While local news organizations are shrinking, KPBS news is expanding its online presence, launching a new television program and celebrating record audience numbers on KPBS 89.5 FM.
San Diego Week
Starting Friday, May 22, KPBS-TV is launching a new weekly program “San Diego Week” hosted by Gloria Penner. Penner, a longtime KPBS journalist, will guide the program each week through interviews and segments featuring the KPBS news team as well as reporters and editors from other San Diego news outlets.
“KPBS is in a unique position to collaborate among all of our content areas – radio, TV and the Web – and in turn produce quality, insightful news programming that will leave our viewers more informed each week,” said KPBS General Manager Tom Karlo.
“San Diego Week” will feature signature segments, including “On the Record” where each week a newsmaker will answer timely questions about a relevant topic. In addition, Penner will debrief with local editors and reporters and each episode will include a package from a kpbs.org reporter featuring community input and opportunities for viewers to participate in the dialogue.
“San Diego Week will select the stories and the people driving events in our region and dissect them through analysis and opinions,” said Penner, the show’s host. “One of our segments will feature local editors and there’s nothing more riveting than watching two informed journalists thoroughly disagreeing using solid, civil critical thinking rather than mindless ranting. If you only watch one news program each week, this is it.”
New KPBS.org
On May 6, KPBS launched a brand new Web site at kpbs.org. The new site is focused on news content – providing users a clean, content driven and interactive experience with enhanced opportunities for engagement. Now, users have the ability to comment on every local story, as well as subscribe to content-specific news feeds based on particular interests or the work of a favorite KPBS news reporter.
“The new kpbs.org is the perfect platform for all of KPBS’ news content,” said Karlo. “KPBS is committed to being the premier news and information source for the local community, and the new site showcases our award-winning journalism. We now offer one stop access for all of our outstanding local radio and TV content, in addition to exclusive Web-only content.”
KPBS 89.5 FM Milestones
KPBS radio is celebrating a few milestones of its own. The results from the Winter 2009 ratings book were recently reported and showed a weekly audience of 285,500. That marks the highest weekly cume in the station’s history. Another noteworthy statistic from the winter 2009 ratings period was the 23 percent increase (from Fall 2008) in listeners aged 25 – 44.
“It’s clear that San Diegans have come to rely on KPBS for their news and information on radio, as the recent numbers prove,” said Karlo. “We have an outstanding reputation to build on, and we will continue to invest in news as a priority for KPBS.”
