Earlier this week I was advised privately to wait for an announcement from NPR about BPP — without any hint of what said announcement might be — and I’m still waiting. I’d love to hear NPR announce a bold new plan to take the BPP straight to the web and change it up somehow. If anyone would care to shed additional light, I’m all ears (as are about 600 commenters on the NPR site).
In the meantime, there’s been some great pieces out there I’d like to point folks to (yeah, I know — you already saw these, but just in case…).
First up are two posts from Robert Paterson, a past NPR consultant and an avid BPP audience participant:
- A rescue plan for Bryant Park Project and also for NPR
- A rescue plan for Bryant Park Project and also for NPR – Part 2
I’m not a fan of Paterson’s claim that the U.S. is heading into a full-blown depression (because that scares the bejesus out of me and I don’t know what to do about it), but the rest of it rings true, even if the economy were booming.
Next up is a post from Jeff Jarvis, one of my perennial faves:
(I love the title — talk about not burying the lede!)
The Jarvis piece is good, but the comments are even better. When I visited, the first half of the comments were really insightful. And don’t miss Mindy McAdams‘ comment in there, too.
What worries me more and more is that Stephen Hill — that too-smart-for-his-own-good bastard! (and I say that with love) — is going to be proven right if we public media people don’t stop behaving like nitwits and face up to the Innovator’s Dilemma.
I’m not sure whether I have the energy to start my own public media company. Do I really have to? 😉
Gravity Medium 
(also posted on Twitter) I’m not too smart for my own good, just not sugar-coating reality where Public Media is concerned.
Steve Behrens just invited me and others to comment on the DirectCurrent forum about the NPR API proposal. Yeah, I probably sound annoying, but argue with me on the merits:
http://currentpublicmedia.ning.com/forum/topic/show?id=2105606%3ATopic%3A555&xgs=1
Finally, the important question. Yes, you have to start your own public media company.
From your current vantage point in the frozen north it may sound impossible, but trust me, move to DC and get together with the other frustrated NPR vets and web shop employees and you’ll have plenty of energy to work with. Show those bureaucratic MFs how it’s done.
If not now, when?
If not you (and the others), who?
:: SH
Stephen,
I was wondering if you’d see this post and the reference to you. 😉
As for heading to DC, I have to admit I don’t have a bank account that would let me go paycheckless while developing a new company from scratch, even with energetic and hyper-intelligent partners from NPR or elsewhere.
Starting a blog is basically free (except for my time) and sustainable. But starting a whole new media company in one of the nation’s most expensive cities is not something I think I could pull off. It’s something I’d happily join, though (if it were funded).
I hate to get all generational, but I think the Boomer executives calling the shots at the CPB and NPR and PBS are square in the Innovator’s Delimma situation. They can’t change themselves without endangering their own paychecks and, let’s face it, pretty comfortable lifestyles.
The “hippies” that really kicked off pubcasting in the 1970s are now long gone, either via retirement or co-option in the corporate system that grew out of the guerrilla movement they founded. Or they moved to Pacifica where the fight against corporate hegemony theoretically lives on.
Maybe the new movement should indeed start as a cheap web property?