Local Content and Service Report to the Community • IN M S R P O I F R E N I 2020 • • I N V O LV E 1 Delivering Local Value It isn’t news that 2020 was one of the most Our local impact was strong and included: challenging years on record for our country and community. At KQED, we quickly turned to face • Providing COVID-19 pandemic information and the challenges with our eyes and hearts open and crucial resources to our Spanish-speaking with an unshakeable resolve to serve the Bay Area communities. with impartial and essential stories and resources. • Collaborating and delivering much-needed In 2020, KQED local stories and services included: resources that address school closures — in the Bay area and beyond. • Delivering critical COVID-19 factual information and resources to our community. • Launching KQED Youth Media Challenge, a new initiative that showcases the voices of Gen Z • Covering breaking wildfire stories and providing and focuses first on the election. crucial local information and resources. • Creating groundbreaking, award-winning • Investigating the little-known story of how interactive journalism for smart speakers. and why older people in the Bay Area are particularly vulnerable during wildfires. KQED: Where facts matter, • Bringing our local audience, which includes large Asian American populations, deeper into stories empower and bold the ideas in PBS’ Asian Americans docuseries. conversations begin • Focusing on the plight of immigrants in Dear Homeland, a KQED film that explores a local, undocumented singer and activist’s life. 2020 KQED Senior Leadership Team 2020 KQED Community Advisory Board President & Chief General Counsel & Zareh Amirkhanian, Jessica Arline, Tiela Chambers, Jorge Executive Officer Corporate Secretary Cueto, Giselle Chow, Janet Miller Evans, Kenny Gong, Lauren Michael Isip William L. Lowery Gucik, Jaqui Guzman, Jose Luis Guzman, Lisa Jobson, LaNiece Jones, Eric Lewis, Rubie Macaraeg, Julia Mayne, Vice President, Chief Administrative Deldelp Medina, Grace-Sonia Melanio, Christine Padilla, Special Operations Officer Robert Phillips, Jodi Schwartz, Monika Varma, Victor Vazquez, Jason Black Maria Miller Sbeydeh Vivieros-Walton Chief Product Officer Chief Audience Officer Lesley Grossblatt DeLinda Mrowka 2020 KQED Board of Directors Vice President, Vice President, Anne Avis, Hank Barry, Michael Blach, Steven Bochner, Development Membership Generosity & John Buoymaster, Jennifer Cabalquinto, James Cham, Tom Georgi Kelly Audience Intelligence Chavez, Brian Cheu, Naveen Chopra, Simone Otus Coxe, Michele Murphy Karen Edwards, Shadi Karra, Nancy Richards Farese, Meg Chief Financial Officer Garlinghouse, Alexandra van Helden, Carla Javits, Annie Mitzie Kelley Senior Vice President, Jean-Baptiste, Edward Lichty, Julia Lopez, Jen McClure, Mark Strategic Digital Perry, Raj Pherwani, Nadia Roumani, Nancy Serrurier, Camilla Chief Content Officer Partnerships Smith, Lisa Sonsini, Jamienne Studley, Roselyne Swig, Sanjay Holly Kernan Tim Olson Vaswani, Mallun Yen, Matt Zinn 1 Dear Members, The year 2020 was incredibly difficult for all of us, a to strengthen our commitment to diversity and test of our resilience and resolve. The road ahead is inclusivity. We made changes to our programming and daunting, too, as the pandemic and economic fallout news coverage to present a wider range of stories, aren’t fully known or under control, and the election perspectives and experiences. We began to audit and its aftermath reaffirmed the deep cultural who writes our stories, identifying voices that may be divides and partisanship in our country. underrepresented. We assessed our hiring practices and invested in staff positions and processes For KQED, the responsibility and the opportunity are dedicated to diversity and talent development. We still tremendous. With the health of the public and the have a lot to do to create a truly inclusive workplace, future of our democracy at stake, KQED’s role is to but we’re determined to lead in this work. provide trusted information, facts and independent journalism, which we need now more than ever. As you’ll read in this report, our work has a strong impact. Additionally, at a time when we’re physically separated In FY20, KQED reached approximately: and political differences drive us apart, there’s a yearning for personal connection and unity. 843,000 viewers: KQED Public Television (weekly average cume) For most of the year, more than 90 percent of our staff 720,000 listeners: KQED Public Radio worked remotely but adapted creatively, stepping up (weekly average cume) and demonstrating that KQED is an essential service. 