€¦ · our students and staff, but we did beat ou! regardless of the high level of output this...

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Dear Board Members, The fall semester is cruising along with only six weeks left of classes! Recently, I have had the chance to work closely with our incoming students and see the bold transition as training has been conducted, products created and feedback given in all areas for encouragement and growth. October has been very challenging with all the demands on our students and staff, but we did beat OU! Regardless of the high level of output this time of year, I am enthused with the staff and student’s creativity, positive attitudes and the ability to bring fun to work everyday. We appreciate your involvement and it has been great seeing so many of you at our many events. Since our last meeting four weeks ago… The advertising department has been working hard to produce great events this fall, which bundles our media packages and draws advertisers to multiple products. They offer customized pricing and media plans to maximize our advertisers reach. This approach has proved useful in securing longer campaigns. Although print sales continue to lag in the national market, the advertising department is keeping focused on new sales opportunities with social media advertising and a new collaboration with the newsroom to maximize communication and new sales initiatives. CJ has been dynamite in leading the advertising team to achieve sales goals and adjust sales strategy as the market and consumers change with ever-evolving technology. Curt Yowell has just crossed the one-year marker with TSM and has been instrumental in launching many new student-driven digital initiatives that you will read about in his board report. I am grateful to work with our passionate and dedicated staff. Everyone has been putting in many hours overtime, while working under a tremendous amount of pressure to provide an educational environment and push growth and evolution of TSM. All of the staff work smart and hard to bring success to TSM and to our students. I hope the board recognizes and acknowledges the staff's role. Specifically, Lori Hamilton accepted a new position within Institutional Equity, and her absence has taken a toll on all us. I know it was a hard decision for her and a good career move, but the position Lori held within TSM was very unique since it was a consolidation of three full-time positions into one. I will continue to review functions and duties within the departments to assess staffing. Amidst all of the flurry of tending to business functions, communicating with alumni, managing the operations and preparation for this meeting, I quickly assembled a hiring committee to fill the position. I am excited to announce that Chad Barnes will be joining our team soon. He comes to us with corporate and University experience, which will be a great addition to our team to ensure we are following University policy and procedures while tending to all aspects of the business office, support of the Director's office, budget management, monthly financial reports and overall support of the organization. It is a big position to fill, and I am very happy to introduce everyone to Chad in the beginning of November. He is also very passionate about college media and how we provide the many experiences to students for their future careers. 1

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Page 1: €¦ · our students and staff, but we did beat OU! Regardless of the high level of output this time of year, I am enthused with the staff and student’s creativity, positive attitudes

   

                                                                                                                                                   

Dear Board Members, The fall semester is cruising along with only six weeks left of classes! Recently, I have had the chance to work closely with our incoming students and see the bold transition as training has been conducted, products created and feedback given in all areas for encouragement and growth. October has been very challenging with all the demands on our students and staff, but we did beat OU! Regardless of the high level of output this time of year, I am enthused with the staff and student’s creativity, positive attitudes and the ability to bring fun to work everyday. We appreciate your involvement and it has been great seeing so many of you at our many events. Since our last meeting four weeks ago… The advertising department has been working hard to produce great events this fall, which bundles our media packages and draws advertisers to multiple products. They offer customized pricing and media plans to maximize our advertisers reach. This approach has proved useful in securing longer campaigns. Although print sales continue to lag in the national market, the advertising department is keeping focused on new sales opportunities with social media advertising and a new collaboration with the newsroom to maximize communication and new sales initiatives. CJ has been dynamite in leading the advertising team to achieve sales goals and adjust sales strategy as the market and consumers change with ever-evolving technology. Curt Yowell has just crossed the one-year marker with TSM and has been instrumental in launching many new student-driven digital initiatives that you will read about in his board report. I am grateful to work with our passionate and dedicated staff. Everyone has been putting in many hours overtime, while working under a tremendous amount of pressure to provide an educational environment and push growth and evolution of TSM. All of the staff work smart and hard to bring success to TSM and to our students. I hope the board recognizes and acknowledges the staff's role. Specifically, Lori Hamilton accepted a new position within Institutional Equity, and her absence has taken a toll on all us. I know it was a hard decision for her and a good career move, but the position Lori held within TSM was very unique since it was a consolidation of three full-time positions into one. I will continue to review functions and duties within the departments to assess staffing. Amidst all of the flurry of tending to business functions, communicating with alumni, managing the operations and preparation for this meeting, I quickly assembled a hiring committee to fill the position. I am excited to announce that Chad Barnes will be joining our team soon. He comes to us with corporate and University experience, which will be a great addition to our team to ensure we are following University policy and procedures while tending to all aspects of the business office, support of the Director's office, budget management, monthly financial reports and overall support of the organization. It is a big position to fill, and I am very happy to introduce everyone to Chad in the beginning of November. He is also very passionate about college media and how we provide the many experiences to students for their future careers.

