Editor’s media picks – 4/30
April 30, 2012 by Katrina M Mendolera
Filed under Media Center
Agile, social, cheap: The new way NPR is trying to make radio
By Andrew Phelps
The last time NPR launched a show was five years ago. It was the Bryant Park Project, a morning newsmagazine aimed at younger listeners. The network developed the show in secret and beefed up its New York bureau with reporters, producers, and editors. The budget for its first year was more than $2 million.
BPP was cancelled after 10 months, having reached just 13 markets. The underdeveloped show could never compete with Morning Edition, whose national listenership is topped only by Rush Limbaugh. A few months later, NPR cancelled two more news programs, Day to Day and News and Notes, blaming a disastrous budget gap… More Nieman Journalism Lab
Bay Citizen cuts ties with NY Times
Steven T. Jones of Bay Guardian reports that this Sunday is the last day The Bay Citizen will provide stories for The New York Times, which prints a Bay Area edition twice a week.
The Bay Citizen, a nonprofit started with $5 million from the late Lehman Brothers executive Warren Hellman, has merged with the 35-year-old Center for Investigative Reporting, headed by former Chronicle editors Phil Bronstein and Robert “Rosey” Rosenthal… More via the San Francisco Peninsula Press Club
College Newspapers feel financial pinch
By Keith Matheny
Editor Joseph Valdez says he has seen his newspaper’s budget “cut drastically” the past two years. His print paper may soon be eliminated, as the push continues to take news to what many see as newspapers’ ultimate destination: the Internet, with all of its uncertain profitability.
The only surprise in any of this is that Valdez, 23, is a sophomore from Los Angeles and editor of Los Angeles Harbor College’s newspaper, The Harbor Tides… More via USAToday.com
Cosmo Joins Forces with J.C. Penney
By Chris O’Shea
Cosmopolitan, led by its Fashion Director — Michelle McCool — is teaming up with J.C. Penney for a product launch this fall… More via MediaBistro.com
Cumulus & Townsquare swap 65 stations
By Lance Venta
Cumulus and Townsquare Media have agreed to a swap involving 65 stations in 13 markets.
Cumulus will acquire Townsquare Media’s 10 stations in Bloomington and Peoria IL and $116 Million in cash.
Townsquare will add 55 stations from Cumulus in eleven markets: Augusta, Bangor, and Presque Isle, Maine, Binghamton N.Y., Bismarck, N.D., Grand Junction, Colo., Killeen-Temple and Odessa-Midland Texas, New Bedford, Mass., Sioux Falls, S.D., and Tuscaloosa, Ala… More via RadioInsight
Katrina Mendolera took the helm of inVocus as editor in chief in 2009, and has been running the site ever since. But she’s been a media observer since she joined Vocus as a senior media researcher for newspaper content in 2007. Prior to that, Katrina worked in daily and weekly newspapers. She holds a master’s degree in journalism from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. Email: krandall(at)vocus.com.
