membership activities annually. That leverage means our service partners, vendors and technology providers continue to work around the clock with little or no disruption to our fundraising services thus far. As a curator of best practices, we glean new insights every day from the membership programs that are underway across the county. In late March, we talked with development leaders from more than 30 of the nation’s largest nonprofits about how they are adapting to this new climate for fundraising. Continued on page 12
Letter from the executive director
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uch ink and many tears have been spilled over the coronavirus crisis we are facing. I’ve shed quite a few tears myself. And now, a little ink. We are all bearing witness to a world of pain and insecurity. None of us is immune from fear about the future. Still, we do our best to rise to this occasion. We provide essential information, take care of one another and, when possible, offer doses of relief from the weight of it all. Many of us are doing this from what used to be called “the comfort of home,” but now is a place of distraction and confinement. Our Zooms and hangouts are keeping us connected. And so is Current. There’s so much inspiration to be found in how public media organizations have risen to this unprecedented challenge. PBS stations have become our public schools by super-serving teachers, parents and students. NPR stations are telling the stories of nurses and doctors, farmworkers and grocery workers, small business owners and the newly unem-
ployed. The list of what you are doing is long and impressive; you can find it and add to it on current.org. I’m disappointed that we are not going to see each other during the many public media conferences that have been canceled so far this year. All of us are saving on travel costs at a time of financial uncertainty, but that’s little consolation for indefinite social distancing from our colleagues. Without our conferences, what holds public media together? How do we gain insight about our industry? How do we find ideas worth stealing? We turn to Current. We are here for you. We’re part of the glue. The effects of COVID-19 and recession on public media and local journalism are still unfolding. I’ve been following reports of local newsrooms that are boarding up, ending print or cutting staff and salaries. Is this hitting close to home? Will the forthcoming federal stimulus funds to CPB be enough to prevent a similar spiral in public media? We know
that $75 million is on its way, but we don’t yet know who will get how much, how or when. I truly do not envy our colleagues at CPB who must make these decisions. Meanwhile, the Tow Center at C olumbia Journalism School is tracking cutbacks in the news business triggered by COVID-19. Too often, stories, conversations and scholarship about the local journalism ecosystem in our country barely mention public media. It’s always frustrating to me, but especially in the current climate, when public media’s universally accessible local services are more vital than ever. If your organization is anticipating staff reductions in the coming months, or putting a freeze on hiring for a planned news expansion, consider participating in the Tow survey. As an essential service to our country and our communities, public media needs to be on the radar for everyone who cares about the future of journalism. Your work in the world must not be ignored.
Can ‘public podcasting’ maintain its lead?
ARTICLES
Radio stations tap community voices for perspectives on housebound living Music stations form collaborative to serve communities during coronavirus pandemic InsideClimate News organizes regional networks to spur reporting on climate change
Q&A
How Rebecca Eaton’s ‘tailor-made’ role at Masterpiece fits with new strategy for original dramas
HOW TOS
Building the perfect home studio with NPR’s Don Gonyea Five tips for managing a sales team remotely
OBITUARIES
Lyn Seymour, ‘torchbearer’ for public TV Dean Borg, esteemed host and reporter for Iowa networks
Current
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Web: Current.org Managing Editor Karen Everhart 202-885-6414 karen@current.org Digital Editor Mike Janssen 202-885-6419 mike@current.org Reporters Tyler Falk 202-885-6465 tyler@current.org Julian Wyllie 202-885-6492 julian@current.org Editorial Intern Grace Vitaglione Design & Production Kelly Martin kelly@kmartindesign.com Chris Campbell brightoncreative@mac.com Business/Circulation Manager Laura Rogers 202-885-6412 rogers@current.org Advertising Sales Kathy Bybee Hartzell 727-433-2527 advertising@current.org Account Manager, Classified Ads Amanda Iannuzzi publicmediajobs@current.org Executive Director Julie Drizin 202-885-6453 julie@current.org Contributing Editors Theodore Fischer, Jill Goldsmith Published 8 times a year as an editorially independent service of American University School of Communication, and funded in part by a grant from the Wyncote Foundation.
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4 | April 2020 | Current
Quick Takes South Florida PBS withdraws bid to manage WLRN
South Florida PBS withdrew its bid to manage Miami’s WLRN, citing the COVID-19 pandemic and a focus on producing more health content. The public broadcaster, which operates WXEL in Palm Beach County and WPBT in Miami, had been the favored choice of a committee convened by WLRN’s licensee, Miami-Dade County Public Schools. A competitor for the management agreement, Friends of WLRN, filed a petition challenging the committee’s recommendation. When the school board rejected the petition, the group requested an administrative hearing to resolve the dispute. The first court date for discovery phase of the hearing had been set for April 7. “ We a r e v e r y g r a t e f u l t h a t Superintendent of Miami-Dade County Schools Alberto Carvalho placed his trust in South Florida PBS during the M-DPS process,” the station said in a March 31 statement. “However, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are making a very difficult decision to withdraw our proposal for the management of WLRN and focus our resources on serving the people of South Florida
via our coverage… and efforts of keeping our community informed about this health emergency.” A South Florida PBS spokesperson told Current that the station has prioritized production of coronavirus content for its Health Channel, a multicast service it operates in partnership with a regional hospital. A spokesperson for Miami-Dade C ou nt y P u bl i c S c h o ol s d e c l i n e d to comment on South Florida PBS’ withdrawal. In a statement, Friends of WLRN b o ard chair D wig ht Hi l l s aid he hopes to work with the school district “to negotiate a thoughtful plan that wi l l a l low WLRN R adio and T V to continue to thrive and grow as a trusted news source for the entire South Florida community.”
Bill inspired by AmGrad proposes grants to stations
A House bill inspired by CPB’s American Graduate initiative proposes a new grant program to support workforce development initiatives of public media stations. The bipartisan Partnerships for American Jobs Act proposes that the Department of Education establish a
competitive grant program to support technical training programs that could fill in-demand jobs in communities. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), who took the lead in drafting the legislation, told Current he hopes grantees will produce content that breaks down stigmas for students who forgo four-year college degrees in favor of occupations that require technical training. “Manufacturing is not the dirty, dangerous, dingy work that it was maybe 50 or 60 years ago,” he said. “In a lot of places, it involves working in a clean environment and computer programming, including coding.” The bill does not authorize a specific funding level but directs the Appropriations Committee to determine the amount during negotiations, according to spokesperson for Krishnamoorthi. The appropriation could be “likely several million dollars,” the spokesperson said. The bill was introduced on March 12, a few weeks after CPB President Pat Harrison discussed it during the Public Media Summit in Washington, D.C. Rep. Dan Meuser (R-Penn.), who cosigned the bill, said in a statement that economic revitalization is a priority for
him. Strategic legislation that aims to close the skills gap is an effective way to address this need, he said. “The Partnerships for American Jobs Act utilizes public media stations, which reach 99% of the American population, to promote available skills training programs and job opportunities in our communities,” he said.
Nevada Public Radio finds buyer for Utah station
Nevada Public Radio has agreed to sell KSGU in St. George, Utah, to a religious broadcaster. KSGU, an FM station with reach into southern Utah and northern Arizona, is one of three that the Las Vegas public broadcaster has put up for sale. Its stations in Carson City and Reno are also for sale. After discovering deep financial woes at Nevada Public Radio last year, the station’s board began looking to offload broadcast properties as it worked to pay off more than $2 million in unpaid bills. Religious broadcaster Educational Media Foundation agreed to purchase KSGU for $382,000, according to the asset purchase agreement.
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IN PUBLIC MEDIA
NPR tapped Kelly McBride of the Poynter Institute as its next public editor.
McBride is retaining her roles as Poynter’s SVP and chair of the Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership. McBride began her career as a reporter for the Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash. She joined Poynter in 2002 and has held multiple positions focusing on ethics and the journalism industry. “Kelly is one of the most admired media ethicists in the United States,” said NPR CEO John Lansing in a news release. “We are eager to have her focus on the work of our newsroom and, through Poynter, bring even more resources to bear on this important role. She will continue to build transparency in our journalism and advocate for audiences on every platform.” McBride succeeds Elizabeth Jensen, who ended her five-year tenure as NPR’s public editor April 3.
Kyra McGrath is leading a new ventures unit at WHYY.
McGrath, who previously served as the station’s EVP and COO, is now president of new ventures and enterprises. She continues to serve as the Philadelphia station’s general counsel. An initial focus for McGrath and the new operating division will be to pursue business McGrath opportunities for the Fresh Air Archive and ancillary products such as the kids podcast Eleanor Amplified, according to WHYY’s news release.
Michael Smith, a former executive for Scripps Networks, is NPR’s new chief marketing officer.
