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.

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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The Gannett Corporation has announced that it will be cutting about 1,000 positions at its newspaper properties across the U.S. The Palladium-Item noted today that four of those positions will be lost here in Richmond. It's not clear if the positions being eliminated are related to news-gathering and reporting, circulation, or other parts of the paper's operations. It's also not clear if the cuts will result in existing staff losing their jobs, or if they will come in the form of position elimination after resignations/retirements.

The cuts will be happening on a fairly short timeline after the announcement, with notification to employees happening by today and the reductions in place by August 31st. According to a Reuters story, publishers across the country continue to cite decreasing revenues with no end in sight, as readers increasingly turn to the Internet for their news and information.

Update on 9/10: The Pal-Item.com website today carries a story noting that five positions have been eliminated instead of the originally reported four.

Earlier this week, WMUB, the NPR station located at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and that serves the Richmond listening area, announced some significant changes to its programming.  The changes include:

• All jazz programming including Mama Jazz will move to their HD2 channel, and will be streamed from their web site
• Each day’s Diane Rehm Show will be repeated at 8pm
• Each day’s Talk of the Nation will be repeated at midnight
• The BBC World Service will be heard at 10pm-midnight and 2-5am on weekday mornings
• The BBC World Service will also air from 8pm to 8am weekends
• Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me will repeat Sunday at 1pm, after Car Talk. Tavis Smiley moves to Sunday 2-4pm

The most noticeable impact for many will the be replacement of the sounds of jazz on weekday evenings with all news/talk content.  Given that the Mama Jazz show is a highly visible part of the station's offerings and that HD radio is still not widely adopted, it may change the station's listener profile significantly.

The changes are certainly generating lots of feedback on the station's weblog, and you add your own comments by e-mailing WMUB.

In this abbreviated episode: under-reported stories from 2007, and a new local podcast. Plus, information about a chat room just for discussing local news and issues. Enjoy!

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In this episode: how we can still host a Presidential Debate, the loss of another local business and what it really means to buy local, upcoming events, and a holiday rant. Plus, a call for your submissions to our year-end review of gaps in local media coverage. Enjoy!

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As a part of our end of year episode coming up in December, we're going to do a segment that looks back at the year's news coverage, and we need your help!

The topic is the city's Top 10 Most Under-reported or Under-covered News Stories in 2007.

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