The following comprises CPB's proposed Business Plan for FY 2009. This plan reflects the Board's Goals and Objectives, discussions at the CPB Board Retreat in Palo Alto, and subsequent conversations with CPB Board members. The plan seeks to address the challenges and opportunities facing both CPB and public broadcasting as a whole.
The Business Plan specifically focuses on discretionary funds and outlines our plan for applying these resources in a strategic, deliberate manner to preserve and enhance the quality of public broadcasting's service. Where it is appropriate, we will also be working to refocus non-discretionary projects to reflect the priorities of the Business Plan and the Goals and Objectives.
By contrast, the FY 2009 Proposed Operating Budget outlines the statutory and contractual obligations over which we have limited discretion, including Community Service Grants (CSGs), the National Program Service (NPS), the Independent Television Service (ITVS), and Music Royalties.
For FY 2009, we propose a Business Plan that focuses on two overarching areas of activity. The first area is innovation. The second area is support for public broadcasting's traditional activities that continue to deliver significant value to the American public.
FY 2009 STRATEGIC PRIORITIES
- Promote innovation that responds to the impact of the Internet and other technological advances on audience preferences and media consumption and that taps the power of digital media in delivering content and services. Use digital media tools to engage our audience in a dialogue that can shape and inform station activities, programs, and projects from the local to national level.
- Support innovative content and experiment with distribution models that span digital media platforms as well as broadcast and multi-cast channels.
Advances Goals IA, ID - Support experimentation with interactivity and user generated content as a core element of program design.
Advances Goals IA, ID, IIIA - Continue the conceptual design and pilot testing of the American Archive.
Advances Goals IB, IC, ID, IIIA - Support research and the development of measurement systems that allow assessment of the reach and impact of public broadcasting content across all distribution platforms and modes of content access.
Advances Goals IB, ID, IE, IIIA
- Support innovative content and experiment with distribution models that span digital media platforms as well as broadcast and multi-cast channels.
- Promote innovation in the creation and delivery of content and services that helps public media better serve those who may benefit from its service.
- Support content that reflects the experiences of all of America, and its changing and increasingly diverse population, including underserved ethnic and national minorities, and youth, through both traditional broadcast and the innovative use of digital media platforms.
Advances Goals IA, IC, ID, IE, IIIC, IIID - Support initiatives in workforce development to attract, retain, and promote producers and other leaders in public broadcasting with diverse backgrounds.
Advances Goals IIIC, IIID - Define appropriate benchmarks and monitor progress in achieving goals for diversifying public broadcasting's content and workforce.
Advances Goals IE, IIIA, IIIC, IIID
- Support content that reflects the experiences of all of America, and its changing and increasingly diverse population, including underserved ethnic and national minorities, and youth, through both traditional broadcast and the innovative use of digital media platforms.
- Continue CPB's vital work building strong local stations, national program providers, and partners in education.
- Foster a system of healthy local stations as the foundation upon which public broadcasting is built. Leverage multicasting and digital media to increase service. Work with stations to address challenges to station health such as leadership, fundraising, and infrastructure.
Advances Goals ID, IE, IIIB, IIIC, IIID - B. Help stations and national organizations sharpen and maximize the impact of the educational programming public broadcasting produces; help teachers make effective use of public broadcasting content that focuses on children's education; foster lifelong learning and strengthen our connections with education providers.
Advances Goals IC, IIIA - C. Encourage station efforts to expand community connection through public awareness, community engagement, and development.
Advances Goals IB, IIA - D. Work with national producers to maintain relevance of the signature programs in television and radio and adapt them to the new digital environment and to create programs that meet the needs of listeners and viewers. Work with stations and producers to improve revenue models. Help stations achieve lasting impact from their program investments.
Advances Goals IA, ID, IE, IIIA, IIIB
- Foster a system of healthy local stations as the foundation upon which public broadcasting is built. Leverage multicasting and digital media to increase service. Work with stations to address challenges to station health such as leadership, fundraising, and infrastructure.
