Three Things Datebook for the week of 11/15/2021
The datebook suggests you might want to check out the Black Podcast Listener Report on Tuesday and fundraising webinars on Thursday and Friday, plus the full NPR Board meets this week.
A few things of interest are happening this week for public media leaders.
THING ONE: The Black Podcast Listener Report
On Tuesday, November 16 at 2:00 pm (Eastern), the first-ever comprehensive research on Black podcast listeners in the United States, The Black Podcast Listener Report, will be presented in a free webinar.
Thirty-six percent of Black Americans 18 and older are monthly podcast listeners. The report examines how Black Americans consume podcasts, including podcast discovery, device usage, and reasons for listening.
The report also includes findings on how Black Americans feel about podcast advertisements, podcasts with video components, the topics and genres they are most interested in, and the importance of black creators in podcasting. Over 2,500 Black Americans were surveyed for this groundbreaking study.
According to the research, 42% of Black monthly podcast listeners say they’ve been streaming shows for one year or less. One of the other findings reveals that 59% of Black podcast listeners say they would even listen more if there were more podcasts with Black hosts.
Presenters for the webinar include Gabriel Soto, Director of Research at Edison Research; Nidia Serrano, Senior Director Sales Marketing Strategy at SXM Media; and Natasha Stockton, Director, Communications Planning at Mindshare.
Edison Research conducted the study in partnership with SXM Media and Mindshare. Here’s the link to register for the webinar.
THING TWO: Two Interesting Fundraising Webinars to Check Out
There are at least two fundraising-related webinars worth checking out this week.
In September, Melanie Coulson authored an excellent piece in Current advocating that digital fundraising become a higher priority for public media organizations.
To continue the conversation, Current is hosting a webinar on Thursday, November 18 at 2:00 pm (Eastern), exploring the barriers to improving the online donation experience for donors to public media. The panelists, who bring expertise from inside and outside public media, will also share strategies for breaking through those barriers.
The webinar will feature:
Melanie Coulson, Executive Director for Member Station Services at Greater Public, who oversaw a 2020 study of stations’ digital fundraising practices;
Jamie Siegel, Director, eCRM & Digital Marketing at Chicago Public Media (WBEZ), whose station scored the highest in the Next After Institute of Online Fundraising’s analysis; and
Yoonhyung Lee, formerly of KQED, who has built and improved digital fundraising programs for the Smithsonian and clients of M+R, where she is a senior VP.
The second fundraising-related session centers on the idea of Storytelling.
On Friday, November 19 at 2:00 pm (Eastern), the Lenfest News Philanthropy Network is partnering with The Inclusion Firm, a national consulting practice focused on developing inclusive strategies for organizational change, to offer a workshop that is designed to embrace ethical storytelling and explore a human-centered approach to curating social impact.
Chandra Harris-McCray, Vice-Chancellor of Strategic Marketing and Communications at the University of Illinois - Chicago, will lead the session. Harris-McCray is an award-winning inclusive and integrated strategist and architect of campaign, brand, content, and engagement blueprints across multimedia.
Storytelling is at the heart of what news organizations do, but publishers often struggle to tell their own stories effectively when it comes to fundraising.
I love the way this webinar is framed for news organizations:
Does your institution’s stories honor the communities you serve and connect your constituents? Stories uplift shared experiences; they shape identity; they create communities; they promote culture and values; they provide instruction; and they reveal the past with the intention of shaping the future. And, when delivered effectively, they inspire action, or worse, they evoke pity or marginalization.
Here’s the link to register for Ethical Storytelling.
THING THREE: The Board of Directors meeting of NPR, Inc.
After last week’s committee meetings, the full NPR Board of Directors will gather on Thursday and Friday in virtual meetings.
The board will meet in executive session1 on Thursday, November 18, from 11:00 am - 6:00 pm (Eastern), and again on Friday, November 19, from 11:00 am - 12:30 pm (Eastern).
The board will meet in an open session following the Friday closed session beginning at 1:00 pm.
The board will officially welcome one new Member Director, Rima Dael, to this meeting. Rima is the General Manager of WSHU, Fairfield, Connecticut.
Patty Cahill, retired General Manager of KCUR and a former member of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Board of Directors2 will also begin her three-year term as a Non-Board Distribution/Interconnection Committee member.
As is usually the case for the public session, the agenda is pro forma.
However, it’s always interesting to hear what board Chair LaFontaine Oliver, who begins his second year as Chair, and President John Lansing will share in their reports during the meeting. In addition, if you missed the committee meetings last week, each committee will also share a little of what was discussed in each open session during the meeting.
The board will also hear from Public Editor Kelly McBride. Also, staff from the NPR Science Desk3 will offer a presentation on the network’s pandemic coverage.
As I shared last week, if you want to check out the board’s open session, contact the NPR Board Liaison at boardliaison@npr.org at least one day before the meeting begins on Friday.
Although it’s unlikely that there will be any new news at the meeting, I always urge station leaders to check out what the board is doing. This is particularly true if you are relatively new to public radio or a station leadership position.
Chances are, the fees you pay to NPR are the most significant outside expenditure at your station, so it might be worth your time to pay attention to the work of the board.
Finally, I end this edition on a somber and heartbreaking note.
My condolences go out to the family, friends, and public radio colleagues of NPR books editor Petra Mayer.
Mayer died suddenly on Saturday at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, Md. She was 46.
In the obituary published on npr.org, a quote from Mayer was shared from a 2018 “Faces of NPR” interview about what she loved about public radio. Her quote says a lot about her love for her work at NPR.
She said "We tell stories in a way no one else can, we lift up voices no one else does, we'll bring you the news but we'll also bring you the joy in a way no other medium can."
Such a terrible, sad loss.
According to Section 396(k)(4) of the Communications Act, meetings of the NPR Board and its committees may move into executive session and be closed to the public “to consider matters relating to individual employees, proprietary information, litigation and other matters requiring the confidential advice of counsel, commercial or financial information obtained from a person on a privileged or confidential basis, or the purchase of property or services whenever the premature exposure of such purchase would compromise the business interests of [NPR].”
Patty was Chair of the CPB Board for two years (2012-2014) and served two years as Vice-Chair.
Edith Chapin, Scott Hensley, and Pien Huang are listed on the agenda as presenters.