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Page 2: €¦ · our students and staff, but we did beat OU! Regardless of the high level of output this time of year, I am enthused with the staff and student’s creativity, positive attitudes

It was just a year ago that we were wrapping up the consulting process with the Greenlight's Organization, and this year we took a different direction by taking the initiative to utilize resources available within the College of Communication. We partnered with the Department of Advertising and Public Relations to serve as the subject of the Advanced Media Planning class taught by Senior Lecturer Lisa Dobias, who is a former TSM Board member. Students in the class were grouped into advertising agencies tasked with researching different aspects of TSM and providing analysis on how TSM can improve consumption of its student-generated content and develop new, easy-to-implement revenue ideas. The final presentations were conducted the evening of Friday, October 18, 2013 with several staff and students from TSM present. I would like to personally thank Professor Dobias and board member Mary Dunn. The teams had great ideas and everyone brought a lot of energy, creativity and passion. The data and ideas will assist as in discussion and planning for the 2014/2015 budget. In addition to all of the daily duties and accomplishments mentioned in this report, I was able to organize and meet with all the board members to discuss our year-ending financial reports. Although the small meeting sessions take an enormous amount of time and planning, I received great feedback from these sessions. I was able to answer questions directly in explaining our market, products and structure, while highlighting our challenges and opportunities. We’ve discussed last year and we have a budget plan in place for 2013/2014. However, I would like to continue pushing the board and students to discuss possible changes to our model. Soon, I will be coming to board for direction on budget planning for 2014/2015 and the board and students must be willing to try new things and make important decisions that will forever impact the future of our organization. We have to acknowledge our realities with the tough economic climate, changes to technology and our key demographic. I encourage everyone to keep the mission of the educational experience at the forefront, and I am confident that we have the best and brightest talent within our board, staff and student leadership to create solutions. Hook 'em! Jalah Goette Interim Director Texas Student Media The University of Texas Work: (512) 471-3851 [email protected]