In his previous job as SVP and GM of digital channels for Scripps, Smith developed strategies to reach younger and more diverse audiences online. “Michael is a strategic thinker and an extremely creative media executive who has spent his career finding new ways for people consume content across an increasingly diverse audience population,” said NPR CEO Smith John Lansing in a statement. “He is joining NPR at a time when we must extend the reach of our content beyond our traditional audiences to fully serve the American public, and he is uniquely qualified to help us do so.” Smith previously was SVP and GM of Cooking Channel and food category brand extensions, and SVP of marketing, creative and brand strategy for Food Network. Smith also worked in marketing roles with Disney Channel in the United States and in Asia. He replaced Meg Goldthwaite, who departed NPR in March.
Management
Susan Woosley, COO of KCRW Berlin, will depart this month. Woosley oversaw the station’s launch in the German capital in October 2017. Previously, she was VP of operations for Friends of NPR Berlin. The station, operated by KCRW in Santa Monica, Calif., also promoted Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson to PD and full-time host. Nelson was previously co-host for Studio Berlin, a news show. Renard Jenkins departed PBS to become VP of content transmission at WarnerMedia. Jenkins spent more than nine years at PBS and worked in several director and VP roles. When he departed, he was VP Clockwise from top left: The Poynter Institute’s McBride of operations, engineering and joins NPR as public editor, while Montgomery, supervising distribution. Before PBS, he editor of Morning Edition, departs for Slate Podcasts. was project manager of pro- Capener, a former University of Utah VP who served on the duction facilities for TV One PBS board, retires from PBS Utah. and a supervising manager with Discovery Communications. membership and individual giving proJe f fe r i L e e l e f t W H U T- T V i n grams at PBS, WNET in New York City and Washington, D.C., in February after more WQED in Pittsburgh. than eight years as GM. Before WHUT, he was president of the Bio-Defense Research Content Group. He was also president of Black Alicia Montgomery left NPR to become Entertainment Networks and EVP of BET the EP for Slate Podcasts. At NPR, she was Holdings. Lee continues to serve as an a senior supervising editor and producer of at-large board trustee for America’s Public Morning Edition. Previously, she worked at Television Stations. Sean Plater, GM of WAMU as editorial director, and held proWHUR, is providing informal operational duction and editing roles at NPR with Code management for the TV station, accord- Switch and Tell Me More. ing to a Howard University spokesperson. Howard University operates both WHUT and WHUR, a commercial radio station. David Fogarty will retire June 30 as president and CEO of Ohio’s Public Media Connect Inc. Fogarty led the regional public television partnership, which includes CET in Cincinnati and ThinkTV in Dayton, for 11 years. Since 2017 he has also served as president of the Southwestern Ohio Instructional Technology Association. He became president of ThinkTV in 1993 and led its two stations into a merger with CET in 2008. Fogarty will work with the station leadership to recruit his successor. Joshua Jackson starts a new job this month as associate GM for content at WRTI in Philadelphia. Jackson departed WVTF in Roanoke, Va., where he was PD and content manager. Previously, he was VP for content at WBGO in Newark, N.J., and EP and co-founder of Jazz Night in America. Kurt Wilson signed on as station manager of WHQR, a news and classical music station in Wilmington, N.C., in February. He replaced Michelle Rhinesmith, who left the station in September. Wilson managed Yellowstone Public Radio in Billings, Mont., before joining WHQR. He previously worked at Central Michigan Public Broadcasting in Mt. Pleasant. Alana Adams joined NPR in March as a corporate recruiter. She previously recruited employees for Choice Hotels International and Saks Fifth Avenue.
Development
Vera Turner joined Maryland Public Television as managing director of membership. Turner was previously a project manager at the School Superintendents Association. She has previously directed
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Todd Zwillich departed as interim host of 1A to become deputy D.C. bureau chief for Vice News. Zwillich began anchoring the program at WAMU in Washington, D.C., after Joshua Johnson left for MSNBC. Zwillich was previously an interim host for WNYC’s The Takeaway. WAMU reporter Sasha-Ann Simons will host the show for most of April. Ted Capener, longtime host of Utah Conversations for PBS Utah, retired from the station April 5. Capener began hosting Civic Dialogue, the station’s current affairs talk show, in 1986. At the time he was VP of university relations for the University of Utah, PBS Utah’s licensee. In 2006, the series was revamped into Utah Conversations. A former executive and Washington bureau chief for Bonneville International, Capener was elected to the PBS Board in 1986 and served four years as chairman. Erika Mahoney is directing news at KAZU in Pacific Grove, Calif. Previously a reporter and host for the station, she had been running the newsroom on an interim basis prior to her permanent promotion into the job. Earlier in her career, Mahoney worked as a reporter and producer for CBS affiliates in Binghamton, N.Y., and Monterey, Calif. Andrea Gutierrez departed KPCC to join NPR’s It’s Been a Minute as assistant producer. At the Los Angeles station she worked as an assistant producer and as an apprentice news clerk for The Frame, a KPCC podcast about the entertainment industry. Gutierrez has also been a freelance producer, writer and editor, and was copy desk chief for the Los Angeles Review of Books. Continued on page 13
6 | April 2020 | Current ‘TRUE COALITION OF THE WILLING’
NPR, stations plan new fundraising collaboration to land major gifts BY TYLER FALK
Nico Leone, CEO of KERA in Dallas, said representatives of pilot stations and PR is refocusing its strategies to col- NPR also agreed “to say there’s no such laborate with stations on major-gift thing as ‘owning a donor.’ Donors own fundraising, taking lessons from pre- donors. The best we can do is communicate viously unsuccessful attempts to develop a our approach and follow their intent.” new approach built as an equal partnership. “One big difference was a recognition It’s been more than 16 years since Joan that philanthropy is done on a case-by-case Kroc’s historic gifts to NPR and KPBS in basis,” said Joyce Slocum, CEO of Texas San Diego reset expectations for collabo- Public Radio and former chief administrarative fundraising’s potential to transform tive officer of NPR. The meeting wasn’t set public radio. Despite multiple attempts by up for NPR to present a single case statedifferent leadership teams at NPR, efforts ment for stations to take to their donors, she to work with stations to raise major gifts said. Pilot participants agreed that approach have faltered. Participants and observ- would be ineffective. ers point to issues that include distrust about sharing donor information, limit- Equal partners ed resources for major-gift fundraising This time around, NPR is emphasizing that and turnover in key leadership positions stations are its equal partners in building at NPR. the collaboration. Now leaders from NPR and 15 member NPR designed the pilot as a “co-crestations are hopeful that a new fundrais- ation process” with participating stations, ing pilot can define a successful model for Loren Mayor, then president of operations working together to raise money. at NPR, told the board’s membership comA key difference with the latest collabo- mittee during its meeting in February. NPR ration is an agreement to build it together, and stations will work to develop a shared according to participants. understanding of what it means to fundNPR “came to the table in a full spirit of raise collaboratively. co-creation rather than saying, ‘NPR has Additional stations participating in the these ideas that we think will be best for pilot are Aspen Public Radio in Colorado; collaborative fundraising’ and then trying Boise State Public Radio in Idaho; Blue to loop stations into that and get buy-in,” Ridge Public Radio in Asheville, N.C.; said Tim Prestridge, senior executive direc- Colorado Public Radio in Centennial; tor of development, during a February NPR KQED in San Francisco; KUER in Salt board committee meeting in Washington, Lake City; KUNC in Greeley, Colo.; D.C. That approach “has failed us in the KUOW in Seattle; Vermont Public Radio past,” he said. in Colchester; WHYY in Philadelphia; Board members are well aware of the Wisconsin Public Radio in Madison; and shortcomings of earlier attempts. Paul WXPN in Philadelphia. Wisconsin Public Haaga Jr., a retired venture capitalist and Radio’s Executive Director, Mike Crane, NPR board chairman, asked Prestridge chairs the development committee. during the meeting what makes the pilot Bridgespan, an outside consulting different from previous initiatives. group, facilitated the February meeting “We’ve talked forever about collabora- of pilot stations, Mayor said. The agenda tive fundraising,” Haaga said. “We fundraise focused on developing “big ideas” for and — each time, by our own admission — collaborative campaigns around topics like underachieved.” civic engagement, media literacy, climate Three NPR directors whose stations are change, and equity and inclusion. The stations participating in the pilot spoke up during and NPR also discussed the practicalities of the committee meeting. Each of these man- how they would work together. agers shared observations gleaned from the “We set some kind of top-line goals, first meeting among pilot stations and NPR, which included establishing trust withwhich was held in Dallas in February. in the group, broadening participation “It didn’t feel like it was NPR pulling us in collaborative fundraising, and securtogether. … It very much felt like it was the ing collaborative gifts for all stations,” stations coming together as a true coalition Mayor said. “We set principles we want to of the willing,” said Wonya Lucas, CEO of use going forward, and those principles Public Broadcasting Atlanta. included things like transparency, having
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(Photo: fizkes/Shutterstock) a donor-centric mindset and ensuring a fair process.” The next steps for the group are to develop a steering committee and task forces to work through issues such as fundraising guidelines, accountability, metrics and data privacy, Mayor said. Pilot participants aim to “run on two paths simultaneously” and flesh out their fundraising strategy while making collaborative asks to donors, Mayor said.
