Arbitron Adds Execs

Arbitron Inc. today announced the appointment of two new executive vice presidents: Alton L. Adams and Dr. Robert F. Henrick.

Adams was named to Arbitron's newly created position of executive vice president, chief marketing officer. Henrick is Arbitron's executive vice president for customer solutions. Both report to President and CEO Michael Skarzynski.

WYPR Spots Boost the Arts

WYPR, Baltimore, will begin airing vignettes focusing on numerous community arts organizations to help them survive the economic downturn.

Station President & General Manager Anthony Brandon told The Baltimore Sun:

"It's all about the economy. It's a time when arts and cultural institutions are under constant economic pressure. It's important for us, as a community, to understand and support that which keeps our city alive."

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KUT Documentary Wins National Awards

An hour-long piece on Willie Nelson by KUT, Austin, won the first place award for documentary reporting and the Grand Prize award for radio in the 75th annual National Headliners Awards. The documentary aired on KUT's music news program, Texas Music Matters.

Amazing Grace: The Story of Willie Nelson, was written and hosted by David Brown, who is an executive producer at KUT and is working on his doctorate degree at the School of Journalism at The University of Texas at Austin. He was assisted by Michael May, an independent public radio journalist and a former reporter for KUT’s News Department.

The National Headliners Awards are sponsored by the Press Club of Atlantic City, and are one of journalism’s oldest and most prestigious honors.

NPR Pledge Drive Idea Nixed

One of the headlines of note in Saturday's The Washington Post said: "NPR Weighs Rare On-Air Pledge Drive."

To which National Public Radio replied: No way!

The Post reported:

"Longtime NPR personality Susan Stamberg and "All Things Considered" host Melissa Bloch raised the pledge drive idea last week with new NPR President Vivian Schiller in employee meetings held to discuss the deteriorating financial condition."

This was followed by a memo to stations from NPR President and CEO Vivian Schiller, which in part said:

"We did not plant this story. We did not want this story. And we have no plans whatsoever to launch a national giving campaign on behalf of NPR. On the contrary, we recognize that many of you are suffering your own deep economic hardship which is why we’re working on several fronts to bring more money to YOU thru online fundraising on npr.org, a supplemental spending request to Congress and in other ways."
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Are We Captives of Screens?

How do you spend your day?

If you're like most Americans, you spent more than a third of it looking at one sort of screen or another, and we don't mean screen doors. A study by the Council for Research Excellence found that adult Americans spend eight and a half hours a day looking at a screen, from TVs to computer screens to cellphones.

A story about the survey in today's The New York Times offers a bit of sobering information about radio:

TV remains the dominant medium for media consumption and advertising, the study found. The data suggests that computer usage has supplanted radio as the second most common media activity. (Print ranks fourth.)
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Licensee Considering letting OPB Run KMHD

Mt. Hood Community College, licensee for jazz station KMHD, is onsidering a proposal to transfer operation of that station to Oregon Public Broadcasting according to today's Oregonian. The article states that under the proposal, MHCC would continue to own the station, while OPB would take over programming, operational and fundraising responsibilities." The change results form the fact that "The university is facing a major budget shortfall."

Steve Bass, OPB President and CEO was quoted as saying:

"OPB's intention is to continue to operate KMHD as a jazz station. With a current audience of about 100,000 listeners, we believe that the station can attract an even wider audience through increased promotion and higher visibility to OPB's 1.5 million viewers and listeners"

The proposal calls for the transfer to take effect on July 1, with operations of KMHD to move to OPB's studios near downtown Portland.

A press release is posted on the KMHD website.
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Webinar on Public Radio Tuner Set

The team that created the Public Radio Tuner holds a webinar Thursday, April 2 at 3 p.m. EST for those stations using the iPhone application or those interested in learning more about it.

The webinar will address: a brief history of the project grant and collaboration; a quick description of the application; an update on the tuner's performance; changes to the application coming in April and May; future plans; and time for questions, comments, and ideas.

PRX says there have been 1.3 million downloads of the application in the few months it has been available. It was created by CodeMorphic, APM, PRI, PRX, NPR & the CPB.

