(Source: NY Times)
David Ensor (Source: BBG)
David Ensor, who as director of the Voice of America has presided over significant growth in the news agency’s audience despite budget cuts, announced Tuesday that he was stepping down.
Mr. Ensor, who joined the Voice of America in June 2011, said he would leave the government-funded broadcaster at the end of next month. He did not explain his decision or discuss his plans.
The Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees the Voice of America, credited Mr. Ensor with creating new television programming in Russian, Ukrainian, Persian, Mandarin, Burmese and Creole, among other languages. It also said he had led a digital transformation of the agency’s newsroom and expanded media programs in Africa.
[…]His time at the news agency has not been without controversy. Dan Robinson, the former chief White House correspondent for the Voice of America, said its central news operation had been devastated by staffing cuts, and he and other former employees said a number of veteran correspondents had resigned or retired in frustration. [Continue reading…]
As I have dug into the current state of international government/public broadcasters (for my 1 Radio News app), at least on the English language side, the real competition for VOA in terms of reach is the BBC World Service.
While shortwave has been cut back, the BBCWS is carried on FM either all day or overnight in cities all over the world. RCI from China also has local FM stations in some major cities around the world as well.
While I am self-interested in this, in some ways all the international broadcasters have a better chance of increasing digital listenership if both their live streams and shows on-demand are more or less packaged together for listeners to quickly scan the channels and see what is on. This of course means being buried in TuneIn and other major services including podcast apps but not thinking that a stand-alone app will do what they need to reach the next generation on mobile devices.
Steven Clift
1RadioNews.com