A CONVERSATION WITH MARGO MELNICOVE - The Editorial Director of the Global Resource Service at PRI's THE WORLD
Conversation from Summer 2006 with NPR Liaison to Independent Producers, Paul Ingles

This is the first of a three part series spotlighting three U.S. reporting outlets that are keenly interested in reporting that crosses international borders. Stories that find that local/global connection and/or stories that bring listeners ears into other countries.

Remember that as NPR Liaison to Independent Producers, you may approach me anytime with questions about pitches, possible outlets for stories, or general advice about maneuvering through the public radio landscape. E-mail first please: paul@paulingles.com

Margo Melnicove is editorial director of the Global Resource Service at PRI’s The World.

So, Margo, what is the Global Resource Service?

The Global Resource Service is an initiative taken on by PRI to do two main things. One is to generate more stories at the local level that we can use on The World. And the other is to have a two-way street in our relationship with stations. We want to make some resources available to affiliate stations. Resources that we are well-suited to provide to beef up their local content in an effort to globalize it a bit, to help them bring in more international angles on the stories that they're telling.

For example?

We make some of The World staff reporters and contract reporters available to stations to have as Q + A guests on local talk shows. So, for example, Franc Conteras, our correspondent in Mexico City, has been on a number of talk shows recently to talk about the Mexican presidential election.

Tell me how you think the Global Resource Service connects with independents?

In a number of ways. We just put on a workshop in May at the Poynter Institute called "Making the Local/Global Connection." There were 20 reporters there, five of whom were independent producers. The rest were station-based.

So your intent was to include independents in that opportunity?

Our intent was to include a broad spectrum of reporters from different stations and different parts of the country and to bring different Local/Global experience to the table. We had 58 applicants for that workshop. Originally, we were going to have 16 participants but when the interest was so high, we expanded it to 20. When I looked at all of the applicants to come up with the best mix possible, it just worked out that way. I'm thrilled that so many independents applied and that several got selected.

How would you characterize The World's relationship with independent producers. How much do you count on indies?

The program counts very heavily on input from independent producers, whether they're based in the U.S. or in another country. During my watch on the Global Resource Service, of the 81 reports that have been filed, 24 have come from U.S.-based independents. There are also a large number of independent producers who file for us from other countries. Some are based in the U.S. and then they'll make reporting trips to different countries where they have a particular interest. And of course there are many who live full-time in another country.

As the former NPR Liaison for Independent Producers, I'm well aware of the incredible breadth and depth of talent in the independent community. I'm very pleased that I've been able to tap into that in my position at The World. But I want more. I encourage independent producers to contact me by email or phone (margo.melnicove@bbc.co.uk / 1-800-884-2344) each and everytime they come across a story that they think might interest The World. Please pitch.

Your hour-long daily program is often carried in the hour before or just after most stations air NPR's All Things Considered. How would you describe what The World is trying to be that distinguishes itself from NPR programming?

The World is devoted completely to international affairs which distinguishes it from the NPR news magazines which are a mixture of national affairs and international affairs. We are a co-production with the BBC World Service, so we have access to a lot of resources - people, information, background, research - that other outlets might not have. It's wonderful to have all that at our fingertips.

Every single story, hopefully, says something about the relationship between the U.S. and the rest of the world. Every single one, hopefully, enhances the listener's understanding of the rest of the world and the United States' role in it. That's what we strive for.

Let me ask you to address some comments to a U.S.-based independent producer, say, located in Anytown, U.S.A. What would you tell that producer to be on the lookout for in terms of piece that might be of interest to The World?

It's difficult to give any sort of formula or recipe. So much depends on what else has been happening that month, that day or that week. Sometimes it depends on where we've already aired stories from in the past, or where we're planning to air a story from in the future. No story is pitched in a vacuum. If they were pitched in a vacuum then we'd probably take many more than we do. So relevance is important. Well, yes, we're a news magazine so we want our stories to be newsy with some peg or reason for telling them at this point in time. Although we also run a lot of features. I think we can also be a little more flexible than most of the NPR programs in terms of story length. While most stories are 3 to 5 minutes, sometimes we have stories that fill up a whole 8 or 15 minute block. Sometimes we'll do mini-series or two or three-parters.

We want the stories that come from U.S.-based people to have this strong connection to some other place in the world to some global issue, global trend, implication or ramification. So there are a number of stories happening in the United States that you could hear on any number of other programs that we just wouldn't be interested in because it just doesn't lend itself to that strong global angle or twist. They're great stories. They just don't work on The World.

Here are some examples of stories that have worked for us:

Yukon Quest Geo Quiz - Where in the world is the half-way checkpoint for the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race?