Examples of Activities by Area of Strategic Focus
In this section, we provide examples of projects that CPB is undertaking or developing for each area of strategic focus during FY 2009. This is not an exhaustive list of activities underway at CPB. Rather, it is a selection of projects that are, in our view, most directly related to the strategic areas of focus listed above. These activities are subject to change. In addition, we continue to manage a wide variety of projects that provide general support to the public broadcasting system, as outlined in the Operating Budget.
Strategic Priority I: Innovation in Content and Services
The first area of strategic focus centers on innovation in digital media. The Public Broadcasting Act authorizes CPB to assist in financing innovative approaches to the production and acquisition of programming and services and to make use of nonbroadcast technologies to deliver these services. Accordingly, CPB will fund projects that tap the power of digital media and other technological innovations in delivering content and services. Examples of efforts in this area include:
Digital Media Scans for Current Activities and Best Practices and the Role of Public Media in the 21st Century
Pursuant to the discussions at the Board retreat, CPB will commission two studies: a Scan for
Current Activities and a Survey of Best Practices. The Scan for Current Activities will provide a snapshot of the existing activities that public media is engaged in through online and other digital platforms. The Survey of Best Practices will focus on successful efforts by public broadcasters and related organization to build digital media capacity; the survey will also highlight the best digital media practices of stations and entities - commercial and noncommercial - outside public broadcasting and outside the United States. Taken together, the two projects will identify areas in digital media where public broadcasting is operating well, areas of potential for further development, and best practices that may be disseminated more widely in the system. CPB will also commission an annotated bibliography and a White Paper on the role of public media in the 21st Century. With the White Paper as a resource, CPB plans to undertake meetings that will focus generally on the role of public media in the 21st century and specifically on addressing issues in digital media that are essential to a robust public media service.
American History & Civics Initiative
The American History and Civics Initiative is located at the intersection of media, technology and learning theory with the goal of teaching history and civics to middle and high school students. Seven projects are currently in prototype development. They include applications based on multi-player games, online competitions, and traditional broadcast programs. In 2009, CPB will evaluate the prototypes and select one or more projects for full scale production funding.
Public Media Innovation Fund
The public is increasingly using digital media to meet its entertainment and
information needs. As such, digital media allows the public broadcasting system to connect with the American people in ways not before possible. In order to help stations take advantage of these new opportunities, CPB established a Public Media Innovation Fund in 2007. CPB will continue to provide small, focused grants to television and radio stations with a "build fast / learn fast" approach. The current round of grants is focused on experiments in digital media revenue generation. We anticipate up to two additional rounds, one of which will focus on education projects.
NBPC New Media Institute
The National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC) will host its third New Media
Institute in FY 2009, in collaboration with the Integrated Media Association (IMA) and other minority consortia members. The Institute serves as a production workshop that introduces producers - particularly producers of color and independent producers - to digital media production. It delivers hands-on training in developing content for emerging media platforms.
Securing Digital Film Rights and Developing Rights Models
As new methods of media distribution drive the demand for quality programming, CPB will work to ensure that the best programs from the independent film community will remain available for multiplatform distribution by public broadcasters in the future. To do this, we are focusing our efforts in two areas. First, we will continue to purchase rights to some of the most successful independent films, protecting these assets for public broadcasting. Second, we will encourage experimentation with models for securing third party rights and distribution in order to generate reasonable revenue streams for independent producers.
American Archive
The Public Broadcasting Act authorizes CPB to establish "…archives of noncommercial educational radio and television programs and related materials…." Congress reaffirmed its interest in such a resource when it included report language in CPB's digital appropriation specifically allowing CPB to use a portion of the funds for research and development activities related to the American Archive. Over the past year, CPB worked with system leaders to shape an initial plan for an American Archive. In FY 2009, following a comment period on the present design, we will develop a functioning prototype with working menus and sample content. We will also issue grants to stations and content producers to digitize and preserve valuable local content in their libraries, initially focusing on the civil rights era and Vietnam. We anticipate making multiple rounds of grants totaling three million dollars, including a pilot round that will help to identify challenges and best practices in this work.