See details about the webinar.
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Arbitron Makes Staff Cuts

Radio Ink reports that Arbitron's Senior VP for Ratings Services Jay Guyther "... has exited along with about a dozen others in a realignment of the sales staff. Guyther was an Arbitron vet who'd held his most recent post since 2004."
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Day to Day Folks Move On

Where are they now?

Day To Day folks didn't take much time off after that NPR broadcast its final show last Friday.

Madeleine Brand has created a multi-media website called Parenting on The Edge. She writes, she podcasts and the site includes video.

Alex Cohen is blogging. One of her entries addresses changes in the industry:

"Journalism is changing. It's scary and as I can easily attest, sometimes it's very very sad. But it's also exciting... I firmly believe that this is an era in which new ways of storytelling can thrive."
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NPR Listernship Up Significantly

Yesterday's bad news from NPR that more budget cuts are in the pipeline may be somewhat tempered by the good news of today.

The Washington Post says, "... NPR will release new figures to its stations today showing that the cumulative audience for its daily news programs hit 20.9 million a week, a 9 percent increase over the previous year."

NPR reported today that the total audience for NPR stations reached a new high of 33.7 million, up 6% from a year ago. The total audience for NPR programs and newscasts was 27.5 million weekly listeners.

The full audience report is available to NPR member stations.
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Further NPR Budget Cuts Announced

On Friday, NPR President, Vivian Schiller issued a report to members on further cuts at the network. Here is the text of the message:

Dear Colleagues,

Yesterday I met with NPR’s staff to update them on our financial forecast for the remainder of 2009 and 2010. I’d like to share with you what I told them.

The headline is that we’re looking at deficit levels of $8 million in FY2009 and $7 million in FY2010 (on top of our board-approved draw down from our reserves). Like many of you, we continue to see downward pressure on just about all of our revenue sources as the economy continues to deteriorate. Therefore, the reductions we made in December are not going to be sufficient, and we will need to make additional temporary and permanent cuts to NPR’s expenses beginning in short order. It is highly likely that we will have to cut some jobs; how many depends on our success at finding cost savings in other areas.

Here are the steps we are taking to address the deficits:

• We are further reducing travel, consultants, professional services, training, and events.

• We are freezing many unfilled jobs and exploring options such as benefit reductions and furloughs.

• NPR VPs and above, all of whom received no salary increase in January of this year, will also receive no increase in January 2010. This group will also forego any further contributions to their 403(b) plans for the rest of FY2009, and will work for the last two weeks of FY09 without pay.

• To make permanent reductions in the senior group, we will not fill the positions vacated by Kevin Klose and Cinny Kennard, and this week we are eliminating two other senior positions.

Unfortunately, these measures alone do not nearly close the gap. We've enlisted AFTRA and NABET in our effort to find further savings. They have been very cooperative about putting this on a fast track; we’ve set aside two days of meetings next week with more planned through mid-April. Until those discussions are resolved, we will not have any further specifics to share with you.

We are exploring many options, but please know that an increase to station program fees is not under consideration.

I want to assure you that my absolute top priority is to make sure that our programming and journalism – on-air and online – remains strong and compelling. We are committed to preserving what makes NPR great and to growing again. We cannot cut our way to success. The long-term solution must be to earn more revenue – from current and new sources, and to work much more closely and effectively in collaboration with you to bring more money into public radio as a whole.

Thank you for your ongoing support. We’ll be back with an update in late April or early May. In the meantime, I welcome your comments and questions. Thanks.

Vivian


Vivian Schiller
President & CEO




National Public Radio
635 Massachusetts Ave. NW
Washington DC 20001-3753
(202) 513-2005
vschiller@npr.org

What Newspapers Did. What They Need to Do.

Jonathan Knee is an investment banker, educator, media expert and author. He recently spoke with The Wall Street Journal's Deal Book about why many American newspapers are in financial trouble and what they need to do to get out of it ... if they still can.

How did things go so badly?

"The newspaper industry has not been blessed with the best managers, and generations of monopoly profits do dull the senses. On the journalism side, I think many managers would rather have avoided a fight with journalists than actually force them to think harder about what their readers want, rather than what they want their readers to want."