Pakistanis in U.S. - Pakistanis in NYC who want to donate to Islamic charities to help earthquake victims in Pakistan are afraid of attracting the FBI's attention.

Border Sneakers - An artist gives illegal immigrants sneakers she designed to help them survive the often treacherous border crossing from Mexico into southern California.

Rwanda & Macy's - In an unusual trade partnership, Macy's has purchased 40,000 "peace baskets" from widows in Rwanda and given them prime display space during the holiday shopping season.

Jewish Bossa Nova Global Hit - A Brazilian family in New Hampshire is keeping their Jewish roots alive with the bossa nova sound of their homeland.

Non-Citizen Soldier - One soldier's death in Iraq has raised questions about the process whereby non-citizens in the military can get fast-track citizenship.

Montagnard Farm - Montagnards from the Central Highlands of Vietnam are using a North Carolina farm to maintain a connection with their heritage.

Sudan Divest - Connecticut is the latest state to consider joining in a divestment campaign to try to force Sudan to stop the suffering in Darfur.

Lentils Shortage - Indian ex-pats living in the U.S. are desperate for daal, or lentils, now that India has banned exports of the staple of the Indian diet.

Peace Camp - Despite anxiety over the current crisis in the Middle East, peacemaking efforts continue at the Creativity for Peace Camp in New Mexico, where Palestinian and Israeli teenagers are spending part of their summer.

What about stories from reporters overseas?

Well, in those cases, we need to know why that story is relevant to the United States, which is our primary audience. So it's kind of the other side of that coin. Someone could be filing from a certain country where a story would be quite strong for that country. But we ask, is it relevant for a U.S. audience as well.

When reporters are interested in filing for The World, would you rather have them introduce themselves to you with a particular story pitch in mind, or would you rather have them introduce themselves before a story idea comes their way?

For the most part, I'd rather wait until they have the story or at least a story idea. I'd want to know if they're even on the right track for us. But it can also just be something that they'd like to work on or have been thinking about. Now, in some cases, if people are going overseas and they haven't filed for us before but they think they might like to once they get there, then we would like to talk to them before they go. We just want to see what they're up to, where they're going, what they'll be working on, what their background is, what stories they have in mind, that kind of thing. In either case, we'd like to hear samples of their work. That will help us decide whether we'd want to commission something before they go.

Most of us are familiar with best practices about pitching a story. And we know that good writing and good use of sound are important in our scripts, which I'm sure are all true with The World. Are there any things specific about working with The World that you'd like to comment on?

One thing to be aware of is how you work with translations. You'll want to be careful to get accurate phonetic translations so you're confident that, for example, a sound bite in another language starts and ends at the right place in your story, so it matches the translation. We want to be very careful that we get the meaning correct - whether it's a voice-over for the translation or something that the reporter is saying, paraphrasing a sound bite in English. And when someone sends us a script that uses another language, that they are very careful and spell it out phonetically so that we get it right when we do the mix. We have people on staff who speak many foreign languages, but not all.

Anything else about working with independents?

Because we're working with a lot of free-lancers from around the world, some of them might be partly or entirely print people, until they start filing for us. We are committed to and interested in training people and helping to develop the radio reporting and production talent pool out there. If someone doesn't have THAT much radio experience but they have a great story idea and they have the basic journalistic reporting skills to tell the story well, then we would like to hear from them. I can't promise that we would always be able to invest time in training someone but I would not want people to be afraid of pitching to us because they don't have that much radio experience.

Because their depth of knowledge about a culture or a political situation overseas could have value to you.

Absolutely. And good strong reporting skills.

And pay?

Our rates have gone up. We now pay $100 per minute for the length that the story is after the final edit. If we have to trim it after accepting it at that final length, we still pay for the original length.

We are also paying for photos for our website, unless they're amateurish snapshots. But for higher quality images, we pay $25 for one image used and $50 for more than one image. They have to be at least 3 megapixels, well-composed, relevant to the story and complete with captions. We will negotiate a higher fee for professional photographers.

We're very interested in supporting the radio show with a great website, so we're encouraging people to send us photos or web extras like longer versions of interviews. I'm sorry that we can't pay extra for this right now. But if a reporter wants to send us the longer interview (from which sound bites were taken) or a good ten minute chunk of it if it's really outstanding, that would be great.

But there's no money for that now.

Right, I wish there was and I wish we could pay more for pieces but our budget is pretty tight. But if you've got the raw tape on an interview and can ftp it to us, maybe we could use it on the website.

And The World does pay some expenses if cleared ahead of time?

Correct.