593,000 website users: kqed.org When shelter-in-place orders went into effect in March, (weekly average) our engineers, producers and journalists found new 547,000 live radio streamers (monthly average) and different ways to provide dozens of daily stories 146,000 PBS video-on-demand streamers across multiple distribution platforms. (monthly average) 90,000 podcast listeners (weekly average) We launched online products for the latest information during the pandemic and wildfire season. When Black In addition, KQED’s social media had 31,000,000 Lives Matter protests erupted in June, we created average monthly impressions. guides on how to show up for equality and racial justice and, if that meant participating in demonstrations, how My greatest takeaway from this year is the power of to do so safely. In the fall, we delivered trusted election community. Through all the crises, the uncertainty and coverage and resources so people could participate the unpredictability, your generous support enabled us actively and responsibly. We expanded our overall to maintain our services. As you read in the following reach by offering Spanish translation of select stories, pages how we responded to your needs in this a Spanish-language version of our digital voter guide historically challenging year, please know we couldn’t plus a KQED en Español newsletter. We turned provide this level of service without your support to technology to keep our community connected whether you watch, listen, go online, attend our events with virtual events in which participants from all or contribute financially. Your belief in us is inspiring. corners of the Bay Area engaged in conversation, civic dialogue and spirited debate. Meanwhile, our Thank you from everyone at KQED and on behalf of education team filled learning gaps by leading an the Bay Area residents who depend on us. in-home, statewide learning plan on television and online for homebound students and teachers. Sincerely, 2020 not only challenged our operations, but it also forced us to take a hard look at our organization and our work in a way we’ve never done before. We began the difficult and delicate undertaking to deepen our understanding about inequities within Michael J. Isip our organization and how our work culture too often President & perpetuates racism. As a result, we took initial steps Chief Executive Officer 2 Dear Members, KQED is community-powered public media for defined, and the full Board endorsed, ambitious goals Northern California. It exists to inform, inspire and for KQED’s next three years. Our strategic goals for involve everyone in our Bay Area community with this period include being the trusted journalistic trusted news, content and educational services. This source serving the needs of the Bay Area; developing responsibility became even more important in 2020. properties, products and experiences that promote loyalty and attract diverse audiences; diversifying This Local Content and Service Report to the our sources of revenue; and supporting our staff. Community focuses on some of the many ways I’m personally grateful for the initiative and input KQED continues to live its values while meeting this of KQED’s Community Advisory Panel in informing year’s many challenges. A few highlights: and energizing our strategic plan, which is built on community engagement and participation. The COVID-19 Pandemic: The Board is proud of KQED’s response to the pandemic and its effects, I want to publicly thank the outstanding team we both in the community and in our organization. have at KQED, under the leadership of President Our news coverage remains fact-based and and CEO Michael Isip, for their dedication to the comprehensive. It features topics as diverse as vision of creating the most innovative and responsive COVID’s effects on our healthcare organizations; public media organization in the country. I remain the mechanics of rent adjustments; the issues inspired by the hardworking members of our Board facing families and educators, homeowners, renters, of Directors for their creative and constant service. landlords and people who experience homelessness; and the promises and issues associated with Finally, as I end my term as Chair, I want to express vaccines. Our educational services — provided my gratitude to the nearly 250,000 members of by the largest educational team on a local station KQED. Your ongoing support for this organization, level — have filled learning gaps across California both financial and moral, makes it possible to by supporting remote learning with educational continue the work. Every person on the KQED staff television programming and free online resources. and every Board member knows that you’re rooting for KQED to thrive. That knowledge makes all the All of this was accomplished while more than difference, every day. 90 percent of our staff worked remotely. We also faced the internal challenges affecting every company and institution in the midst of this crisis. This meant supporting and maintaining a physically and mentally healthy workforce and providing for the inevitable disruptions caused by Hank Barry the pandemic while continuing our service. Chair, KQED Board of Directors Diversity and Inclusion: This year, KQED took steps to strengthen our commitment to diversity and inclusivity in the programming we provide, the stories we cover, the journalists and staff we hire and the partners with whom we collaborate. The Nominating and Governance Committee of our Board redoubled its efforts to ensure that the makeup of our Board reflects the diversity of the Bay Area.