Challenges ahead
Station leaders with extensive fundraising experience point to challenges beyond building a stronger foundation for station partnerships. One key decision rests with NPR: hiring a chief development officer who will last in the role. NPR is in the midst of recruiting a new CDO. The position has been vacant since June, when Stephanie Witte left the job. She worked in the role for less than three years under NPR President Jarl Mohn, who stepped down last year. Witte’s predecessor, Monique Hanson, was recruited by former NPR President Gary Knell and served in the role from 2012 to 2016. Tom Karlo, GM at KPBS in San Diego, said the lack of continuity in the CEO and CDO positions at NPR “hurts a little bit on long-term relationships” with major donors. “... It takes a while to develop a relationship with potential prospective donors.” Karlo was associate GM of KPBS when the station facilitated the relationship between Joan Kroc and NPR, an introduction that led to her bequest. The station, a joint licensee owned by San Diego State University, went on to build its collaborative fundraising prowess with PBS and the Masterpiece Trust at WGBH in
“ The challenge for folks in some cases is having the resources to either devote staff to major giving or to carve out enough time on the part of a development director or a general manager.” —Joyce MacDonald, Greater Public
Boston. That public TV fundraising partnership secured seven-figure gifts from longtime supporter Darlene Shiley. “There has been continuity and stability in those CEO positions that I think has helped us build better relationships with donors,” Karlo said, referring to his colleagues at PBS and WGBH. Other station leaders described a need to develop major gift fundraising skills and capacity across the system — another longtime fundraising aspiration for public radio and TV. Mark Vogelzang, CEO at dual licensee Maine Public, worked as NPR’s CDO in 2009. He has witnessed stations’ reluctance to let NPR leaders talk to their major donors, he said. When he was at NPR, Vogelzang met with a station CDO about approaching a top station donor for a collaborative gift. The station CDO refused to participate, saying that if the donor wanted to make a large gift, “we want that gift to come to us,” he said. Some station leaders think, “‘Hey, we’re already paying NPR a lot of money, why would we fundraise with them and split a gift?’” Vogelzang said. WPR’s Crane sees NPR’s structure as a federated system of independent stations as a source of tension over the years, because national and local priorities often compete. But he said that Bridgespan “laid out that the nonprofit federations that figure it out can find themselves doing much better than we feel we’re currently doing,” he said. “That gives me a lot of hope that it’s a matter of our figuring it out as opposed to it being impossible to do.”
Road map for major giving
One other hang-up is limited experience with major-gift fundraising. Many public radio stations run successful membership programs, but major-gift fundraising is far less sophisticated across the system, said Vogelzang. Vogelzang thinks public radio must set more ambitious goals for major gifts and create case statements that allow fundraisers to make much more specific asks to donors. For example, he Continued on page 14
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Pandemic reporting Continued from page 1
as she socially distanced at home. Callers turning to local radio stations to discuss community issues helped Pak stay in touch. “The radio was my window to the world because I wasn’t really talking to many people on the streets,” Pak said. “During times like a virus outbreak, or any kind of disaster, there is a wariness of speaking to the media because if later on it becomes not OK, then they worry that they might get punished.” Pak relied largely on phone interviews with sources she already had relationships with and networked through friends to continue her reporting for Marketplace. She found that she could get reluctant people on the street to talk by stepping away and recording herself repeating their answers, keeping them officially off tape while also maintaining a safe social distance. “Be creative. There are other ways to go about it. You don’t have to be stuck to what was supposed to be,” Pak said. “As a journalist, you’re supposed to explain what’s going on in the world, and that is exactly what’s going on.” “People are fearful, so if they’re fearful, then you need to respect that.”
‘Frontline’ pivots into coronavirus coverage
Boston-based Frontline’s filmmaking crews were scattered across the globe in England, Kazakhstan and Germany with others, en route to Iraq and China when the pandemic began bearing down on Europe and North
Frontline correspondent Miles O’Brien talks with Dr. George Diaz, who treated the first coronavirus patient in the U.S. (Photo: Frontline/PBS) America. EP Raney Aronson-Rath said her team scrambled to bring them home around March 12. “We were making decisions that we didn’t know how they would turn out, but I did know that it was the safest way to go,” Aronson-Rath said. “What we’re doing is making documentaries, but we really, first and foremost, have to keep our teams and our producers and directors safe.” A member of Frontline’s podcast team in the United Kingdom contracted COVID-19 shortly after arriving in the U.S., but, Aronson-Rath said, “she’s doing great now.” Frontline’s team lost no time in pivoting to film documentaries examining the U.S. response to the pandemic, with teams
embedded in Seattle hospitals and homeless shelters in Ohio. Sasha Achilli, a Frontline producer who resides in the U.K., managed to squeeze in five days of filming in northern Italian hospitals; police couldn’t turn her away at the border as an Italian citizen. The European country had become the global epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, with Italian police requiring papers of civilians to justify why they’re allowed outside. “I feel as safe as I can be. I’m not scared, but I am fully aware of the possibility of being infected,” Achilli told AronsonRath in an episode of Frontline’s Covering Coronavirus podcast. “We have to wear masks and gloves. We are using hand sanitizer on our gloves continuously, on our
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hands continuously. ... It’s a deeply uncomfortable way of working.” Frontline’s team has shifted some reporting online through Skype, but they’ve developed a multiple-page security protocol to protect both filmmakers and subjects. Aronson-Rath said it boils down to keeping a safe distance and wearing protective gear when in the field. “Safety comes first, and cinematography comes second,” Aronson-Rath said. “The most important thing right now for us as journalists is to tell this story and to hold people to account for the questions that we have.” Frontline producers have covered Ebola outbreaks and reported from war zones, which makes them well-prepared to cover the coronavirus pandemic, Aronson-Rath said. She wants to make sure they don’t lose track of the “enduring stories we still need to tell” on topics like climate change and government misdeeds. New developments on these issues could go unnoticed while everyone is focused on coronavirus. One benefit of social distancing is that people have more time to explore Frontline’s online content; Aronson-Rath said the show’s online viewing and podcast listenership remain strong. “People are looking for things to watch that are edifying and educational, so I think people are turning to Frontline for that reason,” Aronson-Rath said. “This is another example where fact-based journalism matters.” Frontline’s two-hour documentary on the coronavirus pandemic in Washington state and Ohio will debut on PBS April 21. Achilli’s documentary from Italy will air in May.
8 | April 2020 | Current
California stations fast-track launch of at-home learning service Collaboration in L.A. emerges as model for local responses to school closures BY JULIE HALPERT
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s the nation’s second-largest public school district prepared to shut down to prevent spread of the coronavirus, public broadcasters in California initiated a collaboration to support out-of-school learning for students in Los Angeles who lack access to the internet. The partnership, which combined daytime broadcasts for pre-k–12 students with digital learning resources and training for teachers, quickly became a model for public TV stations across the country. To ensure that students and educators in the Los Angeles Unified School District could carry on with lessons at home after schools closed, three PBS stations serving the L.A. region created separate broadcast services for children in three distinct age groups. KQED in San Francisco joined the partnership to support digital learning. Its education specialists created customized collections of media and lesson plans matched to the broadcast programs and LAUSD curriculum. On March 16, the first day of school closures in L.A., PBS stations across the region launched educational broadcasts that run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. n KCET, one of two L.A. stations now operated by Public Media Group of Southern California, devotes its daytime schedule to programs that support high school instruction, or students in grades 9–12. The lineup includes Reconstruction: America After the Civil War, Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s four-part documentary series from 2019. n KLCS, operated by LAUSD, is airing programs for students in grades 4–8 such as History Detectives, which supports social studies instruction, and Nova for science. Additional content for pre-K–12 students run in other time slots. n PBS SoCal, the PMGSC station that is the market’s primary source of PBS programming, airs PBS Kids programming on its main channel from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. The lineup provides continuity to the young children in its audience and content that supports curriculum for early-elementary grades. LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner initiated the partnership as he prepared to shutter schools. The majority of students in the district are from low-income families — 80% live in poverty, and 25% can’t access the internet at home, Beutner said.
