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A long-established nationally distributed radio reading service serving the visually impaired is seeking volunteers with good reading voices who have their own digital recording equipment, [...]]]> Hey folks. I don’t normally pass on this sort of thing but it seems like a very worthy project for folks with audio skills/equipment. Contact glrothman-“at”-verizon.netfor details. Best, Mia

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A long-established nationally distributed radio reading service serving the visually impaired is seeking volunteers with good reading voices who have their own digital recording equipment, to record magazine and newspaper articles. The Radio Reading Project was known as In Touch Networks until budget cuts forced the closure of its studios at New York ’s Jewish Guild for the Blind. It continues to be heard, over special receivers, via more than 50 radio stations across the country and in hospital rooms around the New York City area.

Volunteers are asked to record at least one one-hour program a week, as two half-hour mp3 files, which would be FTP’d to a server.

If you’re interested, please contact Gordon at glrothman-“at”-verizon.net

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http://www.themoth.org/radio

The MacArthur Foundation Announces Support for The Moth Radio Hour from PRX

The Moth, a nonprofit organization dedicated to live storytelling, is thrilled to announce a two-year $200,000 grant from the John [...]]]> This is great news for writers and radio folks alike. Keep an eye out for more opportunities from The Moth! -Mia

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http://www.themoth.org/radio

The MacArthur Foundation Announces Support for The Moth Radio Hour from PRX

The Moth, a nonprofit organization dedicated to live storytelling, is thrilled to announce a two-year $200,000 grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to produce The Moth Radio Hour.

Debuting in 2009 with five pilot episodes, The Moth Radio Hour was an instant success airing on over 200 public radio stations around the country. “The Moth Radio Hour is the realization of a ten-year long dream to bring The Moth to public radio. We have long felt that radio was the perfect medium for our stories to reach a wider audience, and we are grateful to the MacArthur Foundation for making this possible,” says Lea Thau, Executive & Creative Director of The Moth.

The radio series captures the energy and authenticity of live performance at The Moth and weaves it into a compelling hour of radio. Presented by PRX, the Public Radio Exchange, and produced by award-winning producer Jay Allison of Atlantic Public Media, ten new episodes will be available to public radio stations for broadcast in 2010.

With generous support from the MacArthur Foundation, The Moth is building on the success of the pilot season. “I love The Moth. It is elemental, even primitive, in its simplicity: One person stands up and tells a story to a crowd of eager listeners. The only thing missing is the cave and the fire. The only thing we add is a microphone,” says Producer Jay Allison.

Originally formed by the writer George Dawes Green as an intimate gathering of friends on a porch in Georgia (where moths would flutter in through a hole in the screen), and then recreated in a New York City living room, The Moth quickly grew to produce immensely popular events at theaters and clubs around New York City and later around the country.

“Public radio is powered by true stories that illuminate the human condition,” says Jake Shapiro, Executive Director of PRX. “The Moth introduces new dimensions through live performances as well as online participation.”

PRX first funded a sample hour of The Moth in 2007 and is now the exclusive distributor for the program on public radio.

The Moth 2010 series is available to public radio stations at http://www.prx.org/themoth beginning May 1.

About The Moth The Moth is a nonprofit organization with ongoing programs, all of which contribute their best stories to The Moth Radio Hour. The Moth Mainstage where celebrities appear alongside unique voices from all walks of life; The Moth’s StorySLAM competitions, which are open to all and rapidly expanding to cities across the country; and The Moth’s community outreach program, MothShop, which bring workshops to people whose stories would otherwise go unheard.

Two additional projects are launching in 2010: The Moth StoryLine invites people to pitch story ideas online or through a toll-free hotline; and the MothUP program helps groups around the country form their own Moth storytelling groups in their homes and submit the recorded stories from these evenings to The Moth.

About PRX PRX is an award-winning public media network focused on innovation at the intersection of technology and talent. The PRX platform is an open distribution marketplace connecting thousands of producers and local public radio stations, creating public radio’s largest archive of on-demand programs for broadcast and digital use.

About Jay Allison Jay Allison is an independent broadcast journalist and Executive Director of Atlantic Public Media in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. With APM, he co-founded PRX, Transom.org, and the Cape and Islands public radio stations. Jay was the curator and producer of This I Believe on NPR, and has made hundreds of documentaries and features for national broadcast. He is the recipient of five Peabody Awards and CPB’s Edward R. Murrow Award for outstanding contributions to public radio.

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http://cpb.org/pressroom/release.php?prn=814

For Immediate Release March 25, 2010

Corporation for Public Broadcasting Launches New Local Journalism Initiative

Regional Collaborations to Counter Decline of Local Journalism

Digital Public Media Platform to [...]]]> Lots of hiring is promised at the stations that received this funding. Seems like a step in the right direction for revitalizing local media.

