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 engagement concept until your organization is down to its last dollar. But economic difficulties shouldn’t be a signal to lay low until times get better. These times can provide opportunities for you to harness your resources to address key issues that matter most to your audience. Doing so may convince the people who matter in your community that you’re committed to meeting urgent social needs; that enhances your position as a significant community institution, and reminds them that your continued financial health is a core community concern.

Here are a few examples I’m aware of. If you know of others, I’d love to hear about them in the comments.

Reaching out to families: Iowa Public Television

Dan Wardell is the face of Iowa Public Television‘s outreach to kids. On TV, you’ll catch him here and there in the kids schedule. But if you see him in real life, you realize just how much of a phenomenon he is. Every year, kids (and parents) swarm around him during his appearances at the Iowa State Fair. His shows and story readings are standing room only. This year, Dan went on tour all over Iowa, and you can check out his blog to see the results.

During this year’s horrific flooding, Dan Wardell’s “Reading Road Trip” traveled to libraries in flood affected areas like Iowa City and Burlington. He drew record crowds – families who needed a brief respite from the ordeal.

Now, you can look at this as a heartwarming episode. (“Maybe we’ll do that again sometime, if we can get a grant”). But I’d be very surprised if IPTV’s leadership let it go at that. In recent years, they’ve been a network on a mission to build a sustainable future; I bet this is a defining moment.

Solving Community Problems: KETC

I’ve given several shout outs to KETC‘s initiative, Facing the Mortgage Crisis. I’m highly impressed with the active role the station is taking to help find solutions to a huge problem. Here, an aspect of the downturn itself is an opportunity for 9 St Louis to show it’s an invaluable community partner.

Facing the Mortgage Crisis isn’t a segment on the weekly magazine show; it’s not a one hour documentary, shot in true-to-life HD. This is a “get in there and get your hands dirty” effort to help the community.

The station is partnering with local agencies like United Way to channel information to people who’ve lost their homes, or who are facing foreclosure. There are live on-air call-ins, and live on-air community discussions. Check out the blog. It’s not promotional, it’s about getting information to people who need it. And this initiative doesn’t end after a day, a week or a month. It’s a long term commitment to St. Louis.

Imagining Energy Independence on PEI: Robert Paterson

This isn’t strictly a public media example, but I offer it because it’s an interesting approach to the macro-crisis, and it might give you some ideas.

Prince Edward Island depends on oil and gas, like we all do. But with an average household income in the province of $35,000, people are really suffering as prices rise. Robert Paterson (who lives on PEI) and others are asking: if cheap oil will never return, if the joyride is really over, can PEI have a future? They think it can, and they’re thinking about how they can create it, from existing but underutilized alternative energy sources to promoting a resurgence of agrarian culture and local food.

(photo by Raceytay)

Paterson starts with the core concept that the answers to our problems are already out there, in the community; the job, then, is to mobilize the community so people will put the pieces of the puzzle together.

Yes, a concept such as this is bigger than any one public radio or TV station could tackle. But not if public media reaches out to community partners, as IPTV has done in working with teachers and libraries; as KETC has done in working with community agencies.

All of this is big stuff, but it’s tied directly to our long-term sustainability. The community will support us if it listens to us and watches us, and if it sees that we’re a trusted partner committed to addressing the needs of the community.

What do you think? Are you undertaking a similar community initiative? If you are or you have, what have you learned from it? Take a moment to leave a comment.

• Part 1: Virtualizing the Workplace
• Part 2: Social Media for Ourselves

How will you adapt? I’m posting some thoughts of my own on the impact of this new reality on public media, hoping they’ll serve as conversation starters, if your organization is getting squeezed.

Social media: If it’s good for our audience, it can be good for us, too.

Every time I talk to my boss about going to a conference, his eyes glaze over. It’s hard for him to listen and simultaneously fathom the havoc I’m about to wreak on the budget.

Some of it can’t be helped. Some meetings must be in person – the networking opportunities are to good, the shear effect of a collection of brains in one place too important to neglect. But, are we using all those cool web tools out there to maximum effect? Probably not. They won’t replace the vitality of an in-person event, but they fill a big gap for lots of other kinds of interaction. We should harness those tools.

Wikis

They’re almost old-fashioned compared to all the shiny stuff out there, but they’re super effective for collaborations. We just completed work on a grant proposal, in which we partnered with another public media organization. With the exception of two 15 minute phone calls, the entire 3 weeks of work transpired on a wiki. No flyins, no tedious emailing of documents to each other, with the resulting tangle of comments and textual additions and subtractions. It’s all on the wiki; everybody can read it; everybody can comment on it; everybody can change it. Sometimes old-fashioned is just fine by me.

Webconferencing

OK, please don’t let your last experience with webconferencing turn you into a sworn enemy of the technology. Yes, I was on that call, too. The one where the moderator got disconnected for 5 minutes; the web presentation locked up; the Skype call sounded like it was coming from South Ossetia; the PD from Greater Tri-Cities Public Radio put the call on hold and treated everyone to 4 minutes of “Afternoon Classicale.”