KQED’s support for educators includes a series of webinars on how to use digital media and other online resources for remote instruction. (Illustration: Julianna Cecere/KQED) As the district’s educators developed plans to continue some instruction while schools were closed, they realized that a large population of students would be left out of web-based lesson plans. “We felt an obligation to make sure, from an equity and access standpoint, everyone could participate and continue to learn,” he said. Beutner approached PBS President Paula Kerger and PBS SoCal/KCET President Andrew Russell about how PBS and other stations could work with the district to support continued learning at home. “We have this broadcast platform that reaches virtually every home, so we can continue to service students who don’t have access to the internet,” Russell said. As the California partners rushed to pull all the elements together — including age-appropriate curricular materials, webinars for teachers and on-air messaging — PBS convened a March 11 conference call for education specialists at other
to adopt the program schedule and digital learning resources assembled for students in Los Angeles, according to PBS SoCal/ KCET. Other stations worked closely with local educators to develop similar distance-learning services. WHYY in Philadelphia began airing two-hour blocks of educational programs for different age groups March 23. South Carolina ETV modified its daytime schedule to broadcast educational programs three days a week; its partnership with the state department of education includes providing virtual professional development for educators. And on March 30, Kentucky’s KET launched a 10-hour weekday broadcast schedule modeled on the California partnership, according to Tonya Crum, senior director of education. The same day, World Channel introduced a five-hour at-home learning schedule for students in grades 6–12, according
‘Channel destinations’ for learning
The Los Angeles at-home learning initiative is unique. Few cities have three public TV stations and partners with the capacity and staffing to support K–12 education over broadcast channels and digital platforms. “We worked to create a channel destination for different grade levels,” Russell said. With three channels to work with, the stations and LAUSD reviewed curricula for each grade level; and since KLCS participates in PBS’ program differentiation plan, it had limited access to PBS programs. The partners worked with PBS to ensure that each station had rights to the PBS content in its educational lineup, according to Russell. PBS SoCal continues to multicast the 24/7 PBS Kids channel for the youngest learners, Russell said. The PBS Kids lineup airing on PBS SoCal’s primary channel includes programs that appeal to preschoolers and early-elementary students up to third grade.
Matthew Crotty, senior director of production at PBS SoCal/KCET, preps to shoot interstitial spots for the new daytime educational schedule. stations. The California content plan provided a model to help educators bridge the digital divide and support at-home learning. When school systems across the country announced school closures to slow the spread of COVID-19, the distance-learning plan developed for the Los Angeles schools was embraced by stations and state networks across the country. By March 23, 36 public TV licensees in 22 states had agreed
to Erin Callahan, director of media relations. WGBH in Boston partnered with PBS to create the lineup, which has been correlated to digital learning materials from PBS LearningMedia. Public Media Management, the cloudbased joint master control service, is offering an HD feed of the lineup to all PBS stations, including those that don’t already carry World Channel, for 30 days, according to President Stacey Decker.
KQED Education is California’s administrator for PBS LearningMedia, a digital portal with a rich searchable library of media and curriculum-based lesson plans. The content its staff curated to match LAUSD’s curriculum includes educational media resources in English, language arts, social students, science and math, said Robin Mencher, KQED executive director of education. To support teachers, KQED is producing two daily training webinars on how
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Engagement project shifts focus to coronavirus BY TYLER FALK
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In a spot produced for the L.A. partnership, KCET host Rosey Alvero encourages students to keep learning while schools are closed. (Photo: PBS SoCal/KCET) to use the PBS LearningMedia collection, Mencher said. These webinars are for educators across the country.
Promotions for PBS LearningMedia
The California partnership includes a statewide communications campaign that provides direct emails and outreach to teachers. State education leaders and educational organizations such as the California Writing Project and Common Sense Education have shared public TV’s resources with their constituents, according to Mencher. The campaign, now in the works, includes on-air spots, online guides, social media and other promotions, according to Russell. PBS and stations are also working to build awareness of PBS LearningMedia, a free digital resource for educators, caregivers and parents. About one million teachers access the site every month, according to Sara Schapiro, PBS VP of education. With so many families adapting to school closures,
“ We have this broadcast platform that reaches virtually every home, so we can continue to service students who don’t have access to the internet.” —Andrew Russell, PBS SoCal/KCET there’s an opportunity to serve even more parents and students who have access to the internet. “We are really excited these materials will be useful as people are struggling to keep learning when schools will be closed,” she said. There’s still a lot of work to do to support at-home learning around the Los Angeles stations’ broadcast schedules. The “dream and goal” is for LAUSD students to do exercises and activities at home after watching the shows, Russell said.
The stations are working with teachers to produce brief spots that include learning prompts at the beginning and end of each program, Russell said. The introductory spots encourage students to watch programs with learning goals in mind; those that follow ask them to solve problems by applying core concepts from the show.
‘Value to the community’
Formalizing the partnership and preparing for the fast-turnaround launch was a huge undertaking, Russell said. “People are putting in long hours,” he said. PBS SoCal and KCET suspended production of all local programs and reassigned their production and creative services teams to work on pre-K–12 content for broadcast, Russell said. Staffers across all departments — from the preschool education team to digital and social media producers — are now focused on the education service expansion. The membership customer service team added people to field calls from parents, teachers and students. And broadcast operations staff have built new schedules, downloaded programs from the PBS sIX interconnection system and handled trafficking for new break elements. Russell and Michael Isip, president of KQED, said they have to work through many practical considerations as they move forward, such as the revenue implications of launching the service, how long it can be sustained and whether there’s enough programming to fill the gap for three months or more. “In the long term there’s a value to the community that will come back to us in spades in terms of support,” Isip said. One goal of the California partnership is to share information so that the program can provide a model to stations in other communities, said Beutner of LAUSD. “This is an opportunity to keep families together in a safe place learning together, irrespective of what might come down the road,” he said. To that end, last week three stations in the Washington, D.C., region — WETA, WHUT and Maryland Public Television — unveiled daytime lineups that are collaboratively scheduled to support pre-K–12 education. MPT, which committed 10 hours of its daily schedule to the at-home learning initiative, is also providing a live stream. All three stations agreed to continue airing the schedules until coronavirus social-distancing restrictions are relaxed and schools in the D.C. region reopen.
CPB-funded project focused on engagement around t he 2020 election has pivoted to supporting station responses to coronavirus. Led by KCUR in Kansas City, Mo., America Amplified was envisioned to assist public media collaboratives with election-focused engagement strategies to elevate voices from underrepresented communities. But with CPB’s support, the project will instead support collaborations in covering the impact of coronavirus on their communities, said Donna Vestal, managing director of America Amplified. “And we’re trying to keep that focus on engagement and to offer support about how you can continue to engage in this new reality.” WABE in Atlanta and seven collaboratives are participating in the initiative: Harvest Public Media, Mountain West News Bureau, New England News Collaborative, Ohio Valley ReSource, Side Effects Public Media, StateImpact Pennsylvania, and I-4 Votes in Florida, which is a collaboration between WMFE in Orlando and WUSF in Tampa. Grant funds for the projects range from $50,000 for WABE to $125,000 for a large collaborative like Harvest Public Media, according to Alisa Barba, America Amplified’s senior editor.
Projects were just beginning to launch when the pandemic hit, Barba said. The New England News Collaborative had planned to reimagine its talk shows to reflect community concerns. Now the collaboratives are reimagining their projects to focus on virtual engagement activities around the coronavirus pandemic. They continue to focus on the same communities their election initiatives had targeted. Side Effects Public Media, which had planned to engage audiences around health-care issues in the Midwest, h a s p r o d u c e d FA Q s a b o u t t h e coronavirus based on questions from its audience. With the shift in focus, the America Amplified team is helping stations by providing guidance on digital tactics for engagement. America Amplified’s mission has been to focus “on community needs and aspirations,” Vestal said. “Coronavirus is changing that in different ways all across the country.” Eventually the projects “may shift back to reporting on the political process and political leadership,” Barba said. At the end of the year, America Amplified will share lessons learned about community engagement with the public media system.
