158 Resources

How do you transform a legacy broadcast property into a fresh product that also delights listeners in the digital space?  And how do you motivate your staff and management to chart a new path?  Studio 360 is in the midst of a major transformation.  At several steps along the way, the team has applied strategies used in design thinking (idea generation, analogous inspiration, rapid prototyping, team-building, and more).  In this session, Executive Producer Jenny Lawton presents the show’s work in progress – a case study in how to change course and inspire creativity, while maintaining a production sprint.

Page views and sessions and shares, oh my! As more and more stations expand their content into the digital world, they find themselves awash in data and not always sure how to gauge their online successes. This session will explore how music stations are defining success in the world of sites, streams, podcasts and videos, while also sharing examples of what’s working best.

The rise of social media has changed how stations approach programming change.  While many of the old tactics still work, making change is much more complicated than it used to be. In this session we’ll hear from an expert in strategic communication about how to update your practices in communicating change.

The media landscape is changing and so are the expectations of those consuming and creating content. We hear a lot about millennials, but too often actual millennials aren’t part of the conversation.  In this roundtable session a group of millennials will discuss the opportunities and challenges they’ve faced working in the public media sphere.  They’ll talk about fostering talent development as well providing perspective on how the panelists consume news and where they look for inspiration to navigate the challenge of attracting younger, diverse audiences to their work.

Editors make or break your stories. They can also be teachers, innovators, and even visionaries. Without good editors, newsrooms lose relevance, creativity, staff and audience. In other words, editors are the future of your stations and our network. And yet, public radio - and journalism at-large -- has not done enough to invest in editing. How can we find, cultivate and retain editors who can shape not only daily coverage but public radio’s future sound(s)? And how should we define the craft of editing in 2016 -- when our industry is changing so rapidly?

Tracking public radio listeners as the media and technology world is roiled by change is a challenge and it is why PRPD and Jacobs Media have partnered for the 8th consecutive year to help stations better understand a changing audience. PRTS8 is an expansive study that explains the shift to digital, including podcasting, mobile, and the connected car. Fred will use the data to talk about how this data can help better inform programming, marketing, and distribution strategies.

After some frustrating years of down-flat, public radio's audience has seen a bit of an uptick. RRC's Dave Sullivan will walk us through the numbers and we'll see how Spark, a surreal election cycle and that annoying Walking Dead cliffhanger may be impacting the national audience numbers.

Good programmers strive to ensure that their stations deliver the most compelling content possible, but growth is driven by more than content. Brand strength, perceived image and position in the competitive environment matter. To that end, PRPD wanted to know - do non-users have negative perceptions of public radio or is there merely an awareness gap? Coleman Insights will present the findings of a study exclusively fielded for PRPD's Content Conference to demonstrate the roles that market wide awareness and public radio's brand images may play in the challenges public radio faces today.

So you’ve decided that investigative reporting should be a part of what your station provides to your community. How do you do it? What do you need to know in order to build your team?

Event and member fundraising start with a strong concept around content. Some Triple A stations already have successful concerts. What are the challenges to throwing a revenue-based event or content activity such as local music CDs or concert fly-aways? Can these programming events and activities be used to lessen the amount of on-air fundraising? Leading program directors will share their secrets to driving revenue from the PD chair.