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Colorado independent radio station KGNU is joining 74 public radio and television stations in the Poynter Institute’s Digital Transformation Program early next year.
The nine-month virtual program will provide coaching sessions to station CEOs, along with webinars, workshops and resources to help public news stations transform their infrastructure for the digital age, according to a Poynter Institute press release.
The Poynter Institute for Media Studies works with journalists, media outlets and the public to improve news credibility, ethics, leadership and strengthen technology in news rooms around the world. The Digital Transformation Program is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, or CPB, a nonprofit dedicated to funding public media.
“The selected participants are some of the nation’s most trusted sources citizens turn to for local news and information. Our partnership with CPB will help public media outlets build digital-first strategies that inspire an even greater — and more sustainable — connection to grow with their communities,” said Poynter Institute President Neil Brown.
KGNU applied for the program in the fall, Station Manager Tim Russo said, seeing an opportunity to continue work the news station was already doing to improve and modernize. The radio station recently participated in the Community Counts Initiative with the National Foundation of Community Broadcasters, Russo said, as well as Social Venture Partners’ Catapult investment program from 2018-20.
The past few years of work is part of KGNU’s drive to join the digital era, Russo said. That work includes updating internal systems like an outdated member database, improving KGNU’s website and eventually improving the station’s control boards as well, he explained.
“We hope to be able to use (the Poynter Institute) to drive forward some other crucial elements of digital transformation to build a digital culture at KGNU, to better attend and serve our constituents and community to have better impact,” Russo said.
Russo recognized the community was changing. Finding new ways to engage with new demographics and draw in new listeners will help the station thrive moving into the future, he said.
KGNU started packaging some of its content into podcast form in 2021, but Russo hopes to leverage lessons learned in the Digital Transformation Program to package the content better.
“It’s one thing to produce a podcast, it’s another thing to really make sure you are providing digital marketing necessary to make an impact with it,” Russo said.
Russo said the cohort will require heavy lifting from the station staff and volunteers to keep from being overburdened, but was positive the process would benefit the station and its listeners.
KGNU will be joined by Colorado Public Radio and Greeley’s KUNC in the Digital Transformation Program. The organizations will be split into four cohorts staggered across two years, with KGNU joining the first cohort at the start of 2022.
