PRNDI | Home Public Radio News Directors

What's New @ PRNDI

2009 Conference wraps up in Portland

Thanks to all the PRNDI members and great speakers who made this year's annual PRNDI Conference in Portland such a great success.  The conference highlights included a conversation with NPR CEO Vivian Schiller, a keynote speech by Tom Goldman, pre-conference training with the wonderful folks from the BBC's World Have Your Say, and a couple of sessions with Poynter's Jill Geisler.  What a great way for members to re-connect, re-fresh and re-charge.  The conference closed on Saturday, June 13th with the presentation of this year's PRNDI Awards (you can see a full list of awardees at our awards page) and the presentation of the Leo C. Lee Award to Doug Mitchell - formerly of National Public Radio.  Doug was recognized for the work he's done over the years to encourage young people - and particularly young people of color - to get into public radio.  Congrats Doug!

PRNDG Live!

The Public Radio News Directors Guide (PRNDG) is a cooperative effort between PRNDI and NPR's Local News Initiative.  Available at http://www.prndg.org/ -- this is the first compendium of its kind providing a comprehensive body of advice, best practices and additional resources. 

"We hope the PRNDG serves the diverse needs of veterans and new news directors alike," said Michael Marcotte, the guide's author and the former news director of KPBS, San Diego and KPLU, Seattle-Tacoma.  Marcotte consulted with more than 80 news directors in compiling the guide. New media journalist Andrew Phelps, now editor of wbur.org, produced the PRNDG Web site. 

The guide's launch represents completion of the two-year "start-up phase" in what is envisioned as a multi-stage rollout. The coming phase includes plans to add a front-page blog, more multimedia content and site-based social-networking tools. These will increase the value of the PRNDG as a place for timely discussion of journalism issues while allowing users to add content.

The Prez Sez:

Considering the economy, nearly every conversation I have these days about PRNDI centers around two questions.  First "How is PRNDI doing financially?", and secondly, "Are you considering cancelling the conference?".  The answer to the questions are ok, and absolutely not. PRNDI carried forward a positive balance in its operations funds into 2009.  And our reserves, while battered by the stock market, are still healthy enough to help us if the need arises.  As to the conference, we are a go for Portland in June.  It's important for PRNDI members to know that our contract with the hotel would guarantee that if we were to cancel, we would lose more money in penalties than we would if we held the conference with low attendance.  More importantly, we believe the PRNDI conference is very important to the future of the organization and serving the membership.  So even if we have a drastic reduction in attendance, it will still serve our organizations goals.

All that said, the PRNDI board is approaching 2009 with the same level of financial austerity that many of the member stations are facing.  We won't be able to do as much, but we will do a lot with the resources we have.  The board remains committed to serving the membership, and being responsible stewards of the organization's money.  I hope to see many of you in Portland this June.

Jonathan Ahl, PRNDI President



Upcoming Events 

PRNDI 2009 Annual Conference

June 10-13, 2009
Portland, OR

It's never too soon to mark your calendars for next year's conference and start making plans to be there. Note for the first time, the conference is in June instead of July.

Member Profile

Tanya Koonce
Our latest PRNDI profilee is Tanya Koonce.  She is the news director of  WCBU in Peoria, IL.  She's a first-time ND who has seen a lot already.  Read More...



News


Telling the Story

Discussion Forum

Check out the new
PRNDI discussion forum.

Regional Trainings Planned on the East and West Coasts.

PRNDI is planning regional trainings in Portland, Maine and Portland, Oregon.  We're teaming up with the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies for a training May 29--31 in Maine.  The second training will take place in Oregon June 11.  News Directors will be asked to nominate reporters soon.  Keep an eye on your in-boxes.

PRNDI News Director Guide

The Public Radio News Director Guide (PRNDG) is now online.  Written by former PRNDI President Michael Marcotte, the PRNDG is a field guide for Public Radio News Directors around the country.  It's organized in six chapters and deals with a wide variety of topics facing today's Public Radio newsroom and newsroom manager.  The PRNDG is a joint project of PRNDI and NPR's Local News Initiative.  It's available at www.prndg.org.


PRNDI is contributing ongoing programmatic and content expertise to The Public Radio Exchange.  The current PRX News Curator is PRNDI Board Member Naomi Starobin.

NPR's Local News Initiative

This NPR funded project includes many facets, some of which include involvement and support of PRNDI and its members.  All of them have the potential to help PRNDI members improve their product and better serve their audiences.  Check out LNI's web site  for more information.