Todd Mundt

Public media is a fertile plain, teeming with stories, interviews, and unforgettable music.

The Mediavore began 7 months ago as an all-volunteer shop, with two guys who already have too much to do.

But Graham Griffith and I think that there’s so much interesting public affairs, music, interviews, discussions, and documentaries on NPR, PBS, APM, PRI, BBC, CBC, TVO, and dozens of select local stations across the country, that we should share what we discover with the smartest and most curious audience there is – the millions of us who consume information voraciously and who count public media as our primary source.

An hour ago, we published our 1,001st post. We’re still an all-volunteer shop of two, communicating between Louisville and Boston via email, Google Talk and Campfire, and we’re still just as overwhelmed by all the great content that floods in every day. We have far more than we have time to post.

It’s a lot of work, but we’re still convinced that it’s important. The value of public media’s content is directly proportional to how widely it’s heard and appreciated. The technology we have today puts nearly everything that every radio and TV station produces in the hands of anyone who wants it.

Seven months ago, we wrote that there’s a real need to curate this stuff to surface the best content; and there’s room for many curators. But, oddly, there are very few. The Newshour with Jim Lehrer consistently discovers resources from radio and TV stations, helping it to cover stories better on its web site.

Then there’s NPR.org, which consistently, perhaps unintentionally, sends the message that there’s no value in offering a video discussion from The Newshour next to a related report it’s produced. NPR implies that listeners who enjoyed a great interview on Fresh Air wouldn’t appreciate watching a video of a different interaction with that same guest on Charlie Rose. NPR implies that a lively discussion about a national environmental issue on Minnesota Public Radio’s Midmorning is only important to Minnesotans.

We use NPR.org only because it’s a prominent example. PRI.org is pretty much all about PRI. MPR.org has unveiled a great new web site today, focusing on what’s important to Minnesotans, but apparently only stuff produced by MPR is important to Minnesotans.

This isn’t criminal behavior; it’s simply a failure to recognize that putting some of the pieces together makes all of it more valuable to our audience. Or maybe it’s a recognition that this is hard to do. And it is – it requires a lot of listening – not only to make basic recommendations, but to make connections that jump across shows, stations, networks.

But is the effort worth it? Yes, we know it is. We have a working model: every public radio and TV schedule in the US.

We say all this not to complain, but to point out an opportunity.

We’re spending somewhere close to $2 billion a year on public media in the US; another $1.5 billion in Canada, and around 4 billion Pounds in Britain. Are we leveraging $10 billion in impact? Couldn’t we leverage much more than that?

About a year ago, I wrote about our decision to end our subscription to cable after 20 years, and rely on off-air DTV and online sources for our viewing. (It was the subject of a piece that ran on CNN Money in February, 2009)

This decision was driven by a couple factors. First, I got tired of paying around $70 a month for access to video content I never watched. I can afford it; I make a lot of money. But what’s the “Pleasure ROI” on about $850/year spent on cable? Well, it’s unbelievably low, even when compared to something as fleeting as two $200 a plate meals. So, what’s the point?

Second, our decision was driven by the vast amount of content now available online, legally: iTunes, Hulu, etc.

In May 2008, we ended our cable TV subscription. We kept the cable Internet service because, at 20 MBps, it’s the fastest service available in our area. (Unbundling cable from Internet costs an extra $10 a month where we live.)

We connected an Eye TV USB HD receiver to an unused Mac G5, connected a small antenna to it, and connected the computer to our 32-inch Samsung HD set.

The end result: the EyeTV’s included software turned the computer into a DVR for viewing/recording/timeshifting over-the-air (OTA) content. The computer’s internet connection delivered all Internet video. Our DVD player connected us to our Netflix habit.

An important caveat, which I noted a year ago: we’re not big fans of live sports, and we don’t watch a lot of live news on TV. If you fall into either category, you probably won’t be happy with the results.

So, in the past year, what have we watched? Nearly everything we wanted to, with a few exceptions, which I’ll note below.

