Jackson Free Press

Big underwriters with deep pockets could save Mississippi Public Broadcasting. To find those generous companies, MPB employees preoccupied with periodic membership drives need time to make convincing sales pitches. To free up that time, MPB says an independent consultant might handle its next fundraising drive.

MPB's board voted March 8 to allow its staff to experiment with a new approach to its pledge time for television and drive time for radio. This was the board's response to Gov. Haley Barbour's request that the board come up with a five-year plan to make MPB self-sufficient. MPB's budget this year is more than $15.4 million; about half of that
($7.5 million) comes from the state.

"In fact, your plan should be to eliminate all state support in five years and rely on advertising, sponsorships and production revenue," Barbour wrote in a letter to the MPB board.

"You would have to have $400 million in an endowment to get $16 million a year. We will never, ever be self-sufficient," said Bob Sawyer, board chairman and an investment adviser from Gulfport. "I'm being realistic. That doesn't mean we can't work harder to alleviate some things."

Jay Woods, MPB's acting executive director, is actively looking for an outside company to handle the pledge drive this summer if the price is right.

"We are just not sitting back waiting for a handout. That is not our attitude at all," Woods said in his office March 10.

Woods emphasizes this is a test so that the staff and board can compare "apples to apples." If successful, it may lead to new business models that could bring in more money through underwriting.

"It does not mean the foundation is going away in any way," Woods said.

Right now, the Foundation for Public Broadcasting in Mississippi handles the membership drives and seeks underwriting. A staff of four carries out the work, a large part of which is the membership drives. That does not leave enough time for seeking the corporate sponsorships or underwriting of programs that could bring in more money for MPB. Woods said the foundation only has one salesman devoted to finding underwriters. With an outside firm handling fundraising drives, the foundation could go after more sponsors and potentially bring in a lot more money.

Clare Hester, a lobbyist representing the Foundation for Public Broadcasting in Mississippi, said current legislation from the state House of Representatives gives MPB level funding for the coming year at $11.8 million. Legislators have expressed discontent over national broadcasting programs, but they are supportive of Mississippi-centered programming as well as public safety and emergency alerts for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.

"MEMA wouldn't exist without us. If you don't think we are important, go to MEMA and look at the cameras set up,"
Sawyer said. "MEMA uses us and doesn't offer us anything."

Hester and the board members noted that some legislators confuse MPB with National Public Radio. MPB, a state agency that purchases programs from the Public Broadcasting System and NPR, and is a member of PBS and NPR, which produces programs and acts as a syndicator for member stations.

Partnerships with state agencies and private entities are part of MPB's strategic plan to bring in more money and to be relevant to Mississippians. Woods points to programming such as "Southern Remedy," a partnership with the University of Mississippi Medical Center, and "Job Hunter," a partnership with the Mississippi Manufacturers Association. Legislators have praised both shows, Woods said.

"No one in state leadership has questioned the quality of our local programming. No one has questioned our ability to do a good job," Woods said.

MPB's strategic plan outlines three areas of focus: emergency response, economic development and education overlay. Besides a radio and television station, MPB runs an education service that includes the Interactive Video Network for public schools and a community-based preschool literacy program.

The confusion among legislators regarding MPB stem from ideological and philosophical differences in how the station is funded, Woods said. "That's our major goal: to educate them," he said in the interview.

For example, Woods has heard critics suggest that MPB should run advertisements like commercial broadcasters do.

"By law, we can't," he said. Underwriting for public broadcasting has restrictions: You can't compare products or services; you can't give prices; you can't use adjectives; you can't call the audience to action. Not many commercials fit those tight criteria.

"Our challenge is to convince companies to underwrite that they are aligning their brand with high-quality programming. PBS is the most trusted media outlet for the last seven consecutive years," Woods said.

Some critics point to cable networks such as The Learning Channel, Bravo and A&E as sources of the same arts and cultural programming as public broadcasting. While those networks did start off with lofty intentions, they now have given in to market pressures and air reality programming such as "Strange Sex," "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" and "Gene Simmons Family Jewels." Woods' charts show that these shows air on cable stations in the same time slots as award-winning PBS programs such as "Nature," "Masterpiece Theater" and "NOVA."

Of the $7.5 million MPB got from the state this year, $5.9 million came from the general fund, Woods said. Of that $5.9 million, 98 percent went to salaries. The other 2 percent went to MPB original programming. If MPB has to cut, the only place to do it is in the staff, Woods said. MPB has 131 staff positions, of which 24 are vacant. Woods said that was a voluntary choice that saved $400,000.

Woods compares MPB to LeFleurs Bluff State Park in the middle of Jackson. Even if people only visit it occasionally, they like having a piece of nature nearby.

"People like knowing it's there," Woods said. "To take it away would deny everyone that option."