Three Things for March 3, 2022
This week: Ukrainecast and using "the moment" to super-serve your community. Also, updated and on-demand, and a week spotlighting the local news crisis.
THING ONE: The Great Idea Bank
Now and then, in Three Things, I’m going to offer a great idea that I’ve come across that’s worth sharing. This initial Great Idea comes from the BBC with its new podcast, Ukrainecast, which launched last week through BBC Sounds.
Few news operations have the international resources that the BBC has, so this specific project is a perfect fit.
To roll out Ukrainecast obviously took some advance planning and a willingness to be nimble to shift the resources needed to produce this daily podcast. I’m listening to the episode “What is Putin Thinking?” that dropped on Monday as I write this post. The show summarizes what’s happening with the Russian invasion of Ukraine with a deep dive into a specific piece of the story.
It’s excellent audio storytelling.
The concept mirrors what NPR did in the early days of the pandemic with its’ afternoon Coronavirus Daily podcast, which eventually evolved into the daily afternoon Consider This podcast.
NPR has followed the BBC’s lead and announced on Wednesday night a similar daily look at the events taking place in Ukraine called “State of Ukraine.”
The press release from NPR says that the podcast will offer several new episodes per day1 and feature reporting from NPR journalists on the ground, as well as conversations with officials, experts, and other newsmakers.
For a public radio station, you might think that doing something like this at a moment’s notice might be a stretch, but it can be done if you have the expertise and the organization’s sense of place within your community.
And it doesn’t necessarily have to be a podcast.
I often think about how The Current in the Twin Cities built a worldwide audience paying tribute to Prince in the hours and days after his death in 2016. The station also sponsored an impromptu street party attended by thousands at the corner of First Avenue and Seventh Street in Minneapolis, the intersection that Prince made world-famous in his 1984 movie “Purple Rain. This worked because the station had the ingredients on hand to move quickly to serve its audience.
The Current’s Program Director Jim McGuinn wrote a guest column for the Jacobs Media blog shortly after Prince’s death offering a template for stations to act on immediate events similar to what happened in 2016. I’ve adapted his list for both music and news stations to think about as they consider how to respond to an event immediately.
Honor the music or the event. Whether it’s the death of a musician or a major news event in your city, if your station owns the expertise around the subject matter, then use that knowledge to super-serve your audience and community.
Be a hub for the community. Whatever platforms you choose as part of your content decisions, you must be engaging with the community through every channel possible: on-air, on-demand, website, social, newsletters, events, etc. Be at the center of the conversation and share your expertise with your community.
Drop everything else and go all-in on the story and coverage. These events call for bringing everyone together to meet the moment. My own personal example of this is how the entire team at St. Louis Public Radio stepped up to cover the killing of Michael Brown and the protests in Ferguson, Missouri, in August 2014. Our Arts correspondent became our morning reporter in Ferguson sharing the aftermath of the protests the night before while the newsroom became a 24/7 operation during the days and weeks of protests that followed the 18-year old’s tragic death. We also brought in NPR’s Michel Martin for a live event that was extraordinary. These opportunities to truly own a story don’t come along often, so put everything you have into making it something your audience and your community will long remember.
Remember, it’s not about the station; it’s about the event and those affected. This is sometimes difficult because it becomes personal once you take on something this big. For a music station, it’s about the musician, their work, and the lives they touched. For a news station, it’s doing the work of journalism to tell the story and why it’s important to your community.
Give yourself the emotional time and space. If it’s the death of a musician or a tragedy in your community, it’s okay to be human. The station is putting its resources behind this event because it’s more than just a one-off. In fact, your audience will expect you to join them as you capture the moment.
These events are a rarity. They don’t, nor should they, happen often. But having a deep understanding and the connectedness to the community should guide you when it’s the moment to step up and own the story.
Is there anything missing from this list? Share your thoughts and leave a comment.
THING TWO: Something New In the On-Demand Platform Wars
"There is a big hole in audio programming, which is real-time news and other playlists driven off programming. Currently we can't do that with podcast infrastructure because of the episodic nature of it."
Those are the words of Henry Blodget, CEO of Insider, in announcing a new on-demand audio product using some interesting new technology created by Spooler. The show is called The Refresh from Insider. Blodget further explains the concept.
“People love audio news, but podcasts quickly become outdated, so they’re not a great way to keep up on what’s happening. That’s why we created The Refresh from Insider. Our new technology and programming brings you the latest news wherever you are and whenever you want it — like radio, but on your schedule.”