Public Media Collaboration
In 2008 CPB launched the Public Media Collaboration, which brought together the resources of a broad consortium of public media organizations including NPR, PBS, News Hour, KQED, Public Radio Exchange, Minnesota Public Radio, and Public Radio International. Together they developed and shared content, technology, and resources around Election 2008, and provided valuable online materials and tools to all public broadcasting stations. To date, over 100 public broadcasters have used these tools and content to inform their communities. There is significant interest among the participating organizations to continue collaborating. We are exploring possible new directions and themes that will allow us to support that interest.
Independent Radio Producers' Digital Media Project
This project began with a grant in FY 2008 to the Association of Independents in Radio to identify the best and brightest audio producers. The project will continue in FY 2009. AIR will award grants to independent producers for innovative projects that go beyond public radio's broadcast airwaves to digital platforms. The goal of the project is to position independent producers as leaders in transitioning public radio to public media.
Youth Voices
Youth Radio (soon to be known as Youth Media International) will continue its work teaching a diverse group of young people how to tell their stories in digital form and securing national broadcasts of their content on NPR, APM, and PRI programs. This grant will help Youth Radio lead public radio's transition to public media by creating multi-media content for station and network broadcasts, web sites and other platforms. Youth Radio will continue its partnerships with youth media organizations around the country, offering training, mentoring and distribution assistance. It will also seek to extend its reach and increase its impact by partnering with other organizations that can provide opportunities to serve new audiences.
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In addition, CPB will work generally to support innovation around digital media. Currently, we are working with PBS in administering the Challenge Fund to require projects to make effective use of digital media. For example, Human Nature was a project that was recently approved that will use social networking sites as a part of its overall online production package. We are also preparing to complete the third and final year of our Opportunity Fund grants. Current proposals include a transformation of Nature's website into a natural science portal, and streaming video and community-oriented blogs for Nova.
Whenever effective and appropriate, CPB will use general television and radio program funds to support the development of content that will begin online or on multicast channels with the possibility of migration to main channel radio and television broadcast. We will seek to formulate audience research as part of content development that will measure the effectiveness of delivery to online and broadcast audiences.
Strategic Priority II: Innovation in Service to Diverse Audiences
The second area of focus centers on innovation around the creation and delivery of content that enables public media to provide listeners and viewers with a service that is relevant in our increasingly diverse and multicultural society. The Public Broadcasting Act directs CPB to encourage the development of programming that involves creative risk and that addresses the needs of unserved and underserved audiences, particularly children and minorities.
CPB seeks to meet the needs of unserved and underserved audiences in a variety of ways. CPB funds development and production of television programming for diverse audiences directly and through the Minority Consortia. We also support radio stations owned by minority groups and the programming that they broadcast. CPB funds training and professional development for producers and other public media professionals, and supports organizations devoted to meeting the needs of unserved and underserved audiences by assisting with planning, organizational development, collaboration, and in other ways.
CPB management proposes to elevate the priority of activities in this area to a new level. Although this Business Plan generally does not take up the allocation of CPB's administrative resources (the so-called 5% budget), in recognition of the importance of this area of our efforts, management will soon seek to fill a new position: Vice President and Senior Advisor for Innovation and Inclusion (tentative working title). This person will work within CPB to ensure that the needs of unserved and underserved audiences are being considered and addressed at all levels, including in all of CPB's grant-making areas. Further, this person will work to increase representation of individuals from diverse backgrounds in the public media workforce. The person will be an expert resource to CPB and other public media organizations on all issues related to diversity and service to underserved and unserved audiences.
The following activities are some examples of projects that are underway or under discussion in this area.
