The Star Press of Muncie published an editorial yesterday thoroughly praising Richmond's Whitewater Community Television station (WCTV), and noting that it should serve as a great model for Muncie's own efforts at improving public access programming and use of media in general.  Larry Riley, who teaches at Ball State, gushed:

What has taken center stage the past year in Muncie, government meetings, WCTV offers in astonishing quantity: the Richmond Board of Works meetings, sanitary district board, parks and recreation board, Wayne County Council, Richmond City Council, the local plan commission, Richmond Human Rights Commission meetings. Both live and rebroadcast later.  I'm in awe.

The editorial was enough to make someone at the local Palladium-Item take notice, and they published their own praise today that echoes those sentiments:

We have noted in this space on past occasions that it is all too common a trait for people to take for granted that which they have in their backyard. All too often, it takes others to explain our assets...it is our public access television, Whitewater Community Television, that serves such a fine public-interest informational role, virtually without fanfare.

Congratulations to John Oak Dalton (past interview guest in episode #18 of the RNR) and the entire staff of WCTV for the recognition, and more importantly, for all that they do that is never fully appreciated.

WMUB, the NPR radio station based at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, has announced that due to funding issues, the station will likely soon be operated by Cincinnati Public Radio.  (Thanks to RNR listener Thomas Kemp for pointing us to the news.)  The changes are detailed in a news release by Miami, and described on the WMUB website, where they note that WMUB Forum on Friday, January 23rd will be devoted to this topic (live at 9 AM, recording repeated at 7 PM).  This comes only 7 months after they announced significant programming changes to be more competitive and to increase their strategic partnerships, but it sounds like the numbers still don't work.  Miami President David Hodge is quoted as saying that "the financial obligation of WMUB can no longer be borne by the university with the economic challenges we face."

It will be interesting to see what it means to have WMUB operated by CPR.  It could be a way for them to continue some or all of their programming with a new source of funding and other resources, or it could mean that 88.5 becomes a "repeater" for CPR content, and that the Oxford-based station ceases most operations as we've known them.

There are two pieces in today's Palladium-Item where its staff reflect on various changes taking place at the daily paper.

The first, on the closing of the locally-housed print press (announced in November), is a nice piece by Bill Engle that includes interviews and retrospective on the history of the press, and the implications of the change.

The second by executive editor Mickey Johnson is a detailed inventory of other changes to the paper's format, content and production schedule. These include rearranging and combining the paper's main sections, leaving out the "Viewpoints" page on Wednesdays, plans to have "a bigger Sports section and create a Local Life section that's exclusively local" on Sunday, and various new web-based features including a new "behind the scenes" blog by Jason Truitt.

Both articles are nice bits of transparency, and genuine acknowledgements of the realities of a changing industry.

Hi there and happy new year! If you haven't already noticed, the Richmond News Review hasn't seen a new episode for a while. We've talked in the past about why that might be, but it still seems polite to keep our regular listeners updated. So: for now, the RNR is on a bit of a hiatus (hahy-ey-tuhs, –noun, "a break or interruption in the continuity of a work, series, action, etc"), with no current plans for a new episode. If you would like to be a part of our future efforts, or have a particular topic or segment we should take on, please contact us. Otherwise, please check back later, enjoy the show archive, and take care.

The Palladium-Item announced today that it will be moving its printing operations to Indianapolis, eliminating 60 positions from its local staff.  According to the article, the decision comes after an evaluation of the capital investment that would be required to maintain the local press equipment, and other factors resulting from the "difficult economic environment."

The local press not only prints the Palladium-Item itself, but also serves as a printing center for USA Today, The Earlham Word, and several other publications.  While the article notes that delivery times for the Pal-Item are not expected to change, it doesn't discuss the future of these other publications.

The move comes as one in a series of changes scaling back the paper's operations, including staff cuts and an increased focus on online offerings that aren't tied to local offices.  While nothing is certain, those watching the newspaper industry in general and Gannett's practices in particular know that this trend could eventually spell the end of the Palladium-Item's publication altogether.

An article on the Palladium-Item website today announced the first live chat hosted by the paper's online presence, scheduled for 9 PM this Thursday to coincide with the Vice Presidential debate.  The chat service is powered by the site CoverItLive.com, used by a number of other prominent media outlets for chat services, including Newsweek Magazine.

The chat offered by the paper appears to be tied to event-specific, pre-determined time periods instead of available on an ongoing basis.  We've covered the availability of the always-available and free Live-Richmond.com chat room here, including in episodes 14 and 24.

If you try out this new offering on Thursday night, let us know what you think by posting a comment below!

In this episode: we tested out a new show format for the Richmond News Review - live podcasting with listener call-in participation. It was a little rough around the edges compared to the usual podcast, but we did have a few callers as we prepped for the Presidential debate, and we talked about what this kind of broadcast means for media and information exchange in Richmond.  Enjoy!

 

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Let us know what you think about this additional format - or even better, join us for the next RNR Live show on Wednesday, October 1st 2008 at 8:30 PM. You can just listen or join our live show chat room, but you can also call in with your phone or computer to share your thoughts - learn more about participating in our live broadcasts.

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We're trying out something new with the Richmond News Review - a live call-in version of the show. We'd like to try it out in a "dress rehearsal" episode prior to this evening's political debate.

If you'd like to participate by calling in to discuss the issues of the day and share your opinion, and if you won't mind being patient through the inevitable technical glitches that can come up in a live broadcast, please join us.

The live broadcast will take place from 8:30 until about 8:50 PM, and may be shorter or longer depending on participation and how well the tech works.   You can join the pre-show chat as early as 8:15 PM.  All of the information you need to listen, chat and call in will be available on our Listen page under the "Live Broadcasts" heading  We'll keep it pretty informal, so don't worry about having anything coherent to say if you do call in.

If things go well, we'll also post the recording of the show as a new episode.

In this episode: an interview with Richmond resident Melissa Hill about her work on the Ralph Nader presidential campaign, and third party politics in general.  Enjoy!

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In this episode: a roundup of recent developments in local and regional news media.  Plus, some new and updated local blogs to check out.  Enjoy!

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