President’s Annual Report 2013

September 10, 2013

As my seventh year as president of PRPD wraps up, I have observed that many current members are unfamiliar with some of the basics about how PRPD works.  Briefly, PRPD has operated since its inception in 1987 as a “lean and mean” non-profit.  We rely largely on membership dues and conference revenue for our operating budget which this year is $641,000.

Started with a small seed grant from the RRC, PRPD has prized its independence and grant funding has been used only for targeted projects.  We have been able to accomplish so much with the active work of an 11 member board, elected from and by the membership.  Collaboration with other organizations has long been a key to our knowledge creation and dissemination.

For the first 20 years, PRPD’s the only paid staff was the President, a board-hired position contracted in four year terms.  In 2007 we added an Office Manager to the mix.  We contract for logistical aspects of conference planning, and last year added a contracted conference agenda manager.  Research projects, such as Core Values and the Tech Survey and training efforts such as MEGS and the PD Workshop also use contracted experts. 

As an association, we have always relied on the knowledge, skills and talent of our membership – in sharing their experience, training and mentoring others, and, most of all, defining the core issues to target PRPD’s work on your behalf.  

Now to the report of the association’s activities since we last met in Las Vegas.

Budget

At the 2013 PRPD Board retreat in January, we amended the bylaws to change our fiscal year from calendar to July 1 – June 30.  This change brings our financial and membership years in synch and addressed some longstanding management problem in timing of cash flow that prevented realistic budget forecasting.   Since our two primary revenue sources, membership dues and conference registration are at the beginning of their cycle on June 30, the new close of the fiscal year will much better reflect our bottom-line financial health.

To accomplish this transition, we ran a 6-month budget for FY13 running from January through June of 2013.   Our new fiscal year, FY 14, began July 1.  In future years we will be able to offer a complete fiscal year report and comparisons with this annual report which has been required by our by-laws.  Because of the change, however, a line item budget comparison is not meaningful – this year will establish a new baseline.  But we can compare our financial position from the Balance Sheet to past June 30 results.  In 2013 we had a balance of $722,785.44.  The graph below shows the trend since 2002.

  

 

We remain well above the goal of retaining a balance equivalent to  one year’s budget – a goal  adopted by the board in the wake of our cancelled 2001conference.

 

Board Calendar and Elections

The fiscal year change also included a new board cycle.   It decoupled the Annual Member Meeting and Annual Board Meeting so the latter could still fulfill the requirement of “adopting the budget for the upcoming fiscal year”.   The annual board retreat will include this meeting and will move to April/May. 

The board election calendar has also changed.  Elections will now be held early in the year with nominations beginning in December.  Current board terms were adjusted to correspond with this change, adding about 4 months to existing terms.  

The next board elections will open for nominations on December 10 with balloting open February 10-28, 2014.    Under the amended by-laws, newly elected board members will be seated at the first board meeting following election – the aforementioned spring annual board meeting and retreat.  Board members Todd Mundt and Jeff Hansen are reaching the end of their maximum consecutive terms, so at least two of the three seats up for election will not have incumbents. 

 

Membership

After some erosion in the wake of the economic downturn and consolidation shrinking our membership, PRPD has seen a turnaround over the past couple of years.  Many stations which had to drop membership have returned to the membership rolls resulting in the strongest growth in many years.  That key revenue source is right on target.  Because this year’s dues are based on 2011 NFFS when some recovery began for station budgets, we’ve seen a small revenue increase.  As stipulated in our by-laws below is the list of adds and drops since the last report. 

 

Adds/Rejoins

 

Drops

 

 

  • KPBS, San Diego

 

 

  • WGTE, Normal

 

 

  • KRCC, Colorado Springs

 

 

  • KDB, Santa Barbara

 

 

  • KUVO, Denver

 

 

  • WUCF, Orlando

 

 

  • WHYY, Philadelphia

 

 

  • WWNO, New Orleans

 

 

  • WKSU, Kent

 

 

  • KTSU, Houston

 

 

  • WMFE, Orlando

 

 

  •  

 

 

  • WRNI, Providence

 

 

  •  

 

 

  • WUTF, Gainesville

 

 

  •  

 

 

  • WVAS, Montgomery

 

 

  •  

 

 

  • WYEP, Pittsburgh

 

 

  •  

 

 

  • Banff Center

 

 

  •  

 

 

  • Craig Curtis

 

 

  •  

 

 

  • Deb Blakeley

 

 

  •  

 

 

  • Hindenberg Systems

 

 

  •  

 

 

  • Julie Lavender

 

 

  •  

 

 

  • Phoenix Consultants

 

 

 

Our evaluation by the members continues to be highly positive.  That annual survey has always had a very strong return rate but in pursuit of even more accurate data, the next one will be held in January, avoiding the vacation periods of our end of year survey in December.  As always, we urge all members to participate as that survey is the foundation of PRPD’s planning of services and initiatives in the year ahead.