Enhancing Services for Underserved Audiences
The Enhancing Services to Underserved Audiences project was launched in FY 2008 as part of CPB's ongoing effort to better serve the public and remain relevant by reflecting the changing demographics in the United States. The project aims to answer key questions about leadership, organizational capacity and operational capabilities in the consortia of minority TV and radio organizations and CPB. The purpose of the project is to increase effectiveness between public broadcasting entities and these minority consortia. In FY 2009, CPB will continue to work with the consortia members to define common goals and strategies and to increase the overall effectiveness in meeting the needs of minority audiences. CPB will work with each television consortium to move from the current model, essentially a purchase of service approach, to one that is a true partnership between CPB and each organization. Moreover, CPB will work with all of the minority consortia, in both television and radio, to identify digital media strategies that will improve their services, and to identify issues that impact recruitment, retention, and advancement of professionals serving underserved audiences.
Latino Radio Program Service (formerly LA Latino)
For the last two years, CPB has been working to develop a public radio service that will target the needs of Latino listeners. This is a difficult project. It carries substantial risk as well as the potential for significant positive outcomes. While we have identified the essential characteristics of such a service, including language (English), and potential partners and producers, the programming concepts suggested by our research are untested in the field. Accepting these challenges, in FY 2009 CPB intends to establish the Latino Radio Program Service. We are currently working with a public radio station in the Los Angeles market that is considering changing its format to carry the service. We are also exploring the potential of exporting this service through syndication to other established markets. Moreover, with the capacity provided by radio multicasting and digital delivery, there is broad potential for further distribution of this content.
Primetime Programming
CPB is committed to supporting primetime programming that gives voice to diverse, multicultural subject matter rarely found on other broadcast or cable networks. Some examples of recent CPB-funded programming that will air on primetime in upcoming seasons:
- Latinos '08: Acclaimed Los Angeles producer Philip Rodriguez examines the challenges and opportunities of Latino politics in the context of the 2008 election season in this program that is slated to air in October 2008.
- Latin Music USA: WGBH is producing a four-part series exploring Latino music in America through the personal profiles of artists, musicians and producers, and their families and communities over several generations. The programs will capture the diversity of Latin music and showcase Latino communities in New York, Miami and the Southwest.
- Skip Gates: Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr., in partnership with WNET and Kunhardt Productions, will explore the meaning of race, culture and identity in America over a three-year period through the production of three new multipart series: The Faces of America; Searching for Our Roots: The History of the African American People; and African American Lives III.
- We Shall Remain: A Native History of America: WGBH in partnership with NAPT produced a five-part series that looks at Native American ingenuity and perseverance across three centuries. Each of the episodes focuses on an important historical figure (e.g. Geronimo, Tecumseh) or event (e.g. The Trail of Tears).
The Takeaway
The Takeaway is a new multi-platform morning show produced by Public Radio International (PRI) and WNYC. Launched in 2008, the program is designed to grow and broaden audiences for public radio by building bridges of interest among listeners of diverse backgrounds, and attracting younger listeners to public radio. The show uses social networks and community engagement tools to further audience in key markets.
Greenhouse Fund
The Greenhouse Fund was designed to support professional development activities that broaden the pool of talent and increase producer expertise in public television. Through this fund, we have supported such initiatives as the Producers' Academy at WGBH, the News Academy at WETA, the INPUT international conference of independent producers, POV Diverse Voices, the AFI Silverdocs Festival, training conducted by the National Association of Latino Independent Producers, and the Digital Content Lab at the American Film Institute. In FY 2009, CPB will continue to provide funding for several of these ongoing projects. At the same time, we will conduct a comprehensive review of our Greenhouse Fund investments to assess the effectiveness of the projects in advancing CPB's objectives in serving unserved and underserved audiences and in helping public broadcasting adapt to a digital media environment.
V'me
V'me is a Spanish language channel designed for public television multicast channel broadcast. In FY 2008 CPB provided V'me with a grant to produce and distribute extensive Spanish language coverage of the 2008 presidential elections. The coverage is designed to provide information to the Latino population on the electoral process, the issues, and the candidates over the entire election cycle. We will explore additional collaborations with V'me to serve the Latino community when the current project ends.