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Advertising Department TSM Board Meeting: 10/25/2013 The advertising and creative department did a great job working together to get the campaign buy for the Student Affairs Job & Volunteer Fair completed. The investment of time from staff was substantial and we are very happy to see it successfully completed. I would like to thank all of those who have been involved with this process, from the student staff who helped prep the thousands of handouts, Daniel Hublein for coordinating all efforts to ensure deliverables were in place for the event, Lindsey Hollingsworth for her contributions throughout this event planning process and for being a crucial part of the committee overall. And finally, thank you to the Division of Student Affairs and their departments who invested their time and resources within Texas Student Media. This was a substantial media campaign and we appreciate the support. This was not only a recruiting event, but also a marketing and branding opportunity. All Texas Student Media departments participated in this event with the exception of The Daily Texan. We have had two guest speakers come visit and meet with the advertising team: Senior Lecturer, Lisa Dobias and Media Consultant/Alum, Kathryn Abbas. They provided their prospective regarding the industry, planning for the future and graduation. We greatly appreciate the time they spent engaging the team and their continued investment in Texas Student Media. Lisa Dobias and Mary Dunn have worked diligently with their Media teams who presented to the Texas Student Media staff last Friday evening. TSM staff provided information that was requested to help with the project. There were many different aspects of each media agency group that were on point and we are thankful to the winning team as the data provided is quite substantial and able to be used going forward. The advertising team participated in the annual Communication Job & Internship Fair, which not only allows our team to recruit new staff, but it is also a great networking opportunity for our students. There were a variety of companies who participated in the event. Ted Sniderman and Rohan Needel did a great job drafting mass emails to students for sales recruitment, implemented a redesign on initial screening applications and conducted many interviews for future positions within our team. Michael Gammon has done a great job getting his staff together and conducted his orientation for the Longhorn Life team. Midterm evaluations for interns have been successfully completed and upcoming evaluations for work-study and student staff assessments are up for review. Staff attended Diversity Training, hosted by Ryan Miller, Associate Director of Campus Diversity and Strategic Initiatives. Many topics were covered and the audience discussed controversial Daily Texan ads that had previously run. Those participating in the discussion that were vocal about their opposition to the ads were directed to advertise within The Daily Texan to raise awareness and make their opinions regarding those ads known. We have not received any advertising requests as of yet. The Creative department layout was redesigned to allow for a more functional process when greeting guests within their areas. Thanks to: Frank Serpas, Daniel Hublein and Michael Gammon for working together to achieve the new more productive layout. The Creative team also toured the Austin American-Statesman facility. They were taken on a tour and introduced to the process of how the statesman prints our Daily Texan and special edition papers allowing for a good understanding of the process from start to finish. Thank you to Frank Serpas for coordinating this for the staff. The advertising team is currently gathering research on Austin's fashion market and getting ready for the spring Fashion Alley event. Our client appreciation event will be held on November 7th to get clients secured for our 2014 Housing Fair, which will be held on February 19th. Come support Texas Student Media at the Kickoff Countdown Tailgate party on the corner of MLK & Brazos!

Hook'em & Sell'em!!!

CJ Salgado Advertising Adviser

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17-­‐Oct-­‐13      Equipment  that  had  been  stored  away  in  anticipation  of  being  used  in  a  remote  broadcasting  unit  fulfilled  its  purpose  during  a  successful  test  on  October  11  (see  picture  below).    Thanks  in  large  part  to  Ian  Reese’s  initiative,  this  TSTV/KVRX  joint  broadcast  sent  standard-­‐definition  video  and  audio  to  HSM  from  the  Bowie  H.S.  vs.  Austin  H.S.  football  game  at  Burger  Stadium,  proving  the  viability  of  using  4G  technology  to  transmit  a  signal  from  a  remote  location.    The  prognosis  for  this  particular  use  of  the  equipment  is  uncertain  (AISD  rules  limit  the  degree  to  which  high  school  football  content  can  be  televised;  the  large  block  of  time  required  preempts  a  sizable  chunk  of  KVRX  programming),  but  many  other  applications  exist,  including  live  news  updates  and  concert  broadcasts.  

 

   

 Representatives  from  the  Austin  American-­‐Statesman’s  production  department  visited  TSM  on  September  25  to  meet  with  Texan  staffers  and  the  Creative  Services  department.    They  gave  tips  on  how  to  ensure  proper  ink  levels  for  photos  and  reviewed  prepress  procedures.    TSM  has  proven  to  be  a  popular  destination  for  First-­‐year  Interest  Groups:  four  FIGs  have  toured  HSM  so  far  this  semester.    Representatives  from  the  media  units  encouraged  the  new  UT  students  to  take  part  in  what  TSM  has  to  offer.      Frank  Serpas  III  TSM  Operations  Manager  

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Page 5: €¦ · our students and staff, but we did beat OU! Regardless of the high level of output this time of year, I am enthused with the staff and student’s creativity, positive attitudes