 

Conference

At the pre-registration deadline for conference registration, we have exceeded last year’s attendance, guaranteeing the largest crowd of any held outside network home cities (Baltimore/DC and Minneapolis).  We are in final preparation for what looks like an exciting agenda. 

This year we are implementing many changes to the structure of the conference, some to control steadily escalating costs to PRPD and to keep your cost of travel and registration and cost of exhibiting as low as possible.  Others were intended to maximize the impact of the knowledge presented and enhance the attendee experience.  These include:

1)     Moving to 3 full days rather than spreading over 2 full days and 2 half days. 

2)     Incorporating Format Group meetings into the body of the conference.

3)     Decreasing the number of concurrent breakouts.

4)     Concentrating General Sessions and meals in one ballroom (rather than 2).

5)     Moving Welcome Reception to first night from night before Opening.

6)     Expanding networking opportunities.

7)     A more open exhibit hall – eliminating pipe and draping and moving to mostly tabletop rather than booth displays.

8)     Later start to each day.

9)     Midweek placement to avoid bumping up against weekend travel.

Again this year, we are collaborating with AIR on the conference.  Ten to fifteen percent of attendees are registered under the AIR which has prepared a producing track and will hold their annual meeting at the conference.  We’ve also worked together to bring their Localore producers to the conference with CPB support.  As in prior collaborations, we are excited to have a broader cross section of the programming community in attendance and especially welcome the New Voices – younger producers – as part of the “family”.

In January the PRPD board identified the increasing direct to audience distribution of content and funding appeals that did not involve stations as a disruptive trend meriting open discussion.  In this atmosphere of experimentation, we thought it critical to address potential threats and opportunities in this trend.  We wanted to identify their impact on stations and how we might arrive at a future that maintains the strong public service and loyalty that public radio currently engenders.  In particular, how might we retain and improve the high quality content in the face of what was looking like a slow “unraveling” of the traditional model that has sustained stations, networks and many producers. 

Toward that end, we are devoting the entire first morning of the conference to beginning that discussion, putting on the table the complex interwoven factors that until now have only been discussed in one-to-one interactions or among small coalitions, often of the biggest players in the system.  We do not expect to come to solutions in this short time, just to begin a more public, widespread conversation that we envision continuing within other pubradio groups and gatherings as well as within the PRPD community.  We strongly urge you to express your feedback in the aftermath of this session.

We also have set conference locations for the next two years.  In 2014 we will meet in Portland, OR and 2015 will be in Pittsburgh.  Our goal is to identify a 2016 site early next year.

 

Local News Initiative

Just after the last conference, PRPD received a grant from the Millstream Fund for MEGS and JMEGS workshops and some online modules. Combined with continuing support from NPR, we have been able to be much more active in this critical effort. 

Accomplished

  1. MEGS workshop in Charlotte in April.
  2. J-MEGS immediately after PRNDI in June (Cleveland)
  3.  Recruited 2 stations for second-phase pilot of a Sense of Place Survey. NHPR and Wisconsin PR were chosen from among 12 applicants.  Survey development is underway.

Ahead

  1. MEGS workshop - November 2, St. Louis
  2.  Two MEGS webinars
  3. Development of online multi-media modules based on MEGS materials
  4. Completion and reporting out results of the Sense of Place project

Both of the workshops were sold out and registration for the November MEGS opened recently.  Evaluations have, as usual, been exemplary.  MEGS has been around long enough that staff changes at stations have begun to bring some previous stations back to the workshop to reinforce and expand their application of best practices.

 

Digital Efforts

Website

It’s been 5 years since the PRPD website was updated so the board approved funding for a redesign.   We issued an RFP in February and chose Bethesda Wed Design with whom we’ve been working over the summer.   That work is moving along well, though somewhat slower than initially projected.  Right now we hope for a launch in mid to late October.

Our goal is to make the site much more active, be able to “call out” some of the trove of content now buried in menus, integrating better with other digital efforts.  Beyond design changes that will better present the knowledge, we will relocate our News for Programmersblog to the site, incorporate our membership system including dues and other payments, streamline passwords, and improve handling of audio and video files. 

Social Networking

To increase communication wih members, PRPD instituted a closed Facebook group and a Twitter feed.  David Hollis has applied his reporting experience to tailor news as appropriate for each platform.  Members are urged to sign up for maximum information!