Over-the-air: Despite having all the local channels available to us through our little antenna, we’ve watched only public TV, and our OTA consumption is has been almost exclusively how-to shows: Lidia Bastianich, Rick Steves. The computer records them, and we watch them later.

DVD player: we watched our weird assortment of Netflix videos – travel shows, documentaries, horror movies.

Online: everything else. We watched some episodes of 30 Rock, Family Guy, and a couple vintage shows on Hulu. We subscribed to Top Chef and Project Runway on iTunes (after NBC Universal returned). We bought single episodes of cable series like Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations. We subscribed to video podcasts and watched them full-screen on the TV, from Deutsche Welle to TVO to WineLibraryTV to TED to The Cook and The Chef on Australia’s ABC. We watched tons of streaming video full-screen, ranging from Frontline and NOVA at PBS.org, to live CBC News from Toronto, Montreal, and PEI, BBC World News, Radio-Canada’s 24 hour news network RDI, to live coverage of the Mumbai attacks on Indian TV. And specialty sites delivered a lot of good stuff to us – from the aforementioned TED to Fora.tv, among others.

What have we missed? On election night, I wanted to watch live returns from every possible source all at the same time. With cable, this absurd desire is basically achievable. Without it, you’re left with ABC/NBC/CBS/PBS and a few online sources. We listened to NPR and watched a variety of video with the sound down.

That’s the only time, thus far, where I truly wanted cable. That said, I miss indulging my Barefoot Contessa habit on Food Network, but I had already grown bored of channel-flipping so I was weaned off it long before we got rid of cable.

Now, long-term? This is where it gets interesting. I’m not a big believer that all video is going to go online for free, or even in some advertiser-supported manner. I think a fair amount of stuff will stream free with ads, and I think the iTunes subscription model for series is reasonably viable.

What about the rest? I think cable companies will swallow the online distribution model through new set-top boxes that make watching TV and the Internet a near-seamless experience; and second, they’ll develop content deals with networks and producers to offer a huge array of stuff either through their own on-demand libraries (disastrous) or perhaps more likely, through Internet delivery platforms that are available only to cable subscribers.

This will add the magic element of Actual Revenue You Can See On A Balance Sheet to the online video equation, and most content of consequence will shift here. And again, the new set-tops will make the transition between traditional cable channels and Hulu-style internet delivery basically seamless.

Which means in 5 years, maybe I’ll be back on cable again. This has been my theory for the past two months. Two months from now, I might have a different theory. But that’s why this is fun, right?

Between now and then, we’ll be transitioning to a Mac Mini to reduce the electronic footprint in the living room.

While the neanderthal branch of public radio is arguing over whether NPR is going to fundraise, or launch a trial balloon for fundraising, or perhaps buy balloons, let’s take a break from the stupidity and hear from some smart people.

The Sound of Young America host Jesse Thorn commanded a stellar panel at the recent IMA Public Media Conference in Atlanta:

Merlin Mann of 43Folders, Homestar Runner creators Mike and Matt Chapman (aka The Bros. Chaps), and Jeff Olsen, creative director of adultswim.com.

The Sound of Young America

The panelists talked about how to do something on the Internet that people will actually care about, to paraphrase Thorn. Merlin Mann fans might recognize that this was a kind of John the Baptist for a panel that Merlin and John Gruber led at SXSW.

Keith Hopper developed the concept for this session. (I may have contributed the session title “Blow up your Brand” for which I apologize profusely.)

Most of the gory details of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation cuts came today in meetings with English and French employees across the country.

Tod Maffin has the basic details here for CBC and for Radio-Canada.