October  2013    

   Curt  Yowell,  Digital  Manager  Texas  Student  Media  The  University  of  Texas  at  Austin      In  fall  2012  I  was  brought  on  at  Texas  Student  Media  in  order  to  work  with  students  and  staff  to  create  a  narrative  of  our  challenges,  needs,  and  opportunities  in  the  digital  and  web  realm.  One  year  later,  Texas  Student  Media  has  come  a  long  way  in  attempts  to  meet  these  digital  demands.  The  most  important  development  is  the  transition  to  University  of  Texas  Information  Technology  Services  (ITS)  servers  and  web  development  support.  The  student  leadership  has  done  an  excellent  job  of  expressing  their  concerns,  desires,  and  solutions  for  moving  website  design  and  development  forward  at  Texas  Student  Media.  I  want  to  thank  everyone  for  their  input  throughout  this  past  year.      The  new  approach  to  website  infrastructure  is  part  of  a  digital  and  web  strategy  that  speaks  directly  to  our  mission.  TSM  will  utilize  the  resources  available  on  campus  by  forming  a  working  relationship  with  UT's  ITS  department.  The  relationship  will  help  the  students  learn  and  work  in  Drupal  website  development.  Further,  the  students  at  TSM  drive  web  design  and  development.  The  new  direction  provides  stability  in  terms  of  the  web  servers  and  website  development,  adds  to  the  educational  experience  at  TSM,  and  is  cost-­‐effective  as  the  servers  are  provided  at  cost  and  web  development  is  done  by  the  students  with  support  by  Drupal  experts.  The  students  are  becoming  familiar  with  development  environment  (or  test  environment)  setup  as  part  of  this  new  structure.  The  dev  environment  will  allow  the  students  to  develop  website  features  and  experiment  with  new  ideas.      Email  and  social  media  are  two  areas  where  we  are  starting  to  see  benefits  of  cross-­‐platform  integration.  Over  the  last  year  the  daily  email  list  has  increased  in  size  by  900%  thanks  in  part  to  the  addition  of  social  giveaways.  The  goal  is  to  utilize  the  positive  experiences  in  social  giveaways  to  drive  advertising  sales  around  digital  ads  and  lead  generation.  In  conducting  the  social  giveaways,  the  students  have  increased  their  social  media  following  and  increased  the  number  of  subscribers  to  the  daily  email.  We  will  continue  to  find  ways  to  utilize  email  and  social  media  for  student  learning  and  to  feature  the  work  of  the  students  at  TSM.    

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Currently,  there  are  a  myriad  of  web  and  digital  projects  underway  at  TSM.  “DT  Delta”  is  a  website  redesign  project  led  by  The  Daily  Texan  student  tech  team.  The  student  tech  leadership  is  working  closely  with  the  students  in  advertising  to  ensure  the  redesign  will  offer  advertising  opportunities  attractive  for  clients.      The  Texas  Student  TV  site  is  being  upgrading  to  Drupal  7,  a  necessary  step  to  implement  much-­‐needed  design  and  feature  upgrades.  As  part  of  the  upgrade,  Texas  Student  TV  is  working  on  integrating  a  JW  Ads  video  player  that  will  allow  for  ads.  They  are  also  working  on  a  new  layout  for  the  website’s  homepage.    Search  Engine  Optimization  (SEO)  optimization  is  an  ongoing  project  across  media  properties’  websites.  Students  are  working  to  utilize  keyword  searches  and  best  practices  in  web  content  production  to  ensure  the  websites  receive  traffic  from  search  engines.      The  initial  discussions  in  a  planning  phase  for  the  redesign  of  TSM’s  website  has  started.  We  will  work  to  get  input  from  a  variety  of  stakeholders  to  ensure  the  TSM  website  serves  the  needs  of  a  multifaceted  organization.      Improvements  for  the  KVRX  website  homepage  were  planned  by  the  last  student  web  developer  in  spring  2013.  The  goal  is  to  pick  up  where  this  project  was  left  off  and  begin  to  roll  out  improvements  such  as  featuring  more  blog  content  on  the  homepage.      The  Travesty  is  working  on  adding  the  back  catalog  of  issues  in  PDF  format  to  their  website.      The  student  staff  of  the  Cactus  Yearbook  is  assessing  the  publication’s  website  needs.  They  are  exploring  options  to  provide  visually  appealing  web  design  and  options  for  an  online  market  place.    Finally,  we  are  working  on  an  assessment  of  the  next  steps  for  The  Daily  Texan  archives.  University  of  Texas  digital  librarians  are  working  with  us  to  provide  an  overview  of  the  scope  of  work  to  digitize  the  back  catalogue  of  The  Daily  Texan.  

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TSM Board Report

October, 2013

Michael Brick, Editorial Adviser

At The Daily Texan, the students are hard at work on DT Delta, the centerpiece of our effort to reinvent the paper for the digital age. It’s long overdue, but bold enough to make up for lost time.

