What's New @ PRNDI

PRNDI SUBMITS FINAL REPORT: A CENSUS OF JOURNALISTS IN PUBLIC RADIO AND TV

PRNDI has submitted a final report to the CPB analyzing the numbers and duties of journalists in public broadcasting. The information is unofficial until the final report is accepted and released by the CPB. We've been posting the topline stats as a running total throughout the census... but more detail is forthcoming in the final report.

Now that the data has been collected and sorted, we can say there are 5991 total individuals involved in the day-to-day production of local news and public affairs at public radio and TV stations. Our data covers 91% of all such stations in the United States and its protectorates.

Those 5991 were split into two segments -- professional and non-professional.  For our purposes, professionals are the full-time, part-time and contract employees of stations.  The non-professionals are those individuals that could be classified as students, interns, volunteers and other community contributors.  There were 3222 journalists in the professional category, and 2769 journalists in the non-professional category.

We split most of the data between TV services, Radio services, and Combined Radio + TV services. The R/TV Combo category were all joint licensees that chose to report their results as a combined service.

As you can see from the chart above, Radio is by far the largest provider of journalist positions -- either professional or non-professional.

Official findings with far more detail have been sent to the CPB. PRNDI will share it with the system after it has been accepted and released by the CPB.

On behalf of CPB and Public Radio News Directors Inc, thanks for your support!

Mike Marcotte, Census Project Leader

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PRNDI Membership Re-Elects Board Members & Updates Bylaws

The PRNDI general membership meeting was held on the afternoon of Saturday, June 26th, 2010.  At that meeting, the membership re-elected three of the board members - medium member representative Naomi Starobin (WSHU) and at-large representative Amy Tardif (WGCU) who both ran unopposed.  President Jonathan Ahl (Iowa Public Radio) faced challenger Morgan Holm (Oregon Public Broadcasting) and was also re-elected for a second term as President. 

In other business, the PRNDI Membership approved some minor changes to its bylaws.  The changes to the bylaws can be viewed here and included housekeeping items changing the organization's fiscal year to a calendar year and removing a provision for a pro-rated membership fee when members join mid-year.  President Johathan Ahl also named a committee co-chaired by Amy Tardif & Morgan Holm to examine PRNDI's membership structure and investigate the possibility of adding other journalists in public media.

PRNDI Announces Awards from Calendar Year 2009

Public Radio News Directors Inc. announced the winners in its 2010 awards competition at the annual awards banquet on Saturday, June 26, 2010. This is the only national contest recognizing outstanding public radio news reporting at local stations.  The contest covers work produced in 2009.  A total of 93 awards were presented to local stations at the PRNDI Awards Banquet at the Brown Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky.  The full list of winners is available here.

Also at the banquet, PRNDI presented the "Leo C. Lee Award" to one of its own founding members - Maryanne Zeleznik.  Maryanne has been a member of PRNDI since its inception 25 years ago and served on the board as both a director and as the organization's treasurer.  The award recognizes lasting commitment to public radio journalism.  

Public Radio News Directors Inc. is a non-profit organization dedicated to the professional development of public radio journalists.  For more information, contact PRNDI awards coordinator Christine Paige Diers at (605) 490-3033.