StoryCorps Latino
Beyond our continuing support for StoryCorps, CPB will work with the organization to design and launch a new initiative to capture the voices, experiences and life stories of Latinos. StoryCorps will use its mobile recording booths to travel to cities and towns with significant Latino populations. The project will include outreach to Latino communities to ensure their participation in the project. It will also help build stronger relationships between Latinos and public broadcasting.
Emma Bowen Foundation
The Emma Bowen Foundation is devoted to preparing minority youth for careers in media. Currently more than 250 students participate in commercial and noncommercial media organizations across the country through their program. For the past several years, CPB has worked with the Foundation to hire minority students into multi-year internships at public broadcasting stations and national organizations. There are challenges with this approach: there is a long timeline between internship placement and career choice, costs are high, and outcomes are uncertain. Thus, moving forward, CPB will take a different approach by directly recruiting and placing graduating Emma Bowen scholars - including those who worked outside of public media - into career positions in public broadcasting.
Strategic Priority III: Building Local Stations, National Program Providers and Partners in Education
The third area of strategic focus takes up critical aspects of our current models of service that merit strategic investment, including:
- station health, including but not limited to financial health;
- education;
- public awareness, since the foundation of station health is community awareness of station importance; and
- broadcast content, particularly robust national programming.
Below are illustrations of projects under way and under development in each of these areas.
A. Station Health
Digital Broadcasting Transition
FY 2009 is a critical year for television stations. They will be turning off their analog transmitters and switching to 100% digital broadcasts. We are working with stations to meet last minute challenges and overcome obstacles they might face. Radio is also continuing its upgrade process. As we complete the build-out of digital transmission systems, we are placing priority on investments in content and services to realize the potential of the digital investments.
Local Service Initiative
The Local Service Initiative began two years ago following the nationwide scenario planning project funded by CPB that emphasized the importance of community connection to the long-term sustainability of public television. The initiative provides stations with resources to create or significantly expand initiatives that connect station and community. Station recipients of these grants must be committed to their strategic plans and make a convincing case that the investment will have a significant impact on the future viability of the station and its community service goals. In FY 2009, we will take stock of the program by evaluating the impact of the projects to date, highlighting project successes to the system and finding areas for improvement, with a view towards making appropriate adjustments to the initiative in future grant rounds. As we move forward, we will encourage projects that support other aspects of this business plan, such as innovation in digital media or in reaching underserved audiences.
Leadership for Philanthropy
Leadership for Philanthropy will provide extensive support to 50 public radio stations to increase major giving. The program will leverage CPB's work in community engagement and public awareness, placing community significance at the center of the major giving effort. The project will also set a high bar - only individual gifts of $10,000 or greater will be considered major gifts. A three-year, three million dollar investment is contemplated. However, funding for the out-years is conditioned upon measurable success in the first year of the initiative.
Preparation for Community Service Grant (CSG) Program Review
Within the next eighteen months CPB will need to initiate a periodic review of the radio and television CSG program. By that time, television will have completed the transition from analog to digital technology. Radio digital conversion will have progressed substantially. In addition to communities that receive multiple over-the-air services, online sources such as YouTube, Hulu, podcasting, and the rise of social networking sites have dramatically increased the availability of public broadcasting's audio and video content to listeners and viewers. During FY 2009, CPB plans to initiate a study of the impact of the widespread availability of this content from over-the-air and on-line sources on listeners and viewers and the public broadcasting stations that serve them. The results will provide important contextual information for CPB's CSG reviews in both television and radio.
Emergency Preparedness Initiative
CPB will support an initiative to enhance stations' ability to respond to their community's needs in the case of natural or other disasters. The initiative will include several resources for stations, such as an online emergency readiness handbook and emergency preparedness training via webinars and other easily accessible formats. The project will also include the development of a set of protocols that can be used among stations to allow a webmaster at a distant station to manage and update information for one that has been evacuated. The project will encourage radio and television stations to work in a collaborative and coordinated manner to provide services to areas stricken by natural or other disasters.