10 | April 2020 | Current ‘THIS STORY IS DIFFERENT’
A newsroom guide to covering the coronavirus outbreak BY JILL JACKSON
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ever good when someone calls an 8 p.m. presser,” texted KUOW reporter Ann Dornfeld the evening of Friday, Feb. 28. I looked down at her message on my phone and gave my husband an apologetic look that he knows means, “I’ve got to work, the kid’s bedtime is on you tonight.” Ann was right. It was not good. I quickly called our on-call weekend reporter Marcie Sillman, who rushed to cover news of two new cases of COVID-19, the sickness caused by the coronavirus. Before that announcement by county and state health officials, there had been only one other case in Washington, and it was widely believed the virus was contained. The next day, news of the first deaths caused by COVID-19 in Washington came in. The number of diagnoses increased. Over the next week, Washington became the epicenter of this health crisis in the United States. As a newsroom, we’ve planned for natural disasters like a major earthquake. We’ve jumped on numerous breaking news stories, from the Amtrak crash in 2017 to the hijacking of a Horizon airplane at Sea-Tac airport. This story is different. It’s challenging in many unique ways. We are all living this story and covering it. We’re worried about loved ones at risk of contracting the virus. We’re suspicious of anyone coughing or even a small tickle in the throat. We’re planning for what we would do when — horror of horrors — schools shut down and we have to figure out what to do with our kids. And don’t you even think about touching your face! People will move away from you faster than you can get your now-ever-present Purell bottle cap open. I’ve faced a number of challenges leading KUOW’s news coverage of this outbreak. I wished numerous times I had a guide as a resource for making tough calls about measuring risk and reward when sending reporters into the field. A one-stop shop for how to transition your newsroom to almostall-remote work in less than 24 hours. A “here is how you should think about covering the million different angles you could possibly go on this story” kind of guide. I never found it all in one place. To help other newsrooms that might find themselves at the center of a coronavirus outbreak, I wrote up what we learned in KUOW’s newsroom during that first week.
Lesson #1: Start a blog
KUOW’s Online Managing Editor Isolde Raftery had a brilliant idea early on to start a coronavirus blog on KUOW.org. There are so many small updates on this story from health officials, hospitals and schools that don’t necessarily warrant a full post but are really useful information to the public. She built it so anyone in the newsroom can post to it. Our social media guru Juan Pablo Chiquiza translates the blog posts into Spanish. A place for live updates makes sense for the story and for the newsroom trying to feed multiple platforms, and it attracts a very large audience. People read it in such high numbers that KUOW.org was on track for its highest-traffic month ever.
First responders and members of the Kirkland Fire Department arrive at the Life Care Center of Kirkland, Wash., to transport a patient to the hospital on March 5. (Photo: Megan Farmer/KUOW)
Lesson #2: Identify who is doing what
It sounds obvious, but you can easily get your entire newsroom sucked into breaking news on a story like this. We’ve definitely fallen into that. It’s a constant struggle for me as a news director to say, “No, do not cover that day-of news story — we need you on coverage that might be more meaningful or enterprise or watchdog-worthy.” During the first week of coverage, the KUOW editors and I realized that we needed to pull some reporters off the daily news grind so that they could focus on source-building with vulnerable populations and watchdogging the government’s public health response and preparedness plans. I wish we had done that much earlier. It’s important for many reasons to remember that covering a story like the coronavirus outbreak requires you to set a marathon pace, not a sprint.
Lesson #3: Prepare to transform your newsroom to an almost entirely remote operation
KUOW General Manager Caryn Mathes announced March 5 that most non-news staff would begin working remotely through the end of the month. To further protect news staff, Chief Content Officer Jennifer Strachan and I identified who actually had to be in the building from the news team. We landed on drive-time hosts, producers, our midday newscaster and board operators. They would be supported by a morning and afternoon editor. That’s it from the newsroom. All reporters, most editors and myself would be working and filing remotely. Immediately. KUOW editor Liz Jones worked up a handy guide for filing remotely, including how to access a web version of NewsBoss. It also included how to record phoners on smartphones and the best way for reporters to communicate with drive times and midday news when they’ve filed a piece. I communicated with staff about how we
would hold editorial meetings using both oldschool conference lines and fancy video chats for smaller meetings using Microsoft Teams. We would continue using our coronavirus Slack channel, a running newsroom conversation with tips, questions and leads. Reporters share contacts there and cheer each other on. When we started doing this, it was hard. We had troubles with NewsBoss. Communication was a challenge. But it got easier as time went on. It takes practice. In fact, if we’d really been
into the field is worth it in each case. Saying, “Yes, a phoner will be fine,” unless I am sure we are taking precautions before going into a possibly unsafe space. Communicate with staff about who they can reach out to if they need help. We shared a crisis hotline provided by the University of Washington. Editors are checking in with their folks regularly. I am, too. And I am trying to say thank you to my people as much as possible.
“ Your reporters should have veto power. If they don’t feel comfortable going on a risky assignment, don’t make them.” prepared, we would have done a dress rehearsal for this. I highly recommend giving it a try under less urgent circumstances so you are prepared when the stakes are higher. Aside from the needed technology to work remotely, KUOW also purchased new boom poles to help reporters in the field keep some distance from the people they interview.
Lesson #4: Check in with your people and yourself
It’s been an emotional time. Many of us haven’t had a day off in quite some time. We’re tired. We’re hearing from people panicked about their own health and their sick family members. Our incredible photographer Megan Farmer is taking photos of people likely living their last moments. We’re trying to stay safe but also get the story for the public. And as a news director, I feel guilty working remotely. I want to be in the newsroom. It just feels wrong. But I also want to set an example for my team. If I go in, they will think it’s expected that they come in too. Germs and all. I also am lowering my audio standards just a bit, asking whether the risk of going
Another important note handed down from NPR: Your reporters should have veto power. If they don’t feel comfortable going on a risky assignment, don’t make them.
Lesson #5: Think ahead
This story isn’t going anywhere. We set a schedule to stagger reporters and editors so we knew we would be fully covered for news seven days per week. We staffed each weekend day with at least one reporter, one web staffer posting regular updates to KUOW.org and a broadcast editor. We identified backup news hosts and newscasters in case our folks got sick. And we plotted our coverage out far ahead. We also launched a new daily news podcast! It’s called Seattle Now. Host Patricia Murphy and the team of producers went all-in to find unique angles to cover the outbreak. Each episode is worth a listen. I hope this helps other newsrooms prepare for covering the virus. As we are saying a lot around here these days, please remember to wash your hands. Jill Jackson is news director at KUOW in Seattle.
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12 | April 2020 | Current
Fundraising
Major donors — Stay in touch with donors
Continued from page 2
Here are some of the adjustments we are executing for CDP members. I recommend that all stations take these steps as a result of this crisis:
On-air pledge — Adjust your messaging
and revenue expectations, but keep going if at all possible. We are certainly not operating as business as usual, and we need to recognize what’s happening to our audiences. More people are watching and listening, and they are undoubtedly taking this time to focus on themselves and their family and friends. They are also reassessing their priorities and taking stock of their lives. On broadcast television, forgo pledging ticket-driven shows for now, and look to programs that focus on physical, spiritual and financial health. Self-help programs may resonate in new ways with audiences. We are seeing evidence that this genre of pledge shows is working well for many public TV stations. On radio, don’t “cover” the news — cover the news. NPR news and local informa-
whom you consider your most important relationships. Check in on them to let them know they are in your thoughts. We advise against attempting to schedule in-person donor visits. Instead, revert to phone, email, videoconferencing and handwritten notes where appropriate. Be prepared to reaffirm your station’s role in the community during this turbulent time, and highlight the value of public media. Help donors understand that, especially in times like these, public media is a critical service to your community. Remind them of the many on-air and online services available, with an emphasis on news, educational content and children’s programming.
Direct mail — Continue mailing and
adjust your messaging where possible. Donors will understand if certain pieces have already dropped that haven’t been updated. However, hitting the right tone with that next message is very important. Utilize buck slips and rewrite copy wherever possible. As long as the postal service can deliver your mail, you should be sending it. At least for now, our mailboxes are an important connection to the world.
“ Keep in mind, pledge drives do more than just raise money; they tell the public that you are community-supported.” tion are mission-critical, so it’s important to keep news programs and other services largely in place. You can shape fundraising messaging to fit the tone, but don’t be afraid to ask for donations. For music stations, your content provides a critical escape when people need to disconnect from the news of the day; fundraising messaging should be part of the mix. Keep in mind, pledge drives do more than just raise money; they tell the public that you are community-supported. If you don’t tell donors you are worthy of their support, there are plenty of other nonprofits working hard to do so on their own behalf. As you evaluate how to proceed with your on-air drives, consider that several large national nonprofits are considering investing more in direct-response television ads. More people are watching television, and these nonprofits want to promote the mission-driven work that they’re doing during this crisis. If you must cancel a drive, you can minimize revenue losses by explaining the decision to your audience. Run on-air spots to remind them that, even though the spring on-air campaign was canceled, your need for community support remains high. Encourage donors to contribute through other channels — including direct mail, email and online — and do so with a sense of urgency. At every opportunity, remind the audience that they may be listening and watching more than ever, and that this trusted community-supported service remains free and accessible to all.
Events — We recommend suspending pub-
lic events of any size for at least the next three months — or until we see a safe horizon. Consider virtual engagements via social or other streaming platforms like Twitch. A recent example of a successful virtual event involved the Dropkick Murphys, a Bostonbased band that performed its annual St. Patrick’s Day concert as a streaming event with nearly 200,000 attendees. What other nonprofits or universities can you partner with to produce a virtual event?