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http://cpb.org/pressroom/release.php?prn=814

For Immediate Release March 25, 2010

Corporation for Public Broadcasting Launches New Local Journalism Initiative

Regional Collaborations to Counter Decline of Local Journalism

Digital Public Media Platform to Support Innovation

Washington, DC — The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) today announced funding for a major journalism initiative that will increase original local reporting capacity in seven regions around the country, and a planning project to develop an open information architecture to harness the collective power of the public media network.

CPB is funding the creation of seven Local Journalism Centers (LJCs), combining CPB and participating stations’ resources for a ground-breaking new approach to newsgathering and its distribution. The Centers will form teams of multimedia journalists, who will focus on issues of particular relevance to each region; their in-depth reports will be presented regionally and nationally via digital platforms, community engagement programs and radio and television broadcasts.

The LJC initiative builds on CPB’s long-standing commitment to journalism and its ongoing funding of public media news and public affairs content and initiatives, including Project Argo, a pilot effort funded jointly with the Knight Foundation to enable a dozen NPR and PBS stations to expand their reporting and increase their expertise on topics of local relevance.

“The Local Journalism Centers will enhance public media’s ability to meet the information needs of local communities at a time when access to high quality, original reporting is declining,” Patricia Harrison, the CEO and President of CPB said. “Public media has long provided independent and in-depth coverage of local issues and public policy. The need for that coverage is even greater today, and we have a responsibility to ensure that journalism can continue to thrive and serve the needs of our democracy.

“These radio and television stations are locally owned and operated and work in partnership with other community-based organizations,” Ms. Harrison explained. “Working together with stations across a region, along with emerging new digital journalism organizations, they can make a significant contribution to news gathering and distribution, which is critical to the information health of these communities.”

“In a time when newspapers and other media organizations are cutting back or disappearing altogether, public media is strengthening its commitment to journalism,” said PBS President and CEO Paula A. Kerger. “We’re putting our innovative spirit and strong local and national infrastructure to work for the American people in new ways – filling gaps in news coverage and using new platforms to ensure everyone has access to the most trusted source for in-depth reporting, analysis and investigative journalism. PBS is proud to collaborate with CPB, NPR, our member stations and emerging digital journalism organizations across the country to transform community engagement and information.”

In addition, CPB also announced funding for the Public Media Platform, a project administered by NPR, in partnership with PBS, APM, PRI and PRX. This coalition of public media leaders will develop a prototype for a flexible common platform to support public media innovation and collaboration. The ultimate goal is to collect, distribute, present and monetize digital media content efficiently, allowing producers and stations to devote their resources to reporting, content production and community engagement.

Vivian Schiller, President and CEO of NPR, said, “These two initiatives represent the twin paths that public media must travel – expanded original news reporting, and state of the art tools and technology to get that content into the hands of more people. CPB’s investments in these two innovative programs ultimately serve those goals, and the interests of the American people.”

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ATTENTION ALL FREELANCERS SEEKING HEALTH CARE

In the upcoming months, the Guild’s Freelancer unit will be negotiating a contract with a major health care provider that will offer rates far lower than what you could get on the open market as an individual.

It [...]]]> Important message from the Freelancer’s Guild. This is BIG! -mia

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ATTENTION ALL FREELANCERS SEEKING HEALTH CARE

In the upcoming months, the Guild’s Freelancer unit will be negotiating a contract with a major health care provider that will offer rates far lower than what you could get on the open market as an individual.

It is vital that before we sit down to negotiate, we obtain the largest possible membership through your sign-ups because that membership size in turn will affect the amount of the annual rate unit that members pay.

So now is the time for any of you who are freelancing and facing the prospect of no benefits, expensive benefits or loss of benefits to join the unit so we have the largest possible group and thereby win the least costly and best possible health care plan for you.

Maybe you have health coverage for a few more months — if you were laid off by The Chronicle — or maybe you still are covered by your parents’ policy if you are a journalism student who is about to graduate. But if that coverage is due to end anytime soon, you are exactly the people who should be joining the freelance unit now so we can get a great health policy for you.

Along with the upcoming health plan, here are some of the benefits provided by the freelance unit for the fee of $144 a year:

College scholarships of $3,000 each for the 2010-2011 school year for members and their family members. Winners, selected in a lottery drawing, also will receive second-year scholarships of the same amount contingent upon satisfactory academic accomplishment. Part-time scholarships are also available. $500 for families that open a new 529 college savings plan. Juried press pass eligibility.

Free Lynda.com membership for two weeks — long enough to learn some new programs or skills.

Membership in the Bay Media Federal Credit Union, which features low- cost loans, high-yield savings, and safe, secured deposits, competitive rates on IRA/Health Savings Accounts and (HSA)/Education Savings Accounts.