Notable:

• * 80 job cuts in the newsroom. The actual number of layoffs will be lower after voluntary retirements.
• * Radio One’s The Current, the flagship morning show, will be cut 10%.
• * Radio One regional noon shows cut from 2 hours to one.
• * On Radios One and 2, Outfront, The Point, Inside Track cut, among others. (Some US public radio stations air episodes of Outfront.)
• * Regional “Living” programs canceled on TV
• * Investigative programs Marketplace and Fifth Estate see budget cuts
• * The Border, Being Erica, Little Mosque on the Prairie will have fewer episodes (The Border is getting some airings in the US. Is Mosque? Not sure.)
• * Regional radio cuts aren’t evenly spread. Production centers where the cost per listener is highest get deepest cuts: Sudbury, ON for instance.
• * There was talk of finding synergies between Radios 2 and 3: some sharing of programs? Perhaps the return of the old Saturday run of Radio 3 on Radio 2? The weekend edition of The Signal is cut.
• On the Premiere Chaine, the French regional noon shows will go away, replaced by a national show.
• * Windsor ON’s morning show on the Premiere Chaine will be canceled, replaced by the Toronto morning show.

There is some good news today: Maffin reports Ottawa will continue its expected funding of CBC this year, including the annual supplement of $60 million for programming. The cuts would be worse without this.

Will there be a stink about CBC not getting any bailout money, now that commercial networks Global and CTV have gone crying to the government for money? We’ll see. CBC got hammered for supposedly making the ask, but that was before Global and CTV started begging.

And, after you sell $125 million in assets to make up this year’s deficit, what do you do about next year’s deficit, if there is one? Uh oh.

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation President and CEO Hubert Larcoix announced the expected grim news this morning: CBC will have to cut $171 million from its budget to balance the books in 2009-10.

How to get there: 400 jobs at CBC, more than 330 at Radio-Canada (the French side) and 70 admin positions. Most of the cuts look to come at the network level, with the regions bearing less of the burden (70 job cuts). CBC/Radio-Canada will also sell more real estate and other assets. CBC will announce a voluntary retirement program and leave open positions unfilled, which will reduce the actual number of layoffs; they’ll be announced in May.

Canadians who know, correct me if I’m wrong, but this looks different from the massive cuts of the late 1980’s, which went deep into the regions. After that bloodletting and additional cuts in the 90’s, CBC had slowly rebuilt some of the regional newsgathering/production capability, using supplemental funding from Parliament and other money from cost savings and real estate sales.

It looks as though much of this capacity will stay in place, pending deeper cuts: the supper hour TV newscasts will continue, for instance, and no stations will close. Also relatively unaffected: the CBC Radio One schedule and the regional noon radio talkshows; and the local morning shows, many of which are at or near the top of the ratings.

Again, correct my errors here, but this looks like an effort to cut in such a way that the rebuilding process will be easier once the economy improves. You don’t have to reopen stations you’ve closed down, for instance. It also looks like the way to proceed if one wants to maintain (in some way) the recent increases in local/regional service.

So… what about Radio 3? And, if Radio One emerges somewhat unscathed, does that mean Radio 2 gets a low and tight haircut? Also, the French cuts might be proportional, but Radio-Canada produces more of its own content. Will cuts here be more damaging to the leading position of Radio-Canada in Francophone Canada? Oh, and whither Newsworld? Radio 2’s auxiliary online streams?

All of this will get more clear tomorrow.

I’ve been giving some thought to the Kindle for a few months, and the announcement of the new Kindle 2 in February provided a good moment for me to jump on-board.

My e-reader arrived on Wednesday, so my experience so far is limited, but I have a few observations. First, a long setup.

I haven’t read printed books in some time. Aside from a few keepsake books that have special personal value, or copies that get a fresh reading regularly, I’ve largely divested my book collection, giving hundreds of volumes to charity and the public library. I don’t feel comfortable with the resources required to create a physical book, and I’ve downsized my stuff and my personal space to support a more compact, (hopefully) environmentally friendly lifestyle. While the creation and consumption of digital content also has an environmental impact, I feel marginally more comfortable with that, and I purchase carbon offsets.

My reading, up to now, has been listening, mainly: audiobooks. I have a monthly subscription with Audible.com, and I’ve listened to dozens of audiobooks while in the gym or out walking. (Disclosure: I have a relationship with Audible, as a contract narrator.)