Spooler has some really smart audio folks behind it, led by James O. Boggs and Andy Bowers. Boggs, most recently, was Head of Podcasts at Apple, and Bowers co-founded Megaphone (which was purchased by Spotify in 2020) and Slate podcasts. Early in his career, Bowers worked at NPR, WBUR, and Minnesota Public Radio and is currently the Head of Audio for Insider.
Sara Fischer had the exclusive on the new company for Axios on Monday, writing that it’s “the first of several joint ventures from a new fund called “Axel Springer Insider Ventures” (ASIV) that’s focused on innovation in media.” Axel Springer is the parent company of Insider.
As what seems to be almost always the case these days, there are some public radio alums involved in the production of The Refresh from Insider with Rebeca Ibarra, a former WNYC host and producer co-hosting the show, and Kerry Donahue, who worked at PRX and WNYC, serving as the show’s executive producer. Dave Smith, a reporter and editor at Insider, is the other co-host for the show.
The show publishes weekdays as a podcast that you can find in all the usual places with live updates between 7:00 am and 1:00 pm Eastern.
But the far more compelling experience is on The Refresh website with the player that allows you to view the playlist, skip segments, and select upcoming pieces a listener might want to hear.
The spin from the folks at Spooler for news organizations is that “producers could build “playlist programs” that Spooler automatically stitches together to make the podcast sound seamless, even though it’s being repeatedly updated.”
In some ways, this is a bit like the NPR One experience, which provides a constant stream of newscasts, segments, and podcasts that can be tailored individually for registered users. In addition, WNYC has its Discover section on its app that will create a playlist of content you might be interested in for your commute or other activity.
However, the big difference with the Spooler technology is that the “segments” are seamless and flow together simply because the content is produced specifically for the platform, not a chunk edited out of a broadcast stream. In addition, the ability to update individual segments within the feed provides flexibility and a real-time element to the content.
And then all of this is packaged into a single podcast.
Each update will rebuild the podcast and replace the prior entry on RSS. So if you listen in the morning, you could download the show again and skip ahead to hear what happened later in the day.
This type of technology could give podcasts better penetration on smart speakers and in cars, where people often are looking for up-to-date information via voice commands, says Spooler’s Andy Bowers.
The Axios story quotes Spooler co-founder Boggs saying the company will start by working with different news organizations, but in the future, he thinks Spooler’s tech could be used across an array of industries, including corporate training and communications.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Politico, who already has several podcasts and is a part of Axel Springer, develop an on-demand product using the Spooler technology soon.
As for public radio, this might be an ideal technology for stations that haven’t created a daily podcast to dip their toe in the water to offer a timely and turnkey product that could be updated throughout the day.
Theoretically, this technology would allow you to drop updated weather forecasts into the feed as needed. I’m also thinking about how a product like this might be used collaboratively across stations or perhaps create a model for a national-local collaboration.
Maybe there’s an opportunity to scale Spooler through a group buy on behalf of all NPR stations to provide a single podcast platform similar to what has been done with Grove as a CMS for station websites.
I hope this is worth further conversations between NPR and its member stations.
THING THREE: A Week Spotlighting the Local News Crisis
It’s been a high-profile week across some media outlets spotlighting the local news crisis impacting communities large and small across America.
On Sunday, CBS’ 60 Minutes ran a segment digging into the challenge facing newspapers across the country as the economics of the business have changed in the past twenty years. Here’s an excerpt of the transcript from the report:
Behind the marching band and baton twirlers, at the annual 4th of July parade in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, you'll find a one-man band: reporter Evan Brandt, snapping photos, taking notes, and gathering quotes.
For the last 24 years, he's chronicled this community of 23,000 for the local newspaper, the Mercury, which at one time had dozens of reporters. Now, Brandt is literally the last reporter standing in Pottstown.
Jon Wertheim: When a community like this loses their local reporters. What else are they losing?
Evan Brandt: It reminds us all about shared experiences. You know who died, you know who graduated from high school. You know whose kid had a great game. You know those are all important elements about holding people together.
Jon Wertheim: You're describing the soul of a community?
Evan Brandt: Sure.
The idea of a local news outlet being described as “the soul of a community” is a powerful descriptor that shows the importance of local news in cities and towns across this nation.
(Keep that in your pocket for your next fundraising appeal.)
The story also discusses the impact over the past several years of Alden Global Capital in buying newspapers then slashing reporting staff.
The report then shifts to Steven Waldman and the founding of Report for America.
The piece also shared what Maryland Hotel Magnate Stewart Bainum is up to in Baltimore with The Baltimore Banner. The nonprofit digital news outlet will launch later this year with a $50 million multi-year investment from Bainum.
In addition to the broadcast report, 60 Minutes Overtime added an online story examing possible legislation that Congress might take up to support local news outlets, including the Local News Sustainability Act. The proposed legislation would use tax credits to incentivize companies to advertise with, and people to subscribe to, local news outlets. It also includes a payroll tax deduction to support reporter salaries.