Thanks to the generous support of the Department of Computer Science, we’ve recruited more than twenty students to work in the basement on new technology initiatives, including app development, social media strategy and tech news coverage. Most crucially, we’re overhauling our web site with a focus on a mobile-friendly user interface. For that piece, we’ve also acquired an invaluable resource: Dr. Shayamal Mitra’s web development class is devoting the entire semester to producing iterations of the project, essentially providing a form of curated open-source development with expert supervision. In the newsroom, AME Kelsey McKinney and Technical Director Hayley Fick are making sure the best ideas come together to create a worthy platform for the excellent student journalism of the future. They’ve set up a project management system to make sure we’re setting and meeting deadlines.

But even without the new site, The Daily Texan staff is proving that our journalism can succeed online. Compared to the same period last year, page views for the prior two months are up 35 percent, unique visitors are up 52 percent and the bounce rate (how quickly visitors leave) has declined by five percent. Best of all, the average time spent on the page has increased 25 percent, indicating that viewers are sticking around long enough to read a whole article or watch a whole video.

There’s only one plausible explanation: The students have been producing great journalism. One of the longest average page views clocked in at seven minutes for Life of Bevo, a charming behind the scenes look at the university’s mascot by Christine Ayala. Produced in collaboration with multimedia editor Alec Wyman and photographer Zach Strain, the piece got a jumpstart

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from a very smartly executed promo listicle deployed over the weekend to grab the attention of football readers. By the next Saturday, our reporter and our video footage were being featured prominently in a pre-game segment on the Longhorn Network.

Of course, it’s not all cute and cuddly. The intrepid Bobby Blanchard has produced hard-hitting examinations of the university’s financial ties to campus housing developers and worker treatment. And beat reporter Alberto Long started the semester off strong with a major scoop on a series of racially charged balloon attacks, beating beat local and national media outlets. He’s followed up with relentless coverage of campus law enforcement.

Meanwhile, Chris Hummer’s columns have kept our readers on the pulse of the football coach’s lion-in-winter phase. In the arts department, Sarah-Grace Sweeney’s ACL coverage has engaged readers with some of our finest writing. After meetings with Texas Student Media’s advertising department, every section spent four weeks producing recurrent features to hook both readers and advertisers. Our design director, Jack Mitts worked overtime to create elegant (and consistent) logos. And maybe I’m getting soft, but I think this image by Jonathan Garza might be the best shot ever taken in the storied history of the Daily Texan Photo Department.

At TSTV, we’ve started bringing in professional guests to critique the station’s news coverage. In a new collaboration with KVRX, Ian Reese and Cameron Kubena have joined forces to produce coverage of high school football. The project is promising, partly because of the synergy, but also because it points one potential way for both stations make appeal to a new audience outside the campus. The project has been made possible by Ian’s relentless pursuit of opportunities to finance new equipment for remote broadcasting. That capacity will significantly expand TSTV’s ability to cover events of campus and citywide interest.

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Hello Board Members! Cactus has continued to have a productive fall semester, tabling on West Mall to sell shirts and recruit, gaining over 250 ‘likes’ on our Facebook Page to surpass a total of 900 likes, redesigning our website to be easier to use and nicer to look at, expanding our online content, and continuing our new system of full staff meetings with writers and photographers to improve communication and accountability. This month, we participated in the Great Texas Showcase at Parents Weekend, offering the book at a discounted price of $55. With parents much more likely to purchase their student a yearbook than the student is, this was a prime selling opportunity for us. We also took part in the job fair to recruit more writers and photographers, as well as to replace our Academics & Organization Editor, who had to quit due to time constraints. In a couple weeks, we will be running a marketing initiative during Halloween that involves taking and selling Polaroid photos of UT students downtown on Halloween. This will help us make some extra money, promote our book, and gather content for a related spread. Finally, Cactus just submitted the 2013 yearbook to the CSPA competition and already has received widespread praise for its design and content. We’re looking forward to what we hope will be another Gold Crown to add to our collection! Looking ahead to November, we are happy to announce that we will be holding our Fall and Spring photo studios in the FAC along the very public glass wall by the West Mall. This is good news for us as usually we have photo studio in the HSM conference room, a building and room few students know about and are unwilling to go to because it’s out of their way. We are hoping that the central, familiar, and public location of the FAC will boost the number of students who have their photos taken for the book, and thus also boost our book sales. We will be holding an event to kick off our photo studio that will offer books at a discounted price, shirts and posters for sale, and hopefully a performance by a local band. In addition, Cactus is working with the Dean of Students office to find the best ways to advertise photo studio in a new, inventive way. Throughout the fall, my staffers have each taken on 5-10 student organizations to reach out to about group photos, positions on staff, and other events. This grassroots effort will help us achieve our goal of reconnecting with the student body and spreading awareness of our product. Although we have yet to hear any news regarding the RFP for a publishing company, we have continued to push forward as usual with our work. I broke out the pages of our book a couple weeks ago, and we have started assembling content on the spreads. This year’s book is shaping up to be another great addition to the archives! Stay Prickly! Jaclyn Cactus Yearbook, Editor-in-Chief

