Milwaukee PBS: more programming, no auction
Milwaukee PBS is looking to create more new local programming — and to jettison one of its longest on-air traditions, the Great TV Auction.
As part of a new strategic plan unveiled this week, Milwaukee PBS said it will hire its first chief content officer, a senior executive who will lead a team developing local programming. The national search begins one year before the Milwaukee public broadcasting outlet will play a role in PBS’ coverage of the 2020 Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee, showcasing the city and what’s happening here.
“Who we are is defined by the stories we tell,” Milwaukee PBS General Manager Bohdan Zachary said.
Like most public broadcasting outlets, Zachary said, Milwaukee PBS — which includes now WMVS-TV (Channel 10), WMVT-TV (Channel 36) and several digital subchannels including World and PBS Kids — was formed during a different era of broadcasting. As storytelling shifts to a variety of platforms, he said, the broadcaster needs to focus its energies on finding the right fit.
An example, Zachary said, is “You’re Not Alone.” A joint production of Milwaukee PBS and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the 27-minute film, which follows four young people navigating mental health challenges, aired on WMVS-TV (Channel 10), has been distributed online, shown at schools around the country and featured on “PBS NewsHour.”
Zachary said Milwaukee PBS hopes to have a chief content officer in place by this fall, to help with plans for 2020 — especially the Democratic National Convention being held in Milwaukee next summer.
During the convention, Milwaukee PBS will host “PBS NewsHour,” and the station has already been pitching stories to the flagship public TV news show.
But Milwaukee PBS’ strategic plan also includes some addition by subtraction — specifically, the Great TV Auction. The TV auction that aired in May will be Milwaukee public TV’s last.
Milwaukee PBS’ first big TV auction was in 1969; it raised $67,000. By 1989, the Great TV Auction, selling everything from tickets to events to artwork to cars, was taking in more than $1 million a year.
When the 2019 auction was announced, Milwaukee PBS called the Great TV Auction “the nation’s No. 1 PBS fundraising auction, both in net revenue and in prime-time ratings.”
But a review of costs and revenues showed the auction generated a net loss. According to Zachary, the explosion of online shopping and TV shopping channels has steadily eroded the fundraising success of public TV stations’ auction efforts around the country. The auctions, once a staple at public TV stations, are increasingly rare now.
“It’s the kind of activity that’s terrific” for connecting with viewers, he said. “But at the end of the day, when the economics are showing something else, there’s no denying that.”
Fundraising has shifted to viewer memberships, which Zachary said had risen to more than 38,000, up from less than 35,000 in late 2015.