News from the Public Media 2007 of the IMA in Boston

I just spent the first day at the "Public Media Conference" in Boston. This conference, previously called the Public Broadcasting New Media Conference, is a gathering of more than 450 public broadcasters from across the U.S. who discuss and share their experiences with online services and community engagement tools as well as the strategic challenges that lie ahead. Being from Germany and therefore with a somewhat different public broadcasting history, I was curious to learn how the U.S. public broadcasting landscape is evolving around the internet.

This first day of the conference was very much about making the case that becoming interactive is a necessity for U.S. Public Broadcasters, and not within the next 5-year plan but within months. Otherwise the audience will create their own public media. Public broadcasters have to embrace risks in order to keep the pace.

Michael Rosenblum, the keynote speaker, vividly made this case for change. He brought an array of anecdotal historical examples for (according to him) the fact that "if you don’t pay attention, you’re dead – survival happen to those who can adapt best to change." The most striking analogy for me was the one of the invention of the printing press in the 15th century and how it not only ended the publishing monopoly of the monks but also changed the way people communicated. He compared the monks to the TV and Radio broadcasters of today. The internet is not only a publishing but a community engaging tool and especially user-generated video journalism will bring a paradigm shift to public media very soon. More and more online video channels with user generated content will inevitably pop up. But what about public broadcasters? How can they adapt and what will be their role? Rosenblum thinks that public broadcasters/media have the responsibility to publish these vastly available talents and to set the standards of excellence on the internet. He closed by stressing the fact that there is currently a small window of opportunity for public broadcasters. They have to adapt now to this paradigm shift or will die.

Not everyone agreed with this immediate threat. Debra May Hughes, COO of Public Interactive, an online service provider for public broadcasting stations, started her lunch time presentation with the claim: "the hype is overrated!" She sees a lot of possibilities for public broadcasters to enhance their online presence step by step.

I think that this is understandable and logical from a technological and organizational reengineering perspective but the question is: Will the audience wait that long or will they find other outlets to create communities online? The current development is very much audience-driven. The next months will show how large entities like public broadcasters can pro-actively attract and retain web 2.0 communities in order to further fullfill their mission to provide a unique service to the American public.

I am looking forward to the next day of the conference.