Union Plus, which offers mortgage assistance, discounts on legal counsel, tax services, car rentals, prescription drugs, electronics, and more, a low-cost credit card — and a 10 percent discount on AT&T service — great for those who use iPhones!

Free admission to monthly seminars on topics of value to freelancers, from filing taxes to pitching a non-fiction book to driving up traffic to your Web-based work.

You will become part of a group that advocates for better conditions for freelancers, promotes high standards in an age where journalism quality is deteriorating and allows members help one another deal with the hurdles of self-employment.

Please consider joining today. Log onto guildfreelancers.org and click on “Join Us.” Questions? Call Rebecca at 510-472-3024.

In solidarity, Rebecca Rosen Lum, Unit Chair Susan Sward, member, Guild Freelancers

Then, after maybe writing a proposal for them, or you send in a sample, that same news [...]]]> Does this sound familiar? A news organization is super excited about your blog or story idea. They contact you, give you their spiel, and even mention future work down the line. They seemed excited about your journalism plans.

Then, after maybe writing a proposal for them, or you send in a sample, that same news organization stops responding to your emails. Suddenly, they can’t be bothered to give the green light to your story. Maybe they’re slammed all of a sudden. Maybe they got pulled away to another project. Maybe, the traffic outside their office window becomes interesting.

Or, how about this: You actually get contracted to do work for a news organization. Maybe it’s not a contract, but a verbal agreement. It’s not a deep piece. But you put in effort. Then, trying to get that wee small check means spending chunks of time sending gentle email reminders and making subtle calls to whoever is in charge of accounting. The editor you worked with has gone MIA. Maybe out of town, maybe they’re at a conference, but you’re definitely left hanging. You try not to seem like a stalker, or a very desperate soul, but sometimes that $30 check means groceries, or that the light bill gets paid that month.

Does this just happen in journalism? Is every media organization scatterbrained? Are all editors juggling heavy New York Times schedules? Can’t some news groups just say straight up or down if they’re interested in your work? Can checks ever be cut remotely on time?

I’m not sure what’s going on, but it’s hard sometimes not to get discouraged. It’s not about taking it personal, but maybe it’s about expected a little more professionalism.

The best you can do is take your lumps, learn who’s better about treating writers fairly, and keep building your work.  Oh, and no verbal agreements.

–Jennifer Inez Ward

And all that chatting got us thinking about our next steps for the Café. Thanks to our founder, Mia Lobel, [...]]]>

Thanks again to all of the folks who made it out to our last Happy Hour. It was great to unwind with beer and chat about the ups and downs of the media business.

And all that chatting got us thinking about our next steps for the Café. Thanks to our founder, Mia Lobel, the Café has been a great success and is definitely a fantastic online resource for many Bay Area media types.

But now, we’re thinking about changing things up with our monthly Happy Hour. How about rotating around the Bay for our meet up? What about making it earlier or on a new day?

As we approach the start of spring, we’d love to hear from all of ya’ll about improving/changing our monthly Happy Hour. We’d love to hear suggestions for locations in San Francisco, Oakland, and the South Bay. Preferably near BART and also that’s likely to be group friendly.

While you marinate on that, check out the image of Rori and I mugging for the camera at February’s meeting.

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I hear frequently from people whose top priority is medical coverage.

We are making excellent progress lining up dental and vision coverage for our members, and expect to have some other benefits lined up soon.

We are negotiating for a medical coverage plan that [...]]]> An important message from the Freelance Media Workers Guild. -mia

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I hear frequently from people whose top priority is medical coverage.

We are making excellent progress lining up dental and vision coverage for our members, and expect to have some other benefits lined up soon.

We are negotiating for a medical coverage plan that features maximum portability and affordability. To start getting bids, we need some very basic census data — from members of Guild Freelancers.

If you are interested in joining the health care pool, you MUST JOIN the freelance unit. We can ONLY amass the kinds of benefits and supports we seek with adequate numbers.

Joining the Freelance Media Workers discussion or announcements-only Google groups does NOT make you a member of Guild Freelancers.

We are not a support group, although we offer plenty of support. We are not a job service, although we provide comprehensive contacts for open journalism jobs. We are a labor union, and we seek to provide the same sturdy safety net that unions always have. By committing to the unit, you gain an unconditional commitment from the union to help secure solid, tangible supports and protections.

To join, log onto guildfreelancers.org right away and click on “Join Us.”

Membership fees are roughly equivalent to a double latte a week. You can pay by the year ($144), sign up for six months at a time ($72). Student fees are only $60 a year.

If you ARE a member, and you ARE interested in helping us secure the best health care bid possible, please shoot me a confidential email at rrosenlum@gmail.com that includes your zip code, gender and date of birth, and, if you wish, the number of dependents you might wish to add to your coverage.

Sincerely, Rebecca Rosen Lum Unit chair, Guild Freelancers rrosenlum@gmail.com