Audiobooks have a number of advantages, but there are some genres that don’t work for me in the audiobook format. Intricate histories are hard for me to follow, probably because I listen to audiobooks while doing other activities, like working out. And Audible’s library currently offers around 50,000 products. The bestsellers are there, and so are the classics, but the catalog isn’t deep, and I’ve been adding more books to my Amazon wishlist in the past two years, reluctantly conceding that I’d need to buy them in book form.

So, enough scene-setting. A few observations about the Kindle 2:

• * Amazon’s store currently offers about 250,000 titles. The first thing I noticed was that every book I’ve dumped into my wishlist is available for the Kindle. It’s surprising how deep a 250,000 volume “library” can be.
• * The buy-and-download-instantly model is almost an exact replica of the iTunes experience, by which I mean, it’s perfect. Buying books is so simple, delivery is effortless, and the result is: I spent $50 on books in the first 20 minutes of Kindle ownership; that makes it dangerous, too, for people like me who like to consume books.
• * To think of the Kindle as simply an e-book reader is to misunderstand the power of the device and its capabilities. Andy Ihnatko still has the best piece on the Kindle, and its true killer app: the Sprint EVDO connection, coupled with a (simple) web browser. This is a simple Internet device, and there’s a lot of power in that.
• * The new design is sleeker, cooler, still not perfect. The five-way toggle switch is annoying from an ergonomic standpoint, the “next page” buttons closer to the bottom of the device than I’d like (I hold it closer to the top, for some reason.) E-ink has to flash the page to display it, and that, combined with the delay is bothersome, but not greatly so. After reading for several minutes, you kind of forget about it.
• The experience of reading on a Kindle is immersive, more so than I expected. It takes some time but the device does seem to melt into the background, in the way that a physical book does. The interface doesn’t strain my eyes, and the reader is light enough to hold and substantial enough to feel like a small book.

I like physical books, but I’m not interested in turning them into a fetish. They aren’t inherently better or more pure than any other kind of book; that’s entirely a matter of personal preference, and I refuse to debate anyone over their personal choice in this matter.

For me, the Kindle is a new way to transport and enjoy books and it has a lot of potential as an always connected Internet device (within Sprint territory).

Note: I bought the Kindle 2 with my own money. I don’t accept review copies of items; actually, I’m not an A-list blogger, so I never get offered review copies of anything.

Mike Reszler, Director of Digital Media at MPR, was one of the panelists in the “New News Model” panel. I didn’t get good notes from his talk (audio and his powerpoint will soon be available) but sifting through the twitter hashtag provides some detail, and I’ve added a few things.

Organizational must haves: Chief Innovation Officer, Chief Information Architect, Chief Social Officer and Chief Search Engine Optimizer.

It’s important to set online targets. Innovation doesn’t happen on its own. MPR doesn’t set its pageview targets by comparing itself to others in public media: it compares itself to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, which still has much higher monthly traffic.

Their innovation plan: “enough with web pages.” Because the next horizon is mobile, organizations should stop building new static web pages, and instead structure and break out content for microformatting. The structure helps create meaningful search results for users and causes your content to rise higher in search.

This thinking extends to site design. Reszler says about 40% of all traffic to the site comes from search engines, so your next redesign must begin with the article page and NOT with “home” because that will be the landing page for close to half of your users. What navigation and links do you have on the article to encourage 1) deeper exploration and 2) a click to the home page?

Reszler recommends the following internal process: Invite, Innovate and Instruct. Brainstorm with staff: what do we have to do in next 3 months to meet audience needs? Empower staff to act on the good ideas.

Interesting aside: MPR mobile site traffic is <1% of all traffic. It’s a growing component of online service and has shown huge growth in the past year, but not yet at MPR.

Thanks to the following twitter people: @candacejeanne, @jsheppa, @mcranevt, @aschweig, @stacybond, @beyondbroadcast, @juliaschrenkler, @matthewtift

Recommended: On the heels of John Palfrey’s excellent presentation at IMA this morning, here are two other presentations he’s given recently.

