Converge

John Proffitt has posted some of the general details of a reorganization announced yesterday at Alaska Public Telecommunications in Anchorage. The official announcement is here.
The reorganization is similar to ones undertaken by a number of stations in recent years, merging the management of radio, television and web, looking for a more logical org chart that [...]

Best-in-class right now: KQED.org has relaunched with a new look, more integration between radio and TV, universal navigation and a few other goodies.
That’s my opinion and you’re certainly entitled to yours. Take a look: The design is finely balanced - lots of white space, smart use of Helvetica, boxes with dark borders that add heft [...]

If you have bad news to tell your audience, a canceled program, a big format change… Apple’s MobileMe Status Updates blog shows you how not to do it:
Steve Jobs has asked me to write a posting every other day or so to let everyone know what’s happening with MobileMe, and I’m working directly with the [...]

Worth a read, if you’ve not done so already, is the big chunk of an email to the staff of Bryant Park Project, from NPR’s interim CEO, Dennis Haarsager, who completed the cycle by posting it to his blog on Tuesday.
It’s exceptionally good, written with the tone you’d expect from someone who is a visionary, [...]

The latest addition to what I call Personal Public Television - the universe of public media content that you can create and curate yourself:
If you’re afflicted with the disease which has no name - the periodic, intense craving for documentary films - then you’ll love SnagFilms. I just discovered this site and after spending some [...]

Why? Here’s my (incomplete) list.

* Unprecedented flexibility for anyone, from a blogger in Pittsburgh to KQED in San Francisco, to generate highly specific content searches of the NPR archive (going back to 1995) and port the results to a webpage or an application.
* A number of stations also have their archives inside the system, too. [...]

Oil prices have skyrocketed, and the cost of everything related to energy is rising in response.
What will be the impact of this new reality on public media. I’ve been offering some thoughts, hoping they’ll serve as conversation starters.
Now, more than ever, it’s time to engage the community.
I don’t recommend holding off on that cool community [...]

NPR’s “Inside” blog has announced the coming launch of its new API in the next few days.
10am UPDATE: It’s now live. Here’s Daniel Jacobson’s post.
This is a pretty big deal… a signal of openness from NPR, a willingness to let developers have access to NPR’s content, and the beginning of what could be some really [...]

The price of energy has risen as oil prices have skyrocketed, and the cost of everything related to energy (and that’s a lot) is starting to rise in response. Infrastructure expenses like travel and utilities are eating into other budget lines, and that should force us to think more creatively about how we do business.
How [...]

I didn’t have time to blog this yesterday, after news hit the streets, but CONGRATULATIONS to Jody Evans, who will be leaving Vermont Public Radio to become program director at KUT in Austin TX in September.
I’ve come to know Jody in my time on the PRPD board. What I appreciate most about her is that [...]

Energy and other costs are rising, and we’re just beginning to feel the ripple effect through the rest of the economy. Public media organizations are approaching the next year conservatively, assuming a downturn, and one which might last for awhile.
So, how will you adapt? This week, I’m posting thoughts on a couple of the many [...]

Are we in a recession? Hard to say. Unlike being hit on the head with a hammer, for instance, we don’t truly know if we’re in a recession until it’s stopped hurting. Is oil going to hit $200 a barrel, as some have predicted? Or $250? We don’t know.
What we do know is this: even [...]