Public Blog

We’d like to thank all the stations who participated in March 4th’s webinar on the Future of Public Interactive and the new Core Publisher Pilot project.  Over 260 stations registered, and we wished we had more time to answer your questions.

If you missed it, you can replay the webinar on the Core Publisher Blog. You’ll find application details and more info as well.

This is a great opportunity to grow your station’s digital presence AND be part of a service that will support public media stations for years to come. Please share this news with your programming and digital staff and let us know if you have any questions. We’re eager for stations of ALL sizes and formats to apply, and we hope you consider it.  Applications are due March 18th, so don’t delay!

We are excited to announce that we are going to reduce our streaming service fees from 10-40% starting April 1, 2010.

Current customers: If you’re thinking about increasing your stream quality (the bit rate, e.g 32kbps, 64kbps, etc.) or increasing your listener capacity to avoid or reduce your overage (the streaming pack, e.g.  100 concurrent listeners, 200 max concurrent, etc.), now is a good time to consider making that change. Contact Suzanne Brendle for more information.

New customers: Why Public Interactive Streaming?

• Reliability: Through our partnership with one of the world’s largest CDNs (Content Delivery Network) we are able to provide unmatched reliability through a global and redundant infrastructure of interconnecting servers around the world
• Flexibility: With our Live Streaming, your audience can access the highest quality streaming signal in multiple formats on your stations website.  And if you are in streaming in MP3 format, you are now able to broadcast your signal to the ever-increasing iPhone audience!

As the pace of public media evolution accelerates, Public Interactive and NPR are refocusing on how Public Interactive can best affirm and extend our digital support to stations to serve not just today but in the years ahead. We are focusing our resources and attention on the biggest priorities and opportunities to move public media forward in the digital world.

Please join us for a webinar to hear our strategic and operational plans for Public Interactive’s next phase. We are making changes and developing projects designed to save you time and resources so you can invest your energies in growing your station’s audience and strengthening ties with your local community. We’ll lay out the first big project, called Core Publisher, and discuss the role of pilot stations in shaping the new service.

Joyce MacDonald of Member and Program Services will host the webinar, with panelists Debra May Hughes of  Public Interactive and Kinsey Wilson of NPR Digital Media.

We have added more options to edit and customize your automated email receipt that is sent to the donor after they complete a Quick Pledge transaction.

Email subject line
You can now customize the default subject line of “Thank you for your contribution” for the email receipt for each of your forms.

To edit the email subject line:
• In your Quick Pledge administrative tools, go to Manage Pledge Forms.
• Click to Edit the form you want to modify.
• Then click the ‘Email Receipt’ link and you’ll see an editable text field for the email subject line where you can edit the copy.

Turn off the email receipt:
Quick Pledge that allows you to turn off the automated email receipt that is sent to the donor. This feature was requested by several Quick Pledge stations that use the back office form to enter phone donations, and don’t want to send an email receipt for these transactions.

Composer Pro users will notice a few small updates.

We made some changes to improve the accuracy of the playlist search function for your site visitors.

We also added a new, more Classical-friendly playlist template. The fields are reordered, so that the Composer is listed first.

To choose the new template:

• Log in to your Composer Pro admin. (NOTE: Someone with master admin log in privileges will need to make this change)
• Select the Playlist Wizard and leave first question set to “Yes, I would like to post playlists”,  and click Next.
• Then, on the next screen, choose Template 4.
• Examples
• KUAF: http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kuaf/guide.guidemain?action=viewPlaylist&playlistID=564398&eventID=3039
• Public Radio Delmarva: http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wscl/guide.guidemain?action=viewPlaylist&playlistID=564407&eventID=165722

New dates!

Public Interactive continues to host webinar workshops to help you learn how to transform your news scripts to stories for the web, as part of our Economy Project offerings.

This webinar will cover style guidelines, editing tips, followed by a live demonstration. Highlights include guidance on:

* Transforming scripts into web copy
* Resources on writing for the web

Upcoming WRITING FOR THE WEB dates:

Tue 3/02/10 1pm ET/10am PT
Mon 3/08/10 2pm ET/11am PT
Tue 3/16/10 12pm ET/9am PT

Contact Ki for webinar access info. Sign up today - space is limited!

Ki-Min Sung
617.423.4499 x130
ki@publicinteractive.com

We have added a new feature in Quick Pledge that allows you to turn off the automated email receipt that is sent to the donor. This feature was requested by several Quick Pledge stations that use the back office form to enter phone donations, and don’t want to send an email receipt for these transactions.

While in general we recommend leaving the automated email receipt turned on for most of your web pledge forms, the back office form can be different.

To turn off the automated email receipt:

• In your Quick Pledge administrative tools, go to Manage Pledge Forms.
• Click to Edit your back office form.
• Then click the ‘Email Receipt’ link and you’ll see a Yes/No radio button asking whether you want to send out a receipt for this particular pledge form. Choose accordingly.

We are happy to let you know that we are going to reduce our streaming service fees soon.

If you’re thinking about increasing your stream quality (the bit rate, e.g 32kpbs, 64kpbs, etc.) or increasing your listener capacity to avoid or reduce your overages (the streaming pack, e.g.  100 concurrent listeners, 200 max concurrent, etc.), now is a good time to consider making that change.

While we’re still working out the final details, we expect to offer a reduction of around 10-40%, depending on the your bit rate/pack combo.

We’ll post more details soon!

We’ll be at the PRIMA meeting from February 2-5, 2009 in New Orleans. Look for Joe Orlando, Marketing and Sales Manager, or contact him at jorlando@publicinteractive.com or 888-729-8809 to set up a meeting.

Phil Johnson will present a session on The Nuts and Bolts SoundExchange on Friday, from 9 a.m. to 10:15 a.m.

See you there!

Back due to popular demand!

As part of our Economy Project offerings, Public Interactive will host another webinar workshop to help our clients learn how to write for the web, including style guidelines, editing tips, and a live demonstration. Highlights include guidance on:

* Transforming scripts into web copy
* Resources on writing for the web

WRITING FOR THE WEB
Date: Thursday 01/28/10
Time: 1:00pm ET / 10:00am PT

Contact Ki for webinar access info. Sign up today - space will be limited!

Ki-Min Sung
617.423.4499 x130
ki@publicinteractive.com