Three Things Datebook for the week of 12/13/2021
This week's datebook looks back at Edison Research's Top 10 for 2021. Plus, charting your path for 2022 and a look ahead at a public radio in-person gathering for next year.
I hope your calendar frees up a bit this week from video screen meetings and webinars to more festive gatherings as we head toward the holidays. Perhaps these may even occur in person with all the safety requirements necessary in our still COVID world. So, for this edition of the datebook, we do a bit of looking back and look forward into the new year.
THING ONE: Edison Research’s Top 10
This will be the last datebook for 2021, so this “thing” is for a webinar next week, on Monday, December 20, at 2:00 pm (Eastern). And it should be a good one.
If you work in radio or audio, you know Edison Research from its extensive media research that includes the annual Infinite Dial research to the Share of Ear study to the recently released Black Podcast Listener Report, the Spoken Word Report (in collaboration with NPR), and the Latino Podcast Listener Report.
But Larry Rosin’s company has also been the sole provider of exit polling data to the television networks comprising the National Election Pool since 2003.
With that portfolio of work, this Top 10 Findings for 2021 webinar from Edison should be fascinating. Edison’s SVP Tom Webster1 and Director of Research Laura Ivey will host the session with many researchers behind the studies joining the conversation.
I’m certain that the session will include some revealing data on the Share of Ear study over the past year as audio consumers’ habits continue to change through the pandemic. For example, a 2021 Q3 chart recently released showed a one percent drop in AM/FM radio listening over the past 18 months.
AM/FM Radio listening is still far and away the leader in time spent listening to audio, but its share has fallen from 44% in 2019 to 38% in Q3 of 2021. YouTube music listening and podcasts have seen the most growth over this same period.
There will be plenty to be shared on the webinar, and you can register for this free Zoom session here.
THING TWO: Chart Your Path for 2022
I’ve posted a few things from Claire Lew, the CEO of Know Your Team2, over the past few months in this newsletter, and they are offering a free year-end workshop designed to help leaders reflect on 2021 and chart a path for growth in 2022. Know Your Team has served over 15,000 people across the globe, including companies like Airbnb, Kickstarter, and Medium.
The company’s software, which grew out of the Basecamp portfolio, provides a suite of tools to help managers increase employee engagement.
I’ve found Lew’s blog posts offer some of the best ideas around to help leaders and managers grow and prosper in this ever-changing and complicated moment for executives at organizations of all sizes.
In addition to reflecting on the past year, this one-hour session will discuss the common pitfalls that occur when we reflect on progress as a leader. The forum will also offer ideas on what leaders should focus on in the year ahead to have an outsized impact on their team and translate that focus area into tangible action in 2022.
This interactive workshop might be beneficial for new managers or those seeking to move into leadership positions, so please share this with others. You can register for the session, taking place on Wednesday, December 15, at 1:00 pm (Eastern) through this link.
THING THREE: Looking Ahead to a Public Radio In-Person Gathering
This year, there have been a few smaller in-person public radio gatherings, but most of our industry conferences have been virtual events since early 2020. With the spirit gathering face-to-face, I hope that public radio leaders have the Public Radio SuperRegional on the calendar for April 11-12, 2022, at the Grand Hyatt Denver.
Denver is a perfect place for public media to gather since it represents a fascinating public and nonprofit media ecosystem. The region is home, of course, to Colorado Public Radio and its three broadcast services with one of public radio’s largest newsrooms that includes the Denverite nonprofit online news outlet.
It’s also the place for music innovation with Rocky Mountain Public Media’s KUVO Jazz and The Drop Urban AC format along with Community Radio for Northern Colorado’ Triple-A Colorado Sound and CPR’s Indie 102.3.
Community Radio for Northern Colorado also runs an NPR News service, KUNC, and Rocky Mountain Public Media operates the Colorado News Collaborative.
Denver is also the home of the Colorado News Conservancy, jointly owned and operated by the National Trust for Local News and The Colorado Sun. In May, the NTLN made its first acquisition by bringing together local ownership for the Colorado Sun and two dozen suburban newspapers around Denver.
That is a lot going on in one market.
The SuperRegional also includes a pre-conference workshop, GM101, on Sunday, April 10, 2021. Two veteran station leaders, John Hess of WUWM and Caryn Mathes of KUOW, will lead the one-day workshop designed to help develop the next generation of public media leaders. A focus of the workshop will include discussions on guiding your team in a remote environment along with recruiting and leading diverse teams.
One more Save The Date for early 2022 is the Knight Media Forum 2022 hosted by the Knight Foundation. This will be a virtual free event for the second straight year, given current uncertainty about the course of the pandemic. The event will be held on three successive afternoons, February 22, 23 and 24, 2022 from 2:00 - 5:00 pm (Eastern).
The Knight Media Forum has traditionally been a “must attend” event bringing together leaders in philanthropy, journalism, and technology to strengthen local news, communities, and democracy.
If you’ve never attended, you can get a taste of the conversations from this post following last year’s event that offered six key takeaways from Knight Media Forum 2021 and the video below from the 2020 Forum, one of the last in-person conferences before the onset of the pandemic. This session discussed “Bringing Local Reporting and Solutions to Your Community,” featuring Liza Gross from the Solutions Journalism Network and Charlie Sennott from Report for America in conversation with Jennifer Preston, then vice president for journalism with Knight.
That’s the datebook for this week. Thanks so much for reading.
Here’s a tip: Webster has a great newsletter that’s worth subscribing to called I Hear Things.
Know Your Team is software that helps you become a better leader. It provides educational written guides, software tools, and a community of 1,000 managers to learn from along the way.