Canvassing — Because of the need to prevent
community spread, pause all door-to-door and street canvassing. If possible, hold on to your canvassers and redeploy them to other tasks. Rebooting the program and training all new people will be that much more difficult when it’s safe to stop social distancing.
Sustainers — This is where we recommend
focusing most of our efforts. Sustainers will help buoy stations through these turbulent times. Concentrate on recapturing failed sustainer payments and administering ongoing program maintenance; this is really important right now. Many nonprofits are starting to see a spike in cancellations, and public media stations should brace for requests from sustainers to end their monthly gifts. Make sure your customer service team has a robust “saves” script for handling these calls. CDP recommends offering a 90-day pause on payments as an alternative to an outright cancellation.
Michal Heiplik is EVP and a co-founder of the Contributor Development Partnership, a Boston-based public benefit corporation that provides fundraising solutions, marketing strategies, technology innovations, and data and analytics services to more than 230 public radio and television stations. As a 20-year veteran of public broadcasting development, he has extensive experience in database management, membership development and in identifying effective fundraising practices.
One effective way to prevent sustainer losses is to make timely outbound phone calls to those who have missed a payment. Just as you would prepare for a conversation with a major donor, make sure your callers have talking points that make a strong case for public media and the unique role you play in the community.
Passport — People of all ages now have a lot
(Photo: Ben Mook/ Current)
more time to watch broadcast and streaming services. Disney+ is reporting a significant spike in new signups. Now is the time to promote Passport to our constituents. Consider increasing your promotion of Passport to prospects and redoubling your efforts to encourage existing donors to activate their Passport accounts. These efforts will demonstrate the value of being a member, help build viewer loyalty and improve donor retention.
Coronavirus relief bill provides $75M to public broadcasters
Bracing for the financial impact
BY TYLER FALK AND JULIAN WYLLIE
With a recession now officially underway, every station will see immediate revenue shortfalls. The impact of this crisis will linger for months and years. It is important that public media organizations cut nonessential expenses, adjust their operating budgets and tightly manage cash flow to ensure long-term sustainability. CDP reviewed historical data for public broadcasting, including the 2008 financial crisis, to develop guidance for our members. We believe stations should be prepared to experience budget shortfalls of up to 20% against goals for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2020 (for stations whose fiscal cycle ends June 30). Those that persevere with fundraising now will fare better, albeit with diminishing yields, than those that shut down their efforts and wait for the crisis to pass and the economy to rebound. With FY21 budget planning in full swing at many stations, expect more revenue challenges and strong fundraising headwinds. We are anticipating a sharp decline in membership revenue — between 10% and 15% — and a drop in total member count of up to 10%. New donors will be especially hard to come by; look for a drop of 15% or more in the number of new members. On a brighter note, we expect that multiyear retention rates and revenues will likely hold flat for those stations that aggressively manage their sustainer programs. We’re in uncharted territory, and each station and each market is unique. Leaders of all stations should do their own budget analyses and be ready to respond to an ever-changing environment. We are also recommending that station managers and fundraising professionals bring a laser focus and sense of urgency toward preserving net income. This crisis provides you with an opportunity to reevaluate where you are spending precious operational and developmental resources. Focus on the core mission activities and eliminate the “nice-to-haves.” Are there certain operational and fundraising activities that could be eliminated or better managed externally? We hope these thoughts have been helpful as you assess your own station’s needs and fundraising challenges. Core to our mission, CDP is a community of stations solving the toughest fundraising challenges. The road ahead won’t be an easy one, but — social distancing aside — we stand a far better chance of success if we work together than apart. Stay safe, but press on. The American people are counting on us.
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ublic broadcasting will receive emergency funding from the $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief bill signed March 27 by President Trump. The legislation includes $75 million for CPB “to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, including for fiscal stabilization grants to public telecommunications entities.” It directs CPB to use the funds to help “to maintain programming and services and preserve small and rural stations threatened by declines in non-Federal revenues.” CPB President Pat Harrison commended Congress for providing the funds in a statement released after President Trump signed the legislation. “This vitally needed stabilization funding will help to ensure all Americans will continue to have access to crucial local and national services that are being provided by public media stations across our nation,” Harrison said. “As school districts close across our country due to the coronavirus outbreak, public television stations are offering their broadcast and online services to help teachers continue educational instruction at home.” “Further, in many states and local communities, public media stations’ digital and broadcast infrastructure provide the backbone for emergency alert, public safety, first responder and homeland security services. This stabilization funding will safeguard the nation’s ability to continue to deliver emergency alerts and essential safety information.” In a statement released March 25 following Senate passage of the legislation, America’s Public Television Stations CEO Patrick Butler said corporate, foundation and individual giving to local stations has “rapidly decreased in the wake of the economic downturn accompanying the contagion.” “While even $75 million only begins to address these unprecedented needs while private revenues are plummeting, we are grateful for the broad support for this emergency funding for public media among both Republicans and Democrats in the Senate,” Butler said. “We will do our best with the resources we have to serve our country and our fellow citizens in this time of shared crisis.” Butler noted that many public television stations are “devoting their entire daytime schedules to age-appropriate educational programming and stations are also providing online services, learning games, teacher and parent guides, and other resources.”
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Stuck at home, 94-year-old DJ keeps the music playing BY TYLER FALK
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rt Ackerman has hosted countless programs in his 30-plus years as a volunteer DJ for KDNK in Carbondale, Colo., but none quite like his March 17 broadcast. As the novel coronavirus outbreak continued to spread, KDNK Station Manager Gavin Dahl made the call that it was too risky for Ackerman, who is 94, to come to the studio for his show Swing Swing Swing. The weekly show mostly features swing jazz from the 1930s and 1940s, chosen from Ackerman’s personal record collection. The station, which airs a mix of news and various genres of music hosted by volunteers, was letting DJs into the studio as long as they weren’t showing symptoms and weren’t in a high-risk category. It had started taking extra precautions, such as cleaning the studio with disinfectant wipes. Dahl had to tell Ackerman, “‘I gotta be the bad cop on this one, man. I can’t be responsible for letting you come in right now,’” Dahl told Current. Ackerman wanted to be there for his listeners. “He’s like, ‘I want to do my show,’” Dahl said. “I was able to go, but Gavin … thought I shouldn’t,” said Ackerman, whose nickname is “Ancient” Art. “I used to be ‘Contemporary’ Art,” he joked. “... Of course, I have museums named after me all over the world.” So Dahl came up with the idea to pick up Ackerman’s albums and drop the needle on the records in the studio while Ackerman hosted from his home by phone. The night’s selections included Bing Crosby, Doris Day and Count Basie. It was a hit with listeners. “People were telling me they were crying,” Dahl said. “I had a woman who called and said, ‘I’m singing along to every song. You guys are touching a lot of souls tonight.’ And just the most inspiring, positive feedback you could get.” Dahl shared on the air that another listener wrote in, “We needed this.”
Ackerman, who goes by the nickname “Ancient” Art, in the KDNK studio. (Photo: Gavin Dahl) Ackerman was a bit more critical of his first time hosting a show from home. “It was a little tough,” he said. A dialing sound came through his phone, and Dahl “would have to hang up, and then I’d have to call him back,” Ackerman said. The show also featured a cameo from Ackerman’s 16-year-old cat Sparky — whose real name is Sparkles, Ackerman said. Sparky began meowing in the background while Ackerman was announcing an upcoming song. Ackerman brought Sparky close to his phone, Dahl said, and “the cat was really loud. And then I got calls from cat owners who were saying that their cats couldn’t help but notice his cat.” KDNK was finishing its spring pledge drive, and listeners began calling to sign their dogs and cats up for pet memberships. KDNK reached its goal of $80,000 during the show.
Stewart Vanderwilt, CEO of Colorado Public Radio, told Current that he heard about Dahl’s plan to play Ackerman’s playlist while the host spoke over the phone. “It struck me as a selfless act of love on his part and my wife and I made a point to listen in,” Vanderwilt wrote in an email. In an email to station colleagues, Vanderwilt said the show was “remarkable.” He and his wife sat on their porch “looking to the mountains and listening to Art Ackerman and Gavin Dahl create a sense of community by keeping radio live,” he wrote. Ackerman said he still wanted to do his show from home “because I want to play my kind of music. I don’t want somebody else to screw it up.” “I want to stay active as long as I can,” Ackerman said. Hosting the show “keeps me going,” he said. “It keeps me busy.”
