EVENTS
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? The pandemic and other events from 2020 brought many new challenges to the industry. Through its Where Do We Go From Here webinar series, the Hubbard School hosted many industry experts to discuss the year’s impact on different areas of media.
TV & RADIO
In October, Director Cohen welcomed Ginny Morris, Dan Seeman and Kirk Varner, all from Hubbard Broadcasting, to discuss the organization’s response to the pandemic. The group also covered how KSTP covered the social unrest of summer 2020 and what changes the pandemic may bring to workplace culture and the organization’s coverage.
“We’ve seen our streaming numbers go up as people are at home working. So much radial listening typically takes place in the car, so that’s kind of a point of vulnerability that we knew we were going to encounter, and we have, but we've seen our streaming numbers go up pretty considerably.” —Ginny Morris, Hubbard Broadcasting
“We were really adopters with streaming on laptops and on desktops, and we were very early adopters on smart speakers like Alexa. And it’s really paid off. Listening patterns are completely disrupted. We don’t get mom in the car bringing her kids to school every day anymore, or we don't get some of those folks that are driving to work every day. So these digital platforms have been really important.” —Dan Seeman, Hubbard Radio
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MURPHY REPORTER ❙ Winter 2021
“I don’t think anybody had on their bingo card for 2020 a pandemic, social unrest, and then, you know, all of the day-to-day normal things you have in terms of running a news operation. And, let’s put in an election, which depending on which candidate you want to listen to, the one thing they seem[ed] to agree on is that it [was] the most important election of our time.” —Kirk Varner, KTSP
NONPROFIT NEWS ORGANIZATIONS
In November, Assistant Professor Valerie Belair-Gagnon welcomed several leaders from nonprofit news organizations to talk about the funding and future of their entities. Tanner Curl of MinnPost, Meg Martin of MPR News and Sylvia Strobel of TPT talked about challenges, changes and bright spots brought on by the pandemic.
“We’ve seen an increase in philanthropic support from all sources—grant funders individual donors and within individual donors at all levels—which I think again just shows the resonance and the importance of the work directly impacting people's lives.” —Tanner Curl, MinnPost
“It’s really critical that when we’re telling stories of joy and innovation and of change and of science and of solutions, that we're telling those stories from people in communities all across the state.”
“We've had a better reaction from our [event] audience who’ve been able to engage with us during this period —Meg Martin, who might not MPR News have come to a live event. I think that'll be something we're talking about when we can do live events in person again. How do we keep that element of digital connection to be able to have that reach?” —Sylvia Strobel, TPT