We also added SoundCloud to better manage audio on the web.   Conference audio was uploaded through that service allowing for even more reliable streaming and downloading.  We began posting some past audio in that format, starting with all of the prior Benediction speeches.   Still to be determined is whether with the new web setup, we may be able to bring all files into a central location going forward.  The choice will be made based on the best user experience.

Technology Survey

For the fifth year of the Public Radio Technology Survey we moved the survey dates into late spring to avoid membership pressures on mailing lists.  We had a record number of stations participating.  The number of respondents was just slightly above last year’s high, just shy of 31,000.                                                                    

With five years of data under our belts, the trend analyses are particularly powerful.   They will be the basis of this year’s PRTS session at the conference, a session that will hone in on key findings of the study rather than our past data-heavy review of the complete survey.

Participating (investing) stations received both national and local results and were offered a webinar covering all the results.  We established a special web page for their access to their materials and have scheduled a private breakout session with Fred Jacobs, built around “now that you’ve had a first shot at the data, what are your questions, observations.”  It’s the first time we’ve had a closed conference session but there will still be 3 other session choices at that time for non-PRTS stations.

 

Webinars

With a big increase in the number of webinars being offered within the system in the last few years, PRPD has focused on quality rather than quantity - carefully avoiding duplication of effort.  With topics of applicable across disciplines, such as the funding challenges or community outreach, we have been better able to hone in the particular angles of interest to the programming community.  We’ve also targeted some webinars initially offered elsewhere, adjusting them for a more content oriented perspective.  One example is our most recent webinar with NPR Digital’s Steve Mulder who reoriented the material more directly to the interests of the programming community and attracted one of the largest group of attendees of recent webinars.  

We continue to pursue more webinars presented collaboratively with other groups.  In the past year this included webinars with MPR/APM, PRNDI, PRI, PRX, NPR and RRC. Two webinars also came out of the MEGS project. 

Aiming to avoid what that has historically been a quiet period for webinars after the conference; several ideas are currently in the works for October and November webinars. Watch for announcements shortly after the conference.

Below is a list of webinars presented since the last conference:

  • New Metrics & Insights on Public Radio's Digital Impact
  • How To Choose A Programs (with PRNDI)
  • Priming the Pump with Social Media  (with PRI)
  • New NPR Halo Effect/Program Break Research
  • Crafting A Powerful Mission For Classical (with MPR)
  • Charting A Course Toward Digital Relevance: Lessons of a Flexible Strategy   
  • SubAuto: The New PRX Distribution System
  • Now That I Have My Data, What Should I Do With It? Part 2 - Arbitron’s PPM Markets
  • Now That I Have My Data, What Should I Do With It? Part 1 - Arbitron’s Diary-Based Markets

Advocacy/Representation

In line with our recent the Strategic Plans, we remain dedicated to keeping content and the role of programmers at the fore in all public radio conversations.  PRPD continues to participate in other conferences and regional meetings, both in our system and outside.  As a member of the Public Radio Arbitron Advisory Team, we’ve continued to develop that relationship to keep public radio’s research needs on the table. 

Earlier this year PRPD engaged in discussions with NPR about program clocks, specifically focusing on station need for greater flexibility for stations in the ATC clock.  NPR has since formed a process to examine solutions to these concerns and the changing media environment. Working with the internal NPR group are five station reps, two of whom are PRPD board members and all PRPD members.  I have also been asked to provide perspective and feedback as the process evolves.

This past spring, PRPD was involved in a “Classical Summit” in Houston to help address the need for a common agenda for classical stations moving forward.   That process will be expanded to many more stations in the Classical Format Group at the upcoming conference, planned in cooperation with the stations involved in that first meeting.   The PRPD board has identified service to this cohort (as well as other music formats) as a high priority.   We have also scheduled an additional hour for stations to begin planning next steps.  One of the key questions in this conversation is once the needs are defined, what organizational approach(es) would be most effective in addressing the challenges to classical music radio in a changing media environment.  

Highlights of other meetings and conferences:

  • Third Coast International Audio Conference
  • Super Regional Meeting
  • NPR Areps Meeting
  • Arbitron Client Fly-In
  • NPR Board Meetings
  • KPBS Convergence Summit
  • AMPPR Conference
  • ATC Focus Groups
  • MEGS Workshop
  • NonCommvention
  • Classical Station Summit
  • PRNDI Conference
  • J-MEGS Workshop
  • PMDMC

As always, visits with member stations are often part in to these trips.  There are also periodic trips to the two “public radio capitols”, Washington DC and Minneapolis/St. Paul, to keep up with important developments there.  Ahead yet in 2013 is our first attendance at the Online News Association Conference (ONA), the second Super Regional, MEGS and the Arbitron Client Conference.

Respectfully submitted,

Arthur Cohen, President