“ I had a woman who called and said, ‘I’m singing along to every song. You guys are touching a lot of souls tonight.’” —Gavin Dahl, KDNK
People
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Madeline Fox is an education reporter for Wisconsin Public Radio in Madison. She previously served as a reporter for WLRN in Miami, occasionally filling in as a digital editor. Fox has also reported for KCUR in Kansas City, Mo., covering foster care, mental health, and military and veterans’ issues. Tom Posey, director of news for South Carolina ETV, is the station’s director of government transparency. He joined SCETV in the late 1980s. Aimee Crouch succeeds Posey as news director. She has been with the SCETV for more than two decades as a producer. In a press release, the station said the change was part of an effort “to further elevate its status as a statewide resource for news.” Washington Week hired Ann Klenk as consulting EP and assigned the role of managing editor to host Robert Costa. Klenk previously served as senior producer and co-EP of Hardball with Chris Matthews from 2001 to 2017. Rocio Hernandez joined KJZZ in Phoenix as a reporter in March. She was previously a reporter for KUER in Salt Lake City. She has also been a news associate for the Associated Press and a reporter for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Reno Public Radio and the East Bay Times.
Governance
The PBS Board confirmed Tina Sharkey’s appointment as a general director March 31. Sharkey is the co-founder and former CEO of Brandless, a now defunct e-commerce company. She also served as chairwoman and global president of Johnson & Johnson’s BabyCenter and created the online brands for Sesame Workshop. Sharkey replaces Allan Landon, who joined the PBS Foundation board. — Julian Wyllie Visit Current’s website for more news of “comings and goings,” and send your items to people@current.org
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Fundraising
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Sponsorships Continued from page 1
station is working with longstanding clients to see how their needs for underwriting may change. As WGBH reevaluates its strategy, Zellner said, it has started seeking new clients, with a telemedicine and health company as one prospect. It has also been in talks with financial services companies about their messages. WGBH is using In It Together, its daily radio show and podcast about the pandemic that debuted March 17, to show potential underwriters the new ways the station is serving the community. “We are certainly trying to encourage our sponsors to think about WGBH as more than just a way to reach their prospects,” Zellner said. WETA in Washington, D.C., has many clients in the arts and culture space. Adam Gronski, VP of corporate marketing, is also working with financial services companies to alter their messages. “What a message might have looked like a few weeks ago now has to be changed and modified,” Gronski said. These sponsors need new creative messages for their on-air spots, he said. “We’re focusing on being great community partners,” Gronski said. “We want our clients to look back at this uncertain period knowing that WETA … was their partner in navigating in choppy seas.”
Not ‘business as usual’
P u bl i c Me d i a Group of S out h e r n California has seen decreases in underwriting from restaurants and arts organizations but growth in spending by health care providers, according to CEO Andrew Russell. Children’s Hospital Los Angeles paid for two new spots encouraging people to wash their hands and not touch their faces. Lost sponsorship income can be especially damaging for smaller stations like WERS in Boston, said Ali Dorman Fernandez, associate director of underwriting. The music discovery station relies on arts organizations for underwriting. Both of WERS’ restaurant clients have closed for the time being, Fernandez said, but one is attempting to reconfigure to provide food for staff at Boston Medical Center nearby. “When that happens, we will definitely run those spots as more of a PSA than underwriting,” she said, meaning free of charge. WERS is also looking into broadcasting PSAs about philanthropic funds and local initiatives supporting workers experiencing financial hardships. “The goal of all this is very much to say that we … want to help the community that we are in,” Fernandez said. “We know we need to continue to bring money into the station, but we know it’s not business as usual.” The only restaurant sponsor for WSIU in Carbondale, Ill., was also forced to close, according to Brian Flath, associate director of corporate support. The station is working with the client to change the underwriting spot, Flath said. The new message will say that the owner appreciates the restaurant’s customers and looks forward to serving them in the near future. “I told her that once she reopened, I’m going to double her underwriting schedule for as long as she was closed down, and that would be done at no additional charge,” Flath said.
Public media’s top three sources of revenue Business income, a category of funding that includes underwriting, provided nearly 14% of public broadcasting’s total revenues in FY2018, according to CPB. In the public radio system, business income outranked federal funding among the top three revenue sources. SUBSCRIBERS PUBLIC BROADCASTING PUBLIC TELEVISION PUBLIC RADIO
28.8%
BUSINESS 10.4%
CPB APPROPRIATION 8.0%
38.1%
13.9% 18.4% 13.8%
18.2%
Nashville Public Radio in particular had an especially hard time last month. In early March, the station covered major tornadoes that swept through the area and then the staff had to transition to remote work. Music events in the city have been hit hard by cancellations, said CEO Steve Swenson. “I don’t think we’re going to be able to completely replace the cancellations that we’ve been getting, but we are working really hard and really diligently in mitigating that,” he said. Swenson asked staff in different departments to help find new underwriters, he said.
“ A lot of sales people at stations count their sponsors as friends... You want to check in on them and ask how we can help you.” —Gordon Bayliss, Greater Public
Arun Rath hosts In It Together, WGBH’s new nightly radio show on the coronavirus. Sponsorship sales reps are pitching the program to underwriters as a new way to reach news listeners.
Check in with clients
32.8%
Several underwriting consultants remain hopeful that spots that have been postponed or canceled will be rescheduled. They are advising stations to stay in contact with longstanding clients. “There’s no doubt that this coronavirus has created a stressful time for everybody,” said Gordon Bayliss, Greater Public’s corporate support advisor. “A lot of sales people at stations count their sponsors as friends, so it’s good to ask, ‘How are you doing?’ and get the personal side. You want to check in
(Source: CPB, Public Broadcasting Revenue, FY2018)
on them and ask how we can help you.” Bayliss advises stations’ sales representatives to tell underwriters that audiences may be consuming more news, potentially increasing the reach of underwriting spots. “People may be listening to know what’s closing, what they should be doing, what’s the latest news from the health facilities,” Bayliss said. Underwriting messages help remind listeners “who you are and what you’re doing.” In response to the pandemic, organizations like Greater Public have compiled resources to help stations address challenges with membership, underwriting and major giving, including spot scripts and tips on how to reach out to clients affected by COVID-19. Market Enginuity, a marketing consulting company, is advising its client stations to conservatively forecast for underwriting to return to normal no earlier than May, and to be on the lookout for new clients, said President Jim Taszarek. One state health department reached out to a Market Enginuity client to share messages on public media. That inspired Taszarek to advise other stations to reach out to state and local governments about sharing messages, he said, adding that hospitals are also reaching out to stations for underwriting spots. Taszarek also recommended that stations figure out which local businesses are eager to get out messaging. Lori Zoss Kraska, an underwriting consultant for several joint licensees and public TV stations, is advising stations in her network to check in with their most loyal underwriting clients. She has also advised stations to promote how public TV in particular is providing a valuable resource with educational content. Zoos, museums and aquariums could buy underwriting spots. Such institutions are starting virtual tours and using Facebook Live to reach children. “An underwriter might not think of using underwriting dollars to promote those types of interactions,” Kraska said. Colleges and universities may also be seeking new ways to promote themselves after they were forced to cancel campus visits by prospective enrollees, said Corey Lewis, former station manager for WBUR in Boston. “Public radio is a perfect place to help parents and students figure this out before May, when final decisions have to be made,” Lewis said. Lewis also said public media should consider spots for companies that may see sales growth as more people work from home, such as vendors of cookware, board games and workout equipment. Health insurance providers may also want to promote their response to COVID-19. “The prospects are infinite for public media,” he said.
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said, stations and NPR could collaboratively fundraise for a $2 billion endowment that would help stations pay their dues to NPR. “We think in terms of pledge drives,” Vogelzang said. “The problem is … we ask for so little, and ... as a public radio system, [we] set the bar far too low.” Many stations request major gifts of $1,000 from individuals who are capable of donating much more, he added. Greater Public is working on a separate track to help build major giving knowhow and best practices at stations. In a pilot that launched last year, the training organization for public radio fundraisers partnered with Veritus Group, a major-giving consultant, on a two-year project that aims to build major-giving programs at four stations: Colorado Public Radio; WHYY; WCMU in Mount Pleasant, Mich.; and WAMU in Washington, D.C. The idea is to create a major-giving “road map” that “has been proven to be successful” through Veritus’ work with other types of organizations over many years, Greater Public CEO Joyce MacDonald told Current. Stations receive feedback and support as they follow the road map. “Getting to transformational gifts takes time,” she said. Pilot stations are already finding that the Veritus system helps them convince current donors to upgrade their gifts, she said. For stations that weren’t selected for the pilot program, Greater Public and Veritus Group received CPB funding to provide online training in major giving, MacDonald said. Beyond the training that’s needed to build best practices, MacDonald said, public radio needs to commit more resources to raising major gifts. “The challenge for folks in some cases is having the resources to either devote staff to major giving or to carve out enough time on the part of a development director or a general manager,” she said.