B. Education
Children's Content Investments
In FY 2009 we will place particular emphasis on content designed to support math and science education for children ages 6 - 9. CPB will solicit proposals from veteran producers such as Sesame Workshop and WGBH as well as newcomers to public media to develop new content that is research-based, includes digital media components, and meets national educational needs. The content will be delivered across multiple platforms, including but not limited to on-air and online. In addition, CPB will give grants to stations to partner with local organizations to implement community engagement and educational activities that address local needs in math and science education.
Ready to Learn
Ready to Learn (RTL) will continue to work towards the goal of raising the reading levels of children ages 2-8 who live in high poverty environments with new programs, research and resources. In 2009, as we move into the fourth year of the grant, we will focus on scaling the on-air, online and on the ground resources to all 20 targeted markets to reach kids, parents, caregivers and educators where they live, learn, play and work. Testing will continue to identify effective new ways to engage kids and parents using technology and research studies on the initiative's effectiveness will also continue.
Production of Digital Learning Objects
In FY 2009, CPB will fund the production of a variety of short multimedia segments ("learning objects") designed for teachers to use in the classroom to illustrate specific educational concepts. The segments may include digital video and audio segments, interactive games, animation, simulations, and images. They will be made available to public media web sites that are designed to support classroom teaching, such as Thinkport, Arkansas Ideas, ThinkBright, Teachers' Domain, and PBS's EDCAR . These grants will help build an inventory of digital learning objects that can be shared by all stations, increase capacity for production, create an economically attractive content production model, and measure the impact on learning to direct future activities.
New Models for Impact Evaluation and Engagement
This project will bring together evaluation experts, education leaders (inside and outside of public broadcasting), and pilot stations to develop and pilot test a set of improved impact measures and strategies for communicating impact. Successful metrics and models will be shared with all stations, and the data collected will also help us to tell the national story of public media's role as a partner in education.
C. Public Awareness
My Source/The Public Awareness Initiative
During the last year, the Public Awareness Initiative expanded the number of stations using My Source testimonials to nearly 200, by providing stations with an extensive online resource center, customizable national radio and television testimonials (featuring celebrities, dignitaries, and ordinary people), implementation grants, and in-person and online training. Through our FY 2008 investments in community engagement and program outreach (such as grants to the Harwood Institute and National Center for Outreach), we reinforced public broadcasting's commitment to delivering wide scale, beyond-the-broadcast impact and developed new, in-depth models for meaningful community engagement.
In FY 2009, the Public Awareness Initiative will continue to support the engagement and outreach activities that help to define and distinguish public broadcasting's mission. We will also work with stations to utilize My Source more comprehensively and strategically - to capture their stories of impact and share them in ways that deliver specific communications, development and engagement outcomes. At the national level, these stories of impact will be distributed in public media community impact reports, and recognized through My Source Community Impact Awards at the March 2009 National Leaders Meeting. Highlights of our FY 2009 activities include:
Direct Station Assistance
CPB will provide in-depth training in using My Source testimonials to: 1) communicate the impact of station and system education initiatives such as Ready To Learn and FIRST; 2) capture public media's distinctive role in community issues; and 3) demonstrate to major donors the continuing relevance of public broadcasting's content and services. Additionally, CPB will provide direct grants to stations to assist in the strategic implementation of the My Source platform.
National "My Source" Testimonial Development and Placement
CPB will continue working with partners such as PBS, NPR and ITVS, to develop national My Source television and radio testimonials to supplement stations' local efforts. We will also create targeted print and online ads that stations can customize in their markets.