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The  Daily  Texan  Managing  Editor’s  Board  Report  

October  25,  2013    

 Dear  Texas  Student  Media  Board  of  Trustees:    I  hope  you  all  are  doing  wonderfully  since  the  last  meeting.  I  plan  to  do  an  oral  board  report  today,  so  below  is  my  outline  for  that:    

• Online  strategy  o Provide  up-­‐to-­‐date  analytics  numbers  o Developing  metrics  outside  of  pageviews  and  visitors  

• Website  development  o Launching  DT∆  o Switch  to  ITS  Server  o Cultural  change:  Preparing  for  the  new  website  

§ Online  Exclusive  Content,  publishing  schedules,  etc.  • Page  counts  and  recurring  content  

o Page  count  reductions  o Launching  recurring  content  

§ Working  with  advertising  § Two  weeks  of  10  pages,  two  weeks  of  8  pages  

• In  the  works  o Discussion  with  department  heads  and  general  staff  on  financial  health  of  TSM  o Comics  Insert  o TSTV  

• The  things  that  get  lost  in  these  discussions:  great  work  o Coverage  of  ACL,  OU,  festival  month,    o Fork  stabbing,  CapMetro,  post  office,  government  shutdown,  shared  services,  SG  

stipends,  DeLoss  Dodds  o Staff  travels  to  Ames,  Fort  Worth,  Waco,  Dallas  o Special  ventures:  EMS,  buildings  o Presentation  in  the  paper  and  online:  Go  Elisabeth  and  Kelsey!  

 If  this  format  does  not  work  or  if  the  board  still  prefers  I  put  in  a  full  written  report,  I  would  be  happy  to  do  that.  Please  let  me  know  if  you  have  any  questions,  as  I  would  be  honored  to  receive  your  feedback.    Thank  you  for  your  time,    Shabab  Siddiqui  

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Page 11: €¦ · our students and staff, but we did beat OU! Regardless of the high level of output this time of year, I am enthused with the staff and student’s creativity, positive attitudes

To The TSM Board, KVRX has been moving through this semester quickly but diligently. Our schedule has encountered very few problems and we have been holding training sessions at a more consistent rate than ever before. Over the past two months, we have trained around 40 new DJs. Our rate of recruitment has been strong throughout the semester, and meeting attendance is at an all-time high. Our current projects for revenue have included planning our Pledge Drive Benefit, which is scheduled for the end of February. This is the time to really be planning for this event, as it is one of the most important times in the KVRX year. In addition, reaching out to these businesses early in the process allows us to cultivate relationships that can turn into underwriting spots or continued sponsorship from them throughout the year. Our goal is to have a solid base of supporters by the end of this semester so we can start the Spring Semester strong. We are also considering implementing a membership system with our donations that would create a support system and stronger relationship between KVRX and our listenership. Our partnership with other TSM entities has been growing as well. Our linking with the Daily Texan to increase the variety of content within their Life and Arts section has been going strong, including increased coverage of the Austin City Limits Festival. We are currently working out the final details of a live, on-sight broadcast of Local Live at the Holy Mountain venue, which will be a joint production between TSTV and KVRX. This is a great opportunity to increase our broadcasting potential while linking it to our events. We believe this will increase our listenership, recruitment, and future advertising. We are also partnering with Maria’s Taco Express to hold a KVRX show at their restaurant. This is a good opportunity for us to partner with an underwriter to increase our own events and their visibility as a KVRX supporter. We hope these types of events can continue to happen, as they are a great way to partner with these underwriters and continue to increase our visibility throughout Austin. Last, but perhaps most exciting, is our new initiatives concerning the KVRX website. With a new home for our servers and new opportunities for website maintenance and experimentation, we are looking to implement a completely new layout for our website. This is an exciting opportunity because it would still be using the same framework of the already existing website, but basically change it’s convenience and navigability for visitors. We believe this will increase the visibility of our website content, and as such increase interest in creating that content on the part of our volunteers. We are currently searching for people interested in website design to help us meet these goals. We look forward to progressing in theses areas and improving our radio content and listener base throughout. Joe Aragon KVRX Station Manager  

