On May 11, 2023, Public Media Company hosted the following webinar. You can watch it here, or download the slides. Email Alison Scholly (alison@publicmedia.co) with questions or comments. Future of Public Media, Newspapers and Local News: Case Studies from Maine and Central Pennsylvania PMC Webinar deck Future of Public Media Newspapers and Local News | Click here for the presentation video What’s the state...
Read More...WITF and LNP | LancasterOnline Forge New Model for Local News, Community Education and Civic Engagement in Central Pennsylvania
LNP Media Group, owned by Steinman Communications Inc., and WITF today announced that together the two organizations are forging a new model for local news, community education and civic engagement in Central Pennsylvania. Steinman Communications, which is owned by the Steinman family, is gifting LNP to WITF as a capstone to the family’s two centuries of community service and philanthropy. As a result of...
Read More...Public Media Company CEO Steps Down; Successor Search Begins
Public Media Company (PMC), the nonprofit consulting firm dedicated to serving public media, announced today that Chief Executive Officer Erin Moran will be stepping back from leading the organization. Before becoming CEO in 2019, Moran served as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer. She joined the organization in 2001, shortly after its founding, and plans to stay involved in limited client projects part-time....
Read More...Gains & Losses at Public Media Stations: The COVID edition
It has been three years since the emergence of COVID-19 and its impact on global life. To understand how the pandemic affected public media’s financial health, we analyzed station Annual Financial Report (AFR) data from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) to help uncover recent trends in public radio and television finances. Our analysis has found that overall public media revenue in 2021 (the...
Read More...Signal Acquisition as an Expansion Strategy
The pandemic has led to softer demand and declines in prices for radio signals, which is resulting in signals coming up for sale in markets across the country. For example, WXXI recently acquired a commercial FM radio signal that used to broadcast jazz in Rochester from a local entrepreneur for a combination of cash and a charitable contribution from the seller. Given market conditions...
Read More...Station Sales Cooled by COVID
Public Media Company’s review of radio station sales data shows that COVID-19 has made a significant impact on transactions in the noncommercial radio market – both on the number of stations sold and the total value of those sales. 112 noncommercial stations changed hands in 2019 but that number dropped to 90 in 2020 and to just 68 in 2021. Number of Noncommercial Radio...
Read More...KERA and City of Dallas reach agreement to preserve venerable classical station in Texas
KERA to Operate WRR 101.1 FM In the summer of 2021, the City of Texas released an RFP to find an operator for the City’s commercial classical music station, WRR, also known as Texas’s first radio station, dating back to 1921. Public Media Company was hired by North Texas Public Broadcasting (KERA) to navigate the station through the selection process to ensure WRR’s long-term...
Read More...Operating Agreements Reach 1 in 4 Americans
Millions of Americans are served by broadcast signals managed under a public service operating agreement (or PSOA). These arrangements provide public media organizations with operating responsibility for a station that is licensed to another entity such as a city, tribe, university, college, or school district. PSOAs are a well-established arrangement for many stations across the country, providing benefits for both the license holder and...
Read More...Public Media Company helps Baltimore’s NPR station negotiate a Joint Operating Agreement with local news start-up, The Baltimore Banner
When philanthropist Stewart Bainum Jr. was unable to buy the Baltimore Sun from Alden Global Capital in 2020, a new plan emerged – Bainum announced intentions to fund the creation of The Baltimore Banner, a digital news site that will cover the city as the new corporate owners of the Baltimore Sun reduce local reporting on the community to boost operating profits. The Baltimore Banner...
Read More...Public Media Company’s Commitment to DEI
At Public Media Company, we value a diverse and inclusive culture and are committed to diversity in all areas of our work. Taking this commitment as the guiding principle, Public Media Company created a DEI Committee consisting of five PMC team members. We, the committee members, volunteered to share our experiences openly and help move the organization forward. We were charged with three key...
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