“ How do we rightsize the resources in order to truly leverage the amount of potential that’s in the system?” —Tim Prestridge, NPR She quantified the potential for major gift fundraising in public radio as “hundreds of millions of dollars.” During last month’s NPR board meetings, NPR’s Prestridge discussed how public radio’s emphasis on membership fundraising undercuts investments in major giving. The public radio system has been “so membership-focused for so many years that major gifts was a secondary thought,” he said. “And for a lot of stations, they just simply don’t have the capacity to do majorgift fundraising in the way that we really need to as an entire system.” He added: “That is absolutely one of the things we need to look at and address on a long-term basis: How do we rightsize the resources in order to truly leverage the amount of potential that’s in the system?”
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Current April 2020
Remote working
three regional stations, have sent positive feedback to the pandemic coverage, even though the programs aren’t polished in the studio, Shapiro said. “People understand that things aren’t going to look as perfect, but what’s most important is the information.” Ratings are up for MetroFocus, a daily show that relies on interviews, Shapiro said. In another case, Briana Vannozzi, a substitute host for NJTV News, is successfully anchoring the show from her living room and securing interviews with top public officials. “She interviewed Cory Booker on her cellphone and showed her cellphone to the camera. It wasn’t perfect but who cared? It was Cory Booker that day talking,” Shapiro said. “If you had asked me weeks ago if we could do all of our shows without getting into our building and having no access to our master control, I’m not sure I would’ve said we could do it,” Shapiro said. “This is a huge, huge breakthrough, and I’m so proud of the team for making this happen.”
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reorganized how his production team functions while keeping employees compliant with social distancing mandates. Brandis Friedman, Chicago Tonight’s co-anchor, still works out of the studio for the show’s broadcasts. But co-anchor Paris Schutz is reporting from different neighborhoods, like Chicago’s Little Village, Chinatown and Little India, as a field correspondent. This is very different from pre-coronavirus episodes of the nightly news program. Schutz and Chicago Tonight’s correspondents and producers would gather in the studio to set up their prepared segments, usually with interviewees also present. Now that most interviews are conducted remotely via phone or video chat, WTTW’s studio has emptied, aside from Friedman, camera operators and other essential personnel. “There are certain jobs that unfortunately you can’t do remotely, like Chicago Tonight,” Balta said. “So to have our main anchors Brandis and Paris separated was one of the first decisions that I needed to make.” WTTW’s reconfigured production workflow is similar to those adopted by other public TV news operations that produce daily programs, including Arizona PBS, New York’s WNET and its sister stations, Lakeland PBS in rural Minnesota and PBS NewsHour. All of these news units have transitioned most or all of their staff to remote work. The abrupt changes have created headaches and unforeseen challenges that are being handled in real time.
No plan for pandemic operations
Leaders at Arizona PBS, which is licensed to Arizona State University in Phoenix, were forced to make major changes to the station’s news productions, including suspending the student-produced daily program Cronkite News, said GM Mary Mazur. “As part of the university, we have a disaster plan in place and, in fact, we had just refined it,” Mazur said. But the plan assumed the station’s staff would be able to work from another building on campus and did not consider completely remote operations. “We thought of every disaster possible except pandemic.” Students were on spring break during the week of March 8 when the coronavirus pandemic began to disrupt daily life in the U.S., Mazur said. ASU closed its campus and students never came back for classes. Those who worked on Cronkite News became remote teleworkers, too. With Cronkite News off the air, Arizona PBS expanded production of its flagship news show Arizona Horizon into a one-hour program, filling the open timeslot of the students’ program at 5 p.m. local time. The one-hour editions aired from March 16 to March 24, when the station began airing the international program DW News at 5 p.m. Arizona Horizon resumed producing 30-minute daily episodes. “While the extra time of a full hour was helpful in the first couple of weeks, we’re finding that long-term 30 minutes is the right fit for the show and our team,” said Katie Jones, associate editor, in a statement. “We are looking at scheduling some hourlong specials, however.” “Things have moved so dramatically and so quickly. It seems like months ago but really it was weeks ago,” Mazur said. To move the news team to remote work,
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‘Firsthand’ reporting by WTTW
Top to bottom: WTTW’s Firsthand profiled Falguni Dave, a nurse who works in a COVID-19 unit. Simon hosts Arizona Horizon from his home. (Top photo: Liam Alexander) the station started by taking “baby steps,” said Allysa Adams, EP of Arizona Horizon. Host and managing editor Ted Simons began anchoring the broadcast from his home on March 26. For each show, he sits near a bookcase and in front of a banner with logos for Arizona PBS and Arizona Horizon. Student producers and reporters from Cronkite News have continued to report and produce content remotely for their show’s website and on YouTube. They also contributed to Arizona Horizon’s hour-long editions, Adams said. Like Arizona PBS, Lakeland News, has been stretched thin since the onset of the coronavirus epidemic. Its newsroom of about eight staff relies on college students to help power its news operations, which serves rural communities in north central Minnesota. Since Bemidji State University moved to remote operations, fewer students are available to work on the show, said Dennis Weimann, news director for Lakeland PBS. There’s more work for a smaller news team, compounding fears of what will happen if someone gets sick. Lakeland News still originates from the station’s studio, but staff are following guidelines for social distancing. All interviews are conducted by phone or through video chat. “Fortunately, we haven’t had anyone get sick at this point,” Weimann said. “We’re doing everything we can, but you just never know.” Keeping Lakeland News on the air is especially important because few television stations within Lakeland PBS’ broadcast region produce news. “For people at home, they want the latest news of the stories impacting our area and we’ve been able to provide that,” Weimann said. “We just had our first case of the coronavirus in our county and we were the only ones in our state that covered it.”
‘It’s the number one story in the world’
From a national perspective, PBS NewsHour has comprehensively covered the coronavirus pandemic for weeks, with Judy Woodruff anchoring the one-hour program from the studio at WETA in Washington, D.C. Producers are limiting the number of guests and reporters who appear on set. More interviews are being conducted through video conferencing platforms. In addition to its evening broadcasts, the NewsHour produced a March 19 prime-time special on coronavirus featuring health experts. After producing one podcast on the pandemic, the NewsHour planning to do more, said EP Sara Just. “We’ve done nothing but coronavirus on the NewsHour for several weeks now. That holds true for our digital content as well,” Just said. “It’s the number one story in the world and it’s our job to give insight into what’s happening and why it’s happening.” News production units at WNET in New York, a regional public broadcaster with stations serving Long Island and New Jersey, have gone completely remote, said President Neal Shapiro. The stations were able to mobilize employees quickly because disaster plans developed after the 9/11 terrorist attacks informed station leaders’ conversations about what to do, he said. In the news units, Shapiro said producers are recording separate segments for programs such as MetroFocus. Elements of the program are later pieced together at CentralCast, the joint master control in Syracuse, N.Y. “When you watch, it appears as if it’s playing as one continuous roll, but it’s not,” Shapiro said. “It’s different elements that we see up there,” he said. Viewers of Amanpour & Company, a late-night talk show co-produced with CNN, and MetroFocus, which airs on all
At WTTW, news producers have prioritized coverage of how COVID-19 is affecting Chicago’s diverse communities. Producer/director Dan Protess has adapted the model for Firsthand, which debuted last year with a series of digital shorts profiling people whose lives were changed by gun violence. Working from his kitchen at home, Protess and his team have produced eight installments of Firsthand: Coronavirus. Episodes published to date have featured a Catholic priest delivering Mass to parishioners virtually, a nurse living in isolation from her family while working 12-hour shifts and a woman with cerebral palsy who cares for her husband, who is bedridden from a spinal injury. On March 30, Chicago Tonight aired a Firsthand segment about a homeless woman. Protess works remotely with editor Ken Hall, producer Pat Odom and director of photography Kimmer Olesak. When Olesak and Odom are out doing field reporting they wear masks and gloves, and maintain as much social distance from their interviewees as they can. Finding people willing to participate as profile subjects has been difficult, Protess said. His request to interview a Chicago police officer was turned down. Another prospective subject didn’t want to bring their crew into their home during the pandemic. Still, Protess said, the process of filming and finding subjects remains fluid. “The airplane is in motion at the same time that the mechanic is building the airplane,” he said. Digital viewers appear to be gravitating towards stories about workers on the frontlines, like a garbage man who says it’s his duty to keep working, Protess said. Firsthand and Chicago Tonight are providing examples of coronavirus coverage that goes beyond reporting on and interviewing public officials, Balta said. “It’s so important, especially in these moments of crisis, that we in the media do a better job of being diverse and inclusive. Too often we’re not really reflecting who we are as a city, as a community,” he said. “We’re not just going to scratch the surface. We’re going to provide in-depth coverage on topics.”
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