Now what?

"You have to focus on your competitive advantage, which is local. When the smoke clears, the local newspaper, which may not be the sexiest part of the newspaper industry but is overwhelmingly the largest and most profitable part of the industry, will be a smaller and more-focused enterprise whose activities will be directed to those areas where their local presence gives them competitive advantage and they will continue to generate as a result better profits than the supersexy businesses in the media industry asking for government or nonprofit help like movies and music."
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Fast Company: NPR 'Might just save the news'

This from Fast Company:

"In one of the great under-told media success stories of the past decade, NPR has emerged not as the bespectacled schoolmarm of our imagination but as a massive news machine poised for what Dick Meyer, editorial director for digital media, half-jokingly calls 'world domination.'"

That is part of the opening of a Fast Company article headlined, "Will NPR Save the News?" The mega-piece by Anya Kemenetz profiles the changes NPR, especially its digital strategy.

She concludes:

As a result, someday soon we may be looking at a world where public radio emerges as the main local-news source in many communities coast to coast.
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NPR As Indie Music Star-Maker

A West Coast blogger visiting the music/film/tech love fest/trade show South By Southwest asks the musical question:

How did a soothing hub for calmly delivered news and whimsical features become so important to indie and mid-list pop?

That was Ann Powers of the LA Times. She also said:

National Public Radio ... yawn, right? And yet the network has become a prime mover for haute-alternative sounds. It’s hosting some of the best showcases in Austin this year ...

Powers went on to report on the presentation that included NPR's irrepressible Bob Boilen and music blogger Carrie Brownstein.

NPR @ SXSW.
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PRI Widgets Proliferate

Public Radio International announced that some its content will now be available via several specialized widgets it has created. The generalized headings for the widgets include:

Economic Security;
Global Health & Development;
Social Entrepreneurship.

App Scout quotes PRI Exec VP Cory Zanin:

"This new distribution method helps us fulfill our mission of serving audiences with distinctive content that provides information, insights and cultural experiences essential to understanding a diverse, interdependent world."
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Outlook For Foundations in 2009

The Foundation Center has published it's 2009 Foundation Giving Forecast. The extensive lisitng of foundations and summarizes whether they will be increasing, decreasing, or maintaining funding levels and notes those with new initiatives. The site promises to continually update the status of these groups.

Will There be Local News With No Newspaper?

It seems as there are more obituaries for newspapers than are in them these days. As the economy worsens, so does the bottom line for advertising, and many -- including major market legacy publications -- are, literally, yesterday's news.

WBUR's On Point asks three experts about the future of local news without newspapers. Guests include:

Steven Johnson, an author and online entrepreneur;

David Carr, media guru writing for The New York Times online and off;

Monica Guzmnan, an reporter for SeattlePI.com, the online successor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
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CBC: NPR of the Great White North?

Jeffrey Dvorkin, former NPR ombudsman, suggests that the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation would benefit by becoming more like his former employer.

Now a visiting journalism professor at Ryerson University in Toronto, Dvorkin writes in today's edition of The Toronto Globe and Mail:

With the CBC in serious financial trouble and its public support in disarray, it's time to consider a new model for public broadcasting in this country. One that works is U.S. National Public Radio - not perfectly, perhaps, but extremely well.

Dvorkin credits listener loyalty to local stations and NPR as key to the success of NPR, and suggests this could benefit the CBC. He says:

(a)... deep sense of localism and volunteerism means that listeners directly support the system, both financially and organizationally. ... It's a system that evokes a powerful sense of loyalty and support to both the individual stations and to NPR.

UPDATE: CBC not accepting on-air advertising.

Audience Coninues to Grow At Albany Triple-A Station

WEXT, the Triple-A station operated by WMHT Public Broadcasting, was the subject of a recent article in Metroland, a weekly alternative paper that covers the New York Capital region. Also known as "The Exit", the station has been airing the new format since 2007. Vice President of Radio, Chris Weink was quoted in the article:

"The kind of feedback we’re getting anecdotally has been great,” Wienk says. “Each of our pledge drives has gone way up over the last one. The audience keeps growing. It takes a while. You have to build trust. We’re the first line of exposure for some of these artists. It’s not a fast road. The hard part for us is the amount of time it takes.... We get 250 CDs a week crossing our desks."

