Three Things for the week of November 2, 2020
Three items from journalism, media and the nonprofit sector worth noting.
It’s election week in America and this week we touch on how newsrooms are changing in our pandemic world, nonprofit governance and the move to NEXTGEN TV.
Reuters Institute Survey on Changing Newsrooms 2020
A new report from the Reuters Institute found that nearly half — 48% — of newsroom leaders from around the world say their companies are planning to downsize their physical premises. An accelerated shift to hybrid newsrooms — with some staff in the office, some working from home, and some on the go — is likely to be a lasting legacy of the coronavirus crisis, authors write.
Over half of respondents — 58% — seemed open to the shift, saying they’d like to go back to the office a bit less often than before the pandemic, and 21% said they’d like to go back much less often. One quarter said they’d like to go back as often as before.
10 Truths Every Board Member Should Know
A recent column by non-profit consultant Joan Garry says that joining a nonprofit board is “more work than you anticipated, more responsibility that you may have understood, a bit more frustrating than you considered, but most importantly, it will be a rewarding joy and privilege of the highest order.”
She then details ten very valid truths about the importance of nonprofit governance including a terrific template for new board member orientation, something that most nonprofits would admit is something that needs improvement to help welcome new directors.
Public TV Tells the FCC: Datacasting Key for Remote Education
The role of Public Television to provide remote education has never been more important than in the past several months as schools and daycare centers have responded to the pandemic. According to America’s Public Television Stations (APTS), of the 56.6 million school children across the U.S., 20% lack access to broadband connectivity. This has resulted in a movement by some public television stations to deliver supplemental resources through datacasting.
The transition to ATSC 3.0, or NEXTGEN TV, will enable public television stations to “truly create broadcast internet services in education, public safety, telehealth, precision agriculture and more,” according to APTS. ATSC 3.0 technology could also provide high-speed data to smartphone and cars, basically opening up a new platform to serve audiences with video, audio, and data.