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THREAD: Can public media help fix market failures in local news? That was our question 18 months ago when we launched the Public Media Mergers Project, supported by @GoogleNewsInit @PMVG_ with research support from @ShorensteinCtr. Our answer... 1/ https://bit.ly/2LQcVq0
Yes. Public media CAN help fix market failures in local news, but it will take simultaneously building on its traditional values and dismantling the legacy structures of the current system to create a new local journalism service worthy of "the public" in public media. 2/
To reach this conclusion, over the last 18 months we studied and worked with 15 newsrooms combining across eight public broadcasters, serving communities in New York; New Jersey; Pennsylvania; Washington, D.C.; Missouri; Colorado; Washington State; and California. 3/
@WHYY @billy_penn @NJSpotlight @NJTVNews @wnet @CascadePubMedia @Crosscut @DCist @WAMU885 @Gothamist @WNYC @LAist @KPCC @stlpublicradio @Denverite @COPublicRadio 4/
Today we launch the Public Media Playbook, a guide for public media stations and independent local digital newsrooms to help them assess and manage a newsroom acquisition and merger. 5/ https://publicmediamergers.org/
Acquiring a digital news site with a strong brand and editorial voice boosted local public service journalism in the cases we studied. Acquisitions can catalyze transformation inside public media. BUT success requires patience, resources, leadership, vision, and turnover. 6/
A public media newsroom offers significant benefits for indie digital news sites in need of financial sustainability, new resources for journalism, and a path to scale and multi-platform audience reach. 7/
Combining public media stations and local digital newsrooms can create a new, strong foundation for local public service journalism. 8/
But this foundation is just that — a foundation. The construction of a new local journalism service is accompanied by an equally important dismantling. The has meant grappling with the deep-seated cultural biases and inequitable practices of public media. 9/
For stations that regularly track their Nielsen ratings, there is no denying that the audiences that are served by and support public media over the air are predominantly white and affluent. The voices on air in radio are mostly white too. 10/
This is a legacy of systemic racism writ broadly, refracted through public media’s membership-based business model, the sound and sensibility of its mostly white, Baby Boomer founding generation (on the radio side), and the logic of broadcast as a mass medium. 11/
The failure of existing public media organizations to live up to the ideal of public service is not new, and calls for change are not new either. My own historical research has revealed that debates about who defines “the public” in public radio go back decades. 12/
Part of the promise of digital-native newsroom acquisitions into public media, both radio and television, is to open up new models, formats, and platforms that can serve diverse as well as niche audiences. 13/
Public media newsroom mergers are one possible path to building a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive local public service. The stations in our study were not, however, immune to leadership departures, newsroom shakeups, & public accounting during this process. 14/
Forward-thinking stations are acknowledging failures & addressing the structural roots of inequalities in the system. @ToTheVictor @CascadePubMedia @Crosscut, calls this dismantling and building process “opening up the tributaries” 15/ https://bit.ly/38Gpey4
Public media newsrooms have an institutional mission & set of values to guide them toward transforming their structures and fostering a deeper level of community service, supported by more nuanced understandings of "the audience," "local service," and "the public” 16/
And the good news is that all members of the public media community — workers, managers, leaders, boards, contributing members, and viewers and listeners like you and me — have access to the values and tools that can help transform this system. 17/ https://www.publicmediaforall.com/
The pressures and trials of 2020 have accelerated the building and dismantling processes, giving them new urgency. It's exciting to see newly-merged public media institutions deepen their service to communities with timely, important, and life-saving information. 18/
The new kind of service journalism has been remarkable to witness — and humbling to observe the painful and necessary internal conversations about how to truly embody the values of public service. 19/
All of this gives me hope that a renewed, more diverse, equitable, and inclusive public media can be built, in part, with the talent, resources, and platforms of the current system. 20/
That work is not easy. Simultaneous building and dismantling requires skilled and thoughtful leadership at all levels. The possibilities are there, and the future is already present in bits and pieces. 21/
The newsrooms in the Public Media Mergers cohort are creating the core elements of a new public media. That's something to celebrate. 22/
And for a downloadable pdf version of the Playbook, visit the Shorenstein Center site https://shorensteincenter.org/public-media-mergers-playbook/
Gratitude Thread: The Public Media Mergers Project and Playbook would not have been possible without the brilliant @emilyroseman1 and her research and partnership skills. Her combination of insight and forward momentum kept this project going through many ups and downs in 2020.
I am also deeply grateful for the support and collaboration of Marc Hand and @PMVG_. Marc and his team and board believed in the vision of this project from the very beginning and helped us navigate the many relationships and procedures a research endeavor of this scale requires.
The faculty and staff of @ShorensteinCtr provided critical research, communication and institutional support and a platform for conversations about sustainability and local journalism. I am so grateful to have been part of their circle.
And this entire effort was undergirded by the generous support of @GoogleNewsInit. The partnership of David Stoller and keen eye of @BenMonnie and his team enabled us foster learning relationships across the station cohort and create this resource for the field.
Of course there would be no data or findings at all without the sharing and insight of the #pubmedia stations in our research cohort. Their generosity of time and willingness to be vulnerable about the ups and downs of acquisitions and mergers is the real catalyst for change!