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Page 12: €¦ · our students and staff, but we did beat OU! Regardless of the high level of output this time of year, I am enthused with the staff and student’s creativity, positive attitudes

Ian Reese Texas Student TV Board Report: Oct 18, 2013 Many good developments have been taking place at Texas Student TV over the past month. We have made strides both technically and in negotiations with potential clients. Below are a few points/events that I’d like to highlight:

§ We have successfully carried out our first live remote telecast that took place Friday October 11th at Burger Stadium (AISD) in Southwest Austin. We went on the air live from location for approximately 30-40 minutes to cover both a Pre-Game and Halftime show report for the Bowie vs Austin high school football game. The entire game was simulcast live on both 91.7FM and TSTV with an audio component only. With this concept proven to work, I have applied to receive funds from Communication Council to help finance further technological development.

§ We have received yet another generous equipment donation from the College of Communication Tech Services Dept. We now have 4 new CFL based lighting fixtures that are ideal for low power, on location lighting situations (like remote broadcasting).

§ Texas Student TV is now Tech Services’ go-to department for productions that take place

in College of Communication classrooms. This means that we are the first point of contact for any professor or department that needs to hire students out to run technical equipment for events and guest lecturers. So far we have five productions because of this new connection.

§ Texas Student TV is working with RTF professor Ben Bays to test and develop ‘virtual audience’ performances with bands that come in to Local Live. This is a system that would allow viewers to login online and join a performance space as an avatar that can interact with the band by posting comments to a message board. The band can view these comments as they live update and can see all of the avatars by viewing a screen in front of them. Still in its development stages, this project will allow producers and bands at Local Live (and other music shows) to connect with an online audience and give them a unique experience that would separate Local Live from any other music show in the city.

§ Texas NewsWatch, a news program produced by the School of Journalism, and Texas Student TV have, with the help of Technology Services, developed a more efficient way to transfer footage across the plaza to air on TSTV 29.1 during our hour on Channel Austin. Texas NewsWatch now transfers an HD show file to our station rather than recording onto a MiniDV tape and transmitting their show in SD. This development has made file sharing between the two studios almost seamless.

§ Classes for new TSTV volunteers finished up two weeks ago and went very well for both

new volunteers and the instructors. This year, we were able to route all of class registration through TXShop, an online payment system for UT, which took a massive load off the business office. In past years, students would have to sign up and pay in person for any TSTV training courses. Now this can all be done online and we can generate a more accurate record of who has taken which training courses.

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§ We are beginning a series of focused refresher courses that we will offer to our volunteers over the period of a few months. These courses will build upon basic level training that they received when they first joined this organization. These courses are essential for students committed to this profession so that they learn good habits and techniques early and are better prepared for future jobs.

§ We have increased the capacity of our editing lab to 10 machines from the original 5. This also provides volunteers with more up to date, readily available resources for editing and show production.

Overall I have seen an increase in production quality and time commitment across the board

for most of our shows. We have new volunteers excited to begin work and develop shows of their own as well as veteran volunteers who are up to the task to train, educate, and ultimately make this station a better place to work (and live, for some of us).

_______________________ Ian Reese Station Manager Texas Student TV 713-444-7373 [email protected]

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