These stories were accented by two columns in the Columbia Journalism Review by Report for America’s Steven Waldman.
In the first piece, Waldman paints the picture of a serious decline in local reporting across the country, as detailed by the graphic below and its impact on information vacuums in communities.
As the number of newspaper journalists per 100,000 people plummeted, the number of teachers-per-100,000 rose slightly, as did the number of nurses. Perhaps most relevant, the number of librarians per 100,000 has barely changed since 2000. According to the Institute for Museum and Library Services, there were 50,900 librarians and 143,888 library staff in 2019, the most recent year for which data was available. The same year, there were about 34,000 newspaper newsroom staffers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Waldman notes in his piece that librarians and local reporters share two commonalities: they’re in the information-providing business, and pundits predicted that the internet would make them obsolete. However, he’s quick to point out that both are still essential despite that prediction, although librarians have a sturdier business model (i.e., taxpayers).
What isn’t mentioned in either of Waldman’s CJR essays is the increase in local journalists in public media over the past decade. While there was a slight fallback in 2020 from the economic downturn, many stations added personnel last year, which seems to be continuing in 2022.
In Waldman’s second piece, titled “Let’s strengthen local reporting by 50,000 new journalists,” he offers a rallying cry that perhaps the tide may be shifting as business models for local news are evolving.
He also writes that the public perception of local journalism is shifting to be considered “a public good—which, for our purposes, means it has great civic value, yet cannot be adequately supported by consumer spending. The most obvious example is local investigative journalism, which almost never pays for itself through traffic but offers enormous benefits to the community. Much local journalism falls into this category.”
The piece covers the increase in locally grounded news organizations2, yet fails to mention the role that public media has played in filling these gaps in local reporting in cities and towns across America.
I think it’s terrific that this type of attention is being given to the Local News Crisis.
But, and I feel like I’m probably beating a dead horse here, public media needs to be much more public about the investments and impact that stations are making in communities across the country. This lack of awareness plays a role in funders not choosing public media for significant investments and certainly might make attracting talent more difficult when there are other “bright shiny objects” out there competing against us.
One of those potential competitors also made some news in the last week. I’ve written in the past about the moves that Axios Local is making in expanding into local markets with a couple of journalists and the editorial, business, and technology heft of the Axios network.
On Monday, Axios named Jamie Stockwell, a local news veteran, who most recently served as a deputy national editor at the New York Times, as the executive editor for Axios Local.
You may recall in January, Axios CEO Jim VandeHei authored a “Manifesto” vowing to ‘save local news.’” His goal is to bring smart, modern, trustworthy local news to every community in America.
The hiring of Stockwell is another step Axios Local’s ambitious expansion where they plan to be in 25 markets by the end of this year.
But there’s more.
Axios also announced on Monday the hiring of Michael Graff as its Southern bureau chief overseeing Charlotte, Atlanta, Nashville, and Raleigh and earlier this year named Kristen Hinman to oversee the publisher’s Mid-Atlantic coverage including Washington D.C., Richmond, and Baltimore.
In these announcements, you can’t help but see how strategic they are building out their network across the country. For example, according to the announcement of Stockwell’s hiring, it was reported that they are planning to “add more local editors and talent outside of traditional writers, like data visualization journalists and salespeople.”
How does this compare with public radio’s news expansion efforts?
Well, it’s very different.
There are a lot of stations expanding their newsrooms and some collaborative efforts taking place. Still, the repetition and overlap of our actions because of the federated nature of our system create duplication and undoubtedly high levels of inefficiency.
In the coming days, I’ll be sharing the results of the station survey of staffing vacancies across public media, and the one big thing that’s jumped out to me is that the quest to hire talent, particularly content staff, is very challenging right now. And it’s not going to get any easier.
There’s plenty of work ahead to effectively tell our story and work together more efficiently across the system.
I’ll have more on that in future editions of Three Things.
In the meantime, if you missed the Knight Media Forum session with Axios CEO VandeHei, they have the session archived, and you can watch the conversation below with Alberto Ibargüen, CEO of The Knight Foundation. VandeHei details the work going to the Axios Local strategy to “save local news.”
Thanks for reading this week’s Three Things. Your feedback and comments are always appreciated. You can reach me at tim@publicimpactgroup.com.
Hopefully, this commitment to multiple episodes per day will not conflict with the network’s ability to provide live radio coverage as needed on the events taking place in Ukraine.
Waldman notes that you can see most of these upstart local news organizations in the membership directories of the Institute for Nonprofit News and the Local Independent Online News association.