Do We Now Work in Public 'Audio'?

The Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism says, "Radio is well on its way to becoming something altogether new — a medium called audio."

Read the Audio section of the report.

The report also took an in depth look at NPR's (or is it National Public Audio) Morning Edition, and found that the program had a strong international flavor in the past year. Pew said:

In 2008, the biggest component of Morning Edition coverage—30%—was devoted to news from overseas. That is nearly double the global coverage—17% of the newshole—in the media over all in 2008. And it even exceeds, slightly, the international coverage in the online media sector (27%), which has consistently devoted more attention to the rest of the world than the other four major platforms—cable news, network news, newspapers and the over all radio sector.

The Pew report suggests radio/audio may do better in the changing media landscape than others:

To a greater degree than some other media, radio is unusually well suited to the digital transition. Voice and music are mobile and move easily among new platforms. And audio has done better as a medium of holding its audience than some other sectors.

Read the entire Pew report.

Time magazine's take on the topic.
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Marketers 'Bullish' on Social Media?

Forrester Research says 95 percent of all marketers are "bullish" on social media, especially because it is an inexpensive way to reach the targeted audience. Podcasting News says:

Forrester argues that marketers should take social media seriously, and not treat it as an experiment. “[P]ut the right roles, process, and measurement capabilities in place to be effective…. The most expensive part is the soft costs: strategy, education, process, roles, measurement.”.

An interesting aside: Twitter use increased 1,382 percent in the past year.

Marketplace Hires Three Pub Radio veterans

American Public Media's Marketplace has expanded its lineup by adding three veteran voices of public radio: Bill Radke, Rod Abid and Deborah Clark. The announcement came in a news release this afternoon.

Radke is the new host of Marketplace Morning Report. Radke will join Steve Chiotakis as one of Marketplace Morning Report’s two hosts on April 13. The new host position was created when former Marketplace Morning Report host Scott Jagow became Marketplace’s new online host.

Abid, senior producer for Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me ... since 2000 is the new senior producer of Marketplace Morning Report.

Clark is the new senior producer of Marketplace Money, the weekly program hosted by Tess Vigeland.
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Sirius XM Plans Apple App

Sirius XM Radio has announced plans to launch an application for Apple devices like the iPod and iPhone that would allow users to stream programming from the satellite company. But, at least two major market watchers have some doubts.

Forbes magazine asks, "The question, however, is whether paid programming can compete with the plethora of free podcasts currently available.

The Motley Fool says the new application would: "... allow Sirius XM to reach out to radio fans who aren't active subscribers. The company would naturally charge those users a premium for access ... but the grim reality is that few iPhone -- and even fewer iPod touch -- owners will pay to stream Sirius XM."
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Las Vegas Sun Goes With the Flo

Flo Rogers, president and general manager of Nevada Public Radio in Las Vegas covers a lot of ground in a major interview in today's Las Vegas Sun's business section.

Flo on the local show, State of Nevada:

It doesn’t outperform the national news, but it does outperform some other network programs that we have. We have more listeners to “KNPR State of Nevada” than to “Talk of the Nation,” which is the national talk show, and to many other hours in the midday. So outside of the drive time, KNPR’s own programming is very, very strong, and that audience continues to grow. We had a record number of listeners in last fall’s rating period, too.

Flo on new NPR CEO Vivian Schiller:

I am very encouraged that Vivian is going to revitalize the station-network relationship and that’s a little bit inside baseball for the purposes of our conversation right now, but what it means to our listeners is that NPR will remain a force for news gathering on the nationwide level and it will also remain a force in digital technology. We’re not afraid of being on all platforms all the time.

Flo on cash flow:

Right now, when we look at corporate support, that’s the income stream that has really taken a hit. That’s obvious. It’s down about 28 percent year over year. When you look at the mix of revenue that we have — corporate support, private foundation support, grant opportunities that come our way that are not related to straight corporate support — when you look at that entire revenue picture, we’re down 15 percent year over year.

