Strengthening Ourselves As Local Institutions

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On Monday 5 August 2024, SRG station leaders engaged in a breakout discussion focusing on what we should be working on together to strengthen ourselves as local institutions. ��The attendees made various suggestions and proposals, followed by clarifying questions and comments. SRG Board Member Stephen George of Louisville Public Radio channeled his inner journalist to act as the rapporteur for the session and distilled the suggestions and proposals into overarching themes. ��The proposals and suggestions have been compiled in two complementary presentation decks. The first deck incorporates Stephen’s organization and reporting, below; the second deck features photographs of the hand-written post-it notes from the session.

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Strategy

• We want a vision for a public media system that is based on:
• High-quality journalism and cultural programming that recognizes and is responsive to diverse audiences
• Sharing best practices
• Collaboration across content and business
• Consolidation (do we have too many stations)
• Tiered NPR membership
• We want a public media system that moves quickly and comprises a coalition of stations willing to invest in a digital future.
• And we want a public media system that:
• Leverages the unique fandom of public media (clubs, games)
• Explores new products around strong brands like Tiny Desk
• Contemplates collective deals and activities
• Consolidates back-office roles, functions and expertise for efficiency
• We want to advance this conversation across the public broadcasting system now

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Digital

• We need a public media system that is organized around a digital-first culture that recognizes the need to provide audiences with frictionless, contemporary experiences across a range of digital platforms
• A key part of this is having local public media organizations that have the capability, capacity, and culture to match and properly resource digital-first strategies
• We need a public media system that creates a shared digital infrastructure across the system to support local public media organizations’ service to their communities. We acknowledge that this is a lot to manage. Here are some possible approaches:
• Create an LLC or Co-Op to develop and manage public media’s digital infrastructure
• This could help create a more coherent digital experience across the system

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Audience

• We need to create working groups organized around expanding our platforms and products to serve Spanish-speaking audiences, Black audiences, and others outside the public radio core
• We need to develop the data analytics capacity at the local level to help us better understand and serve different audiences in our community. This would also be part of the shared digital infrastructure, above
• To this point, we also need to develop a common set of KPIs (e.g., gross audience tonnage) to better understand the system as a whole
• In markets where there is an unmet need around event listings, can we use digital tools to create customizable calendars for our local audiences?
• We need to develop a system-wide brand recognition and marketing strategy

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Revenue

• SRG should continue offering direct support and training for major gift philanthropy staff at stations
• The public media system should have a shared strategy for digital membership conversion
• Could this include a tech stack shared that is across system?
• The public media system should consider how to use its scale to negotiate with GAI companies—and this is urgent
• The public media system should explore creating a digital underwriting network
• This network would include view of open inventory in other markets
• This network could open the door to more regional underwriting coalitions
• We should invest in training and support to improve business acumen across the system
• Core part of leadership development and next-gen system talent cultivation
• Could we explore a national endowment for local stations?
• Should we be exploring contingencies at a system level for CPB funding? (Yes.)

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