I think what business public broadcasting is actually in is up for some debate. Information and entertainment is one possibility. But I’ve heard lots of folks talk about education as a primary mission, especially when it comes to kids’ programming. Others, like Bill Kling in his recent paper, suggest it’s information in service of democracy, specifically. There probably isn’t one mission in the system on which we can all agree.

As for competition, I think we need to stop thinking about that. Each public broadcaster (that needs to become a public service media company) needs to respond to the needs of their community or region and stop paying so much attention to what people are doing in New York, DC, Los Angeles or even at OPB in Portland. We all may take cues from CPB, NPR, PBS or major outlets like WGBH, OPB, WNET, KQED and others, but if we don’t focus energy locally — and use innovation, invention and interation — we’re going to fail separately before we fail collectively. Or if not fail, at least fall in relevance and economic viability.

Lucky for OPB they’ve figured out public service while keeping some money around for national-quality production. Lots of public service media companies might aspire to that level of support, engagement and production, but I just hope they focus locally and match community needs to media collected, curated and produced.