The usual caveat applies – these are notes and while I strive to be complete and to connect the dots between thoughts, there may be places where that doesn’t happen. Still, I hope this is useful.

John Palfrey
co-director, Berkman Center
author, Born Digital

It’s time to get in front of this mob and call it a parade

There are 1 billion people with access to the Internet. There’s an access gap but there’s also a participation gap.

It’s not just kids who use these tools in sophisticated ways – there are digital settlers who were born in an earlier era, who understand where the Internet is going.

Digital Natives – children born after 1980, who have an environment where they have access to the network.

• * the extent to which identity is created online as well as offline: the two are converged. There is no difference
• * multi-tasking and switch-tasking, and the impact on attention as a result
• * young people presume that the content they’re interacting with is digital. The idea is to share the content
• * young people are very good at working in teams. But the standard education environment is built around competition. Interestingly enough, once students get into the world of work, they’re expected to collaborate

- there’s an international dimension to this community (Global Voices Online is an example)

Myths That Are True

Young people do, in fact, share too much personal information in networked environments, and they don’t understand the consequences of sharing it with unintended audiences.

Young people do take content without paying for it, and share it with others. They know it’s illegal – they’re sticking it to the man. They’re confused abut their rights when it comes to using and remixing content.

Digital natives dip into news they’re interested in, or content that’s been recommended to them by their friends. They don’t go to libraries to research information – they go to Wikipedia and other sources for information, and a small percentage do additional research to verify what they research.

We’ll see people continue to turn to peers to help them discover important things, as a tool to manage information overload.

Young people can be the creators of information, as well as consumers, and we need to provide them with opportunities to do so.

Takeaways
It’s clear that the audience includes young people, and they don’t consider themselves to be just the audience. We’re all creators and audience, and everything is global, even if it crosses local, regional or national lines.

The power in public, private and other collaborations is enormous. There’s so much going on in the public sector that can connect to public media.

Bigger bets are called for at this time. This is, in fact, how people are interacting wth media. So we need to put more wood behind the arrows. This is much more mainstream than we’ve admitted so far

These are notes… so sorry for gaps or pieces that don’t make perfect sense. I’ve attached another presentation by Joaquin Alvarado below so you can get a more complete explanation of National Public Lightpath.

IMA General Session
Joaquin Alvarado
Founding Director of the Institute for Next Generation Internet at San Francisco State University

Technology doesn’t create communities; communities create technologies to stay connected.

National Public Lightpath
There is a solution to the problems of expanding broadband to more Americans
Universities are connected to next-generation networks – Regional Optical Networks
- so many of our stations are on university campuses, connected or potentially connected to these networks

People are searching for information from YouTube – it’s now the second largest search engine on the Internet.

We need to use the word “networked” rather than “digital.” We’ve had digital for 50 years, but are we ready for the network?

Is everything your doing right now ready to be modularized? Your job is not to figure out how people will use it but to make it possible for people to use it.

Stations: Start talking about 10GBps – and start talking about it right now. You want uncompressed video and a superfast network to collaborate with other stations and producers
Schools must have this kind of connectivity – we don’t have the network effect with schools

National Public Lightpath would connect public media, schools, universities
Stations should work with NPL to write an NTIA grant that connects the station, the local schools, adds vital non-profits, and then work with the city or with private contractors to build the network.

We need to get into the networked environment because others are moving very quickly in this space

John Palfrey, the co-director of the Berkman Center at Harvard, gave a fascinating overview of the digital natives generation at this morning’s IMA general session opener. Here are three important takeaways from the talk:

It’s clear that audience includes young people, and they don’t consider themselves to be just the audience.

The power in public, private and other collaborations is enormous. There’s so much going on in the public sector that can connect to public media.

Bigger bets are called for at this time. This is, in fact, how people are interacting wth media.

This is impressive.