There are significant technical hurdles to overcome and the organizer of a web conference spends almost as much time thinking about the technical pieces as the presentation. But it’s like riding a bicycle – eventually, you stop falling off and it becomes pleasurable. I’ve taken part in some IMA, PRPD and other webconferences that have come off with few or no technical glitches. These won’t be a replacement for the annual conference, but organizations like PRPD are making an effort to leverage webconferences more frequently to transmit knowledge around the system and encourage idea sharing. This is a great idea, no matter the state of the economy. For every two people who get to go to a conference, there are probably 10 others who could benefit but have to stay home. (disclosure: I’m on the PRPD board)

Skype/Video Conferencing

There’s probably no easier software to use if you want to use internet phone or (God help us) video chat. Skype’s newest iterations include a much tighter integration of video, and while you can add some other gizmos and make it a big group, multiple location roundtable, Skype is all you need if you want to check in with a reporter at a distant bureau, or other telecommuting staffers. It takes some getting used to. I’ll never forget taking part in a video chat at a station where I worked; the staff at the satellite outpost turned the cam away from them because they didn’t want to be seen. On my side, all of us addressed an empty chair.

Chat, with or without video

UPDATE: Josh Andrews had some good thoughts in the comments, so let me break off a piece of the chat idea from Skype. Skype functions well as a chat application, but I think most of us use one or more of the Big Four: Yahoo Messenger, Windows/MSN Messenger, AIM or GoogleTalk.

These chat services are excellent even if you’re all working in the same building. As Josh notes, email is not well suited for quick questions, etc. If you’re too busy to track down the individual in person, and sometimes we are, chat can get the job done. To make it work, everyone should decide on a single platform, or everyone can download an application that handles multiple platforms (Adium is one of several) and open all accounts at once. Put everyone’s preferred chat screenname on the internal contact list.

DIY Social Networks

I’ve mentioned these before, but they deserve another mention. I got invited to join the Mortgage Crisis project that 9 St. Louis is undertaking. It’s built on the Ning platform, and it’s a joy to use. From profiles to forums, to mini-social network clusters, everyone working on the project, whether in St Louis, Charlottetown PEI, or Louisville or DC, can follow the development of the project from minute to minute, debate and discuss ideas, share clippings, even view and critique edits of video segments.

This is the same platform that WAMU uses to engage its listeners. KETC has put it to use internally to make their collaboration more efficient and meaningful.

Are you using tools like these to bridge the gap? As costs of travel rise, are you thinking more seriously about these tools? Do they work for you? Or not? If you have anything to add, please share in the comments.

• Part 1: Virtualizing the Workplace
• Part 3: Engaging the Community

So, how will you adapt? This week, I’m posting thoughts on a couple of the many ways this new economic reality might have an impact on public media.

Your star reporter says, “Look, it’s cost prohibitive for me to drive to the station every day. Why do I have to commute to this building every day when I can do my job with a microphone and a laptop?”

We’re going to be squeezed hard in the next couple years. Our infrastructure costs will rise significantly, and it’s likely our membership revenue will remain flat or drop somewhat.

Making big cuts in the services we provide would kill the goose that lays the golden egg. But we are going to have to cut somewhere.

Costs that have been considered mandatory are going to come into sharp focus: how much are we paying for office space, cubicles, heating and cooling… all based on an assumption that everybody needs to be in the building for 8 hours a day, sitting at an expensive desk, using expensive electricity?

If you can’t give your star reporter, or any of your employees, a raise next year or the year after, what are you prepared to do to keep them? Are you willing to consider letting your reporters work from home one or two days a week? They’re still going to drive to cover the news on the station dime, of course, but a 20% or a 40% reduction in commuting costs could be the equivalent of a nice salary increase with $5 a gallon gas. And after you spend a little (very little) cash to equip them to work virtually, your infrastructure expenditures at HQ may fall.

Other staff in various departments may also be able to work from home for a day or two a week. Internet access and other tools could keep them connected to the home office.

What about employees who do have to report to headquarters every day: your on-air staff, among others? They may have some justification in asking for a raise to cover their higher commuting costs.

Can you virtualize the entire radio or TV station? Of course not. But must everyone be gathered in the same physical space from 9am-5pm each day? No.

In most sectors employing knowledge workers, including public media, concepts like flex-time, and performance standards based on accomplishment are going to become more important than occupying a cubicle for 40 hours a week. Other public media organizations that understand and act on this before you do will have something new and compelling to attract your employees.

What do you think? Would you implement workplace changes like these in order to control costs, or reduce employee commuting costs? Would they have a positive impact, or not? What ideas is your organization considering to control rising infrastructure costs? A “green” initiative, perhaps? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

• Part 2: Social Media for Ourselves
• Part 3: Engaging the Community

What we do know is this: even if oil and gas prices don’t go higher than they are right now, we’ve just barely started to feel the ripple effects of current prices in our other costs of doing business.

This means the smartest organizations are approaching the next year conservatively: at American Public Media, Jon McTaggart has told staff: “we are assuming that the current weakness in the economy will be significant and sustained.”

Regardless of which economic forecast or guru you believe, it’s fair to conclude that, things aren’t going to be like they used to be for awhile.

So, how will you adapt? This week, I’m posting thoughts on a couple of the many ways this new economic reality might have an impact on public media.

They’re starting points for a discussion we should be having, not definitive statements on the topic at hand.  I hope you’ll read them, but more important, I hope you’ll comment and add your intelligence to this discussion.

• Thursday Part 1: Virtualizing the Workplace
  
• Friday Part 2: Social Media for Ourselves
• Monday Part 3: Engaging the Community