Flo on pledge drives:

There are some people who don’t like it. It’s simply the most effective way that we have of raising money. I don’t apologize for it. I think it’s pretty terrific. You get thousands of people in this community all making a pledge of $120. It keeps us in business.
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Next Up: Tweets to the Editor

What's that saying about teaching old dogs new tricks?

An interesting piece from Mashable lists 10 ways newspapers are using social networking media to their advantage. They are also experimenting with ways to monetize those efforts.

The piece concludes:

The word 'newspaper' will take on a different meaning, like 'record album,' or 'TV show.' It won’t go away, and it will continue to describe some of the most hallowed brand names in the world. Social media will play a big part in that transformation. As the dynamics of our society change, as institutions go public or private, or disappear entirely, the need to report these events in a responsible manner will be even more critical. Social journalism is more than a buzzword, it’s the way social media will save the industry.
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Newspaper Talks About Spring Pledge Drives

The Seattle Post Intelligencer (which knows more than a little bit about struggling for cash in an economy circling the drain) today writes:

"The economy is in the tank, and the headlines are filled with news about layoffs -- now would be a great time to go ask people for money."

That's how they begin an article about public radio's rite of spring, the pledge drive. The newspaper's website reminds us of the importance of pledge, especially when corporate underwriting sags. And, two public radio pro add their perspectives:

For a lot of stations this is a make-or-break year," said Bruce Wirth, general manager of Everett-based community station KSER-FM/90.7.

And,

KBCS-FM/91.3, based at Bellevue Community College, hopes to raise $177,000 in a drive that begins March 19, general manager Steve Ramsey said. That amount, he added, "is ambitious for us," but would allow KBCS to meet its fiscal year budget target. The station has an overall budget of $670,000, of which $500,000 comes from listeners.
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Austin 100: For Those Not at SXSW

NPR is always thinking of its music fans. It realizes not all of us can jet off to Austin for next week's South By Southwest Festival, so we shut-ins, they offer The Austin 100.

The folks at NPR Music screened songs by more than 1,000 acts that will be at SXSW and created a massive playlist just for us. Stephen Thompson writes on the All Songs Considered website:

Some of the music induced swooning, some of it induced sleepiness, and some of it made us want to pry out our eardrums and swallow them for safe keeping. Arranged alphabetically by artist, the 100 songs in this ridiculously bountiful — but by no means definitive — mix all passed a simple litmus test, summed up in six simple words: 'Yeah, I'd listen to that again.'

WXPN, Philadelphia, offers a SXSW Sampler of its own.

KUT, Austin, program Texas Music Matters on SXSW.
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WCLV Asks Members to Weigh In on 'Performance Tax'

WCLV, a classical music pubcaster in Cleveland, is asking listeners to write their members of Congress asking them to support the Local Radio Freedom Act, a.k.a. H. Con. Res. 49. Station President Robert Conrad writes:

For many decades, the law has recognized that record labels, artists, and local radio stations have a symbiotic relationship. Radio airplay generates billions of dollars in music sales. Artists benefit by selling CDs, concert tickets, and other merchandise. Radio stations like WCLV introduce the work of musicians working in many different genres to over 235 million people per week. The proposed Performance Tax ignores these simple facts. It would transfer massive amounts of money from WCLV and other stations to large record companies, most of which are foreign owned.

WCLV's website includes a sample letter listeners can send to their representative.

Extensive FAQ at the Free Radio Alliance website.
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Planet Money: Live & On Stage

NPR's unique take on the economy is taking to the stage. (Update: KCRW's website reports that this show has already sold out.)

On April 19, Planet Money will be presented live on the Eli & Edythe Broad Stage in Santa Monica. NPR and KCRW are collaborating to present the live, two-hour show.

This American Life’s Alex Blumberg and NPR’s Adam Davidson will explain the economic crisis in an entertaining and understandable way. The audience will have an opportunity to meet the hosts before they take the stage and ask questions before the event concludes.