Community Engagement (The Harwood Institute and National Center of Outreach)
The Harwood Institute will continue CPB's Community Engagement Initiative (CEI) to help stations deepen the quality and relevance of the service they provide their communities. In FY 2009, we will work to disseminate key findings about the ongoing, transformative work of the core group of stations that have participated in the initiative to date to the broader public broadcasting system. We will also explicitly connect community engagement to public awareness. At the same time, NCO will continue to develop and provide access to numerous program outreach and community engagement resources. In addition to providing information about upcoming national content and grant opportunities, NCO will work with CPB to improve the planning and practice of program outreach at the national level. They will develop a guidebook outlining standards for content developers and will assist in the review of CPB's outreach investments. At the local level, NCO will facilitate in-depth conversations between and amongst stations about specific outreach or content themes, such as health, environment, and education. NCO will also participate in the collection of station stories for the national public media community impact reports.
Community Engagement: Mortgage Crisis Initiative
CPB will provide grants to public television and radio stations in markets that have been identified by the U.S. Treasury Department as having high mortgage foreclosure rates. In 2008, KETC in St. Louis received prototype funding from CPB to create programming and interstitial material, set up a website and provide community residents with resources to help deal with the local mortgage crisis. In FY 2009, using KETC's work as a template, we will work with other interested stations to implement similar programs that are customized to their communities. This work will include solicitation of a partner to provide on-line resources for listeners and viewers of public broadcasting stations nation-wide.
National Leadership Meeting and My Source Community Impact Awards
The 2009 National Leaders Meeting will be designed to support visionary leadership for station General Managers and Board members. The meeting will feature a celebration of the first My Source Community Impact Awards. The Awards will recognize superior examples of station service to local community, especially around signature issues of health, education, financial literacy and others.
D. Broadcast Content:
Program Challenge Fund
The Challenge Fund is a joint undertaking with PBS to fund programming that has the potential to serve as "tent poles" in the primetime schedule - programs that draw a significantly increased audience. (The ten-part series Carrier is an example of such a program.) During FY 2009, CPB and PBS will work together to evaluate the operations of the Challenge Fund. We will investigate alternative methods for attracting and developing these projects. CPB will also apply the focus on areas of innovation in digital media and increased service to diverse audiences to Challenge Fund decisions. As an example, CPB and PBS have jointly agreed to provide research and development funding to projects produced or co-produced by two of the minority Consortia: The Latino-Americans, co- produced by Latino Public Broadcasting, and Passages, co-produced by Pacific Islanders in Communication.
Opportunity Fund
Since 2006, the Opportunity Fund has provided grants to selected shows in the icon series of the National Program Service, including Masterpiece Theater, Nature, and Nova. These grants set strategic priorities for programming, underwriting and possible rebranding, with a strong evaluation component. In FY 2009, the final year of these grants, we will use the lessons learned from the evaluations to better achieve the fund's goals.
Telling America's Stories - Ken Burns
This is the first installment of CPB's multi-year commitment to support the work of Ken Burns as he develops and produces more programming in his unique style of storytelling. The first two projects will be: Baseball: The Tenth Inning (a sequel to his earlier acclaimed baseball production) and Forbidden Fruit: Prohibition in America.
Outreach for The National Parks: America's Best Idea
This project will support the broadcast of the Ken Burns documentary on the National Parks scheduled for September 2009. The project includes an outreach program for inner city youth, movie nights in national parks, online story collection activities branded with My Source, educational resources for grades 7-10, and documentaries produced by state television networks about state and national park facilities in their viewing areas.
Grow the Audience
Public Radio's audience has leveled off following two decades of steady growth. In 2008 CPB selected the Station Resource Group (SRG) to analyze audience patterns of listening to public radio, develop hypotheses to explain the changes, and suggest strategies to restore public radio's growth. While a significant part of the effort is focused on over-the-air listening and programming, the project also takes a broad view at public radio consumption in all its forms: on air, online, and on-demand. In FY 2009, we will be funding further research and pilot projects based on the findings.
StoryCorps
CPB will continue to support StoryCorps, the groundbreaking public radio project that honors and celebrates the lives of everyday Americans. The funding will strengthen the organization's efforts to build its internal organizational capacity, including fundraising. Funding will also support continuing story collection around the country, producing them for distribution on air and online