Planet Money is one of NPR's most popular podcasts.
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Do Magazine Publishers Fear Digital?

This interesting insight into the print publishing world comes from Folio, the magazine about the magazine business:

Publishing executives firing off e-mail messages from their Blackberrys and iPhones, some tweeting, many complaining about the lack of WiFi in the Marriot Marquis ballroom. Yet, they were having far too long a debate on how launching too many digital products like blogs (really?) and aggregation sites and widgets risks dilution of a magazine brand.

Read more about the magazine world's reaction to digital.
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Interesting Collaboration Yields Kitchen Sisters Book

Take one online publisher, add NPR and stir in the Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson and, voila!, you have an: "... intimate, historic, offbeat collection (that) captures the beginnings of some of Texas' culinary milestones—the birth of the Frito, the birth of 7-Eleven, the birth of the Slurpee, the birth of the frozen Margarita" ... and a new way of doing business.

In a first-time collaboration, Blurb, the online publisher and book marketer, and the Kitchen Sisters -- Silva and Nelson -- are launching Hidden Kitchens Texas: Stories, Recipes and More from the Lone Star State. The book gets its official launch next week in Austin, Texas at South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive.

Just as the Kitchen Sisters are not your typical radio producers, Blurb is not a traditional publishing house. Blurb provides online tools for anyone to create a book and sell it. Blurb's bookstore and online marketing tools allow people to create, market, and sell their books, and "keep 100 percent of the markup," according to Blurb, which makes its money on printing the books.
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Online Ads for March Madness Soar

CBS Corp. tells Bloomberg Press it expects online advertising revenue for the NCAA's basketball tournament to increase by 30 percent.

The company is forecasting that it will sell about $30 million worth of online advertising, up from $23 million a year ago. The network expects to sell all available online space.

And, for those who might be tempted to check out the tournament while at work, Comcast has agreed to sponsor the so called "boss button" this year. With one quick click, the button hides what you are viewing.

Tournament selection begins Sunday.
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Innovation Fund Seeks Grant Applications

CPB's Public Media Innovation (PMI) Fund is looking to fund new projects that foster economic and financial literacy and enhance understanding of the current economic crisis. Qualified projects need to have a connection to a public broadcast station, but the CPB says that can be anything from a complete multi-platform production to a partnership in which the broadcaster provides on air promotion for work that occurs mostly off-air.

The CPB said, "We are encouraging applicants to think broadly and creatively about how to use new media educational tools, applications and content to help students, teachers and parents, so they can understand and cope with the current economic crisis."

The CPB will fund four to six projects at between $5,000 to $50,000 per project. The agency has $200,000 to grant.

For details go to the CPB website or to the Public Media Innovation site and download the official request for proposals.

Deadline is midnight April 17.
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TAL Back on the Big Screen in Late April

This American Life will be back on movie screens around the country in April. Host Ira Glass will present a special simulcast performance of the radio show from the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in New York City at 8 p.m. EDT; tickets to attend the live event sold out in two days.

See a complete list of presenting theater locations and prices at www.FathomEvents.com or www.thisamericanlife.org. It's expected to be shown in some 400 theaters.

The performance includes contributors Dan Savage, Starlee Kine, Mike Birbiglia, David Rakoff and Dave Hill, plus a cartoon by Chris Ware, additional visuals by Arthur Jones, and a special musical performance by Joss Whedon, creator of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” They will perform a two-hour show on the theme of, “Return to the Scene of the Crime.”

More.

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Arbitron Moves HQ from NYC to Maryland

Arbitron today announced it is moving its corporate headquarters out of New York City to its main research facility in Columbia, MD. The HQ office is one of six facilities totaling 275,000 square feet that are located in Columbia. Arbitron's New York City location will remain open as a sales office.

In a statement released today, Arbitron President and CEO Michael Skarzynski said:

I want to live and work where the operational core of our business resides. Columbia is home to Arbitron’s state-of-the-art research campus and it’s important for me and our executives to work in the same location as the teams who are creating new solutions for our current customers and new services for our expanding markets.

Columbia is located about 20 minutes from Baltimore and 40 minutes from Washington, D.C.
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Fundraising Soundbank retooled

Ingrid Lakey informs us that she's been working on retooling the PRX Fundraising Soundbank. Her note to us:

I know many of you are scrambling to get ready for pledge drives so let me take a quick minute to remind you of a resource that you may not know about....PRX Fundraising Soundbank! There you'll find pledge spots that are downloadable and ready for use but you'll also find examples of pledge production that might be a useful guide or inspiration in your own efforts.

If you've already gotten through your drive and have work you want to share, please add it to PRX and let me know so I can check it out. I'd love to spotlight the great work that many of you are doing!

Drop me a line if you have questions or suggestions!

ingrid

Ingrid Lakey
PRX Fundraising Soundbank Curator
215-435-8525
ingrid@audiomind.com"

MySpace Sliding Behind Facebook

Ford vs. Chevy. Avis vs. Hertz. Roadrunner vs. Wylie Coyote.

Now: Facebook vs. MySpace.

Fortune reports: "MySpace seems to be falling behind Facebook in the all-important race to sign up new users. Facebook now has more than 57 million U.S. visitors, up 41% from a year ago. And internationally, the site has leaped ahead with 236 million visitors to MySpace's 126 million in January, according to Comscore measurements."

The financial magazine says MySpace users spend 266 minutes (about four and a half hours) a month on the site, which Fortune says "is the only site so far to come up with a business model that squeezes substantial revenue out of the site."
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Senate Travels to Planet Money

Planet Money, NPR's multimedia SWAT team trying to sort out the global economy, and This American Life got their props on Capital Hill the other day.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was testifying and Montana Sen. Max Baucus was trying to make sure that people could truly understand the details of TARP and TALF and a slew of other things about what the government is doing to try to fix the economy. In the end, Geithner and Baucus hit on the idea of creating simple, understandable explanations ... like they do on these two public radio programs.

Read the total exchange on mdiabistro.com.
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Walker New GM @ WUNC

Connie Walker, who has been at WUNC since 2005, was named general manager of the Chapel Hill pubcaster Wednesday. She succeeds Joan Siefert Rose, who exited the station to run an entrepreneurial development.

Walker previously served as news director and interim program director at WUNC. Before that, she was news director at Wisconsin Public Radio for some 10 years. She was with WPR for 17 years.

Read the station's news release.
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Obama Makes FCC Choice Official

Numerous media outlets are reporting that Julius Genachowski has been officially nominated to head the Federal Communications Commission.

Genachowski is a Harvard Law School friend of President Barack Obama and was a high up in the FCC during the Clinton Administration. He also has a career background in tech companies, and is credited with the success of Obama's use of social networking during the campaign.
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Pledge is 'Sheer Genius' Says Slate Writer

One writer for Slate says this about public radio and on-air fundraising: "Pledge drive is last-nerve-frayingly exasperating — but it's also sheer genius."

June Thomas writes that she spent a weekend recently listening only to pledge drives on WNYC in New York City and WAMU in Washington, D.C. Her conclusion: "What I found was a band of ace pitchmen who know their audience better than we know ourselves."

She then lists the 10 strategies public radio uses to raise funds, and includes audio to illustrate her point. These include:

• The perfect gift;
• The guilt trip;
• Flattery;
• Only you can save journalism;
• Stop me before I pitch again.
  
  

NPR's Meyer Discusses a Variety of Topics

Dick Meyer, NPR's editorial director, covered a lot of ground in an interview with M.L. Schultze, news director of WKSU in Kent, OH. Meyer also is the author of Why We Hate Us: American Discontent in the New Millennium.

Among, other things, Meyer said that social networking is no substitute for one-to-one interactions. He also discussed politics and religion, happiness and how culture will drive new media changes.

Hear the interview.

NBC Political Chief Todd Says Radio Dying

While deriding conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh, NBC's Political Director and White House Correspondent Chuck Todd took time to deride radio as well, calling it a "dying medium." Todd made his comments on MSNBC's Morning Joe today.

And, for good measure he suggested of radio: "Its very backwards -- looking backwards."

Read the transcript of Todd's comments on Newsbusters.
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