Mike Janssen

Mike Janssen Served as Scanning The Dial's original co-authors from Mar, 2008 to Jan, 2010 and is a freelance writer, editor and media educator based in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. He has written extensively about radio, mostly for Current, the trade newspaper about public broadcasting, where his articles have appeared since 1999. He has also worked in public radio as a reporter at WFDD-FM in Winston-Salem, N.C., where he began his career in journalism and filed pieces for NPR. Mike's work in radio expanded to include outreach and advocacy in 2007, when he worked with the Future of Music Coalition to recruit applicants for noncommercial radio stations. He has since embarked on writing a series of articles about radio hopefuls for FMC's blog. Mike also writes regularly for Retail Traffic magazine and teaches workshops about writing, podcasting and radio journalism. In his spare time he enjoys vegetarian food, the outdoors, reading, movies and traveling. You can learn more about Mike and find links to more of his writing and reporting at mikejanssen.net.

Imagining the listener

June 8, 2009 by Mike Janssen

Who is my listener?

I ask myself that question all the time as I pick music to play on my radio show. I know very little about who’s really listening, and because I’m on from 3 to 5 a.m. Tuesdays, maybe few people are. The host who follows me told me that in the last Arbitron book before I started, my slot was the lowest-rated on the station. (Nowhere to go but up!)

I’ve had calls and e-mails from a few people since I’ve started. A man in Fredericksburg, Va., listens to my show as he delivers bread to bakeries early in the morning. I like knowing that. But that’s about it for hard facts.

Ten ways to increase traffic to your classical music blog

June 3, 2009 by Mike Janssen

Thanks to Mona Seghatoleslami at WV Public Broadcasting for this guest post.

At WV Public Broadcasting, I’m responsible for the blog Classically Speaking. We started the blog in April 2008, and we’ve gradually been increasing our traffic. In March, we had 1006 page views and 789 unique views, according to Google Analytics.

These numbers aren’t just a way to feel good knowing that a lot of people are interested in reading what we have to say. Eventually enough Web traffic can also be turned into online advertising and underwriting, justification for grants, and other good things.

I was given a mission: with the help of fearless Operations Assistant Bob Powell, double the blog’s monthly traffic by the end of the summer. We did it in two months — here’s how.

Planning a media strategy for arts organizations

May 20, 2009 by Mike Janssen

In her post Monday Marty asked how arts organizations can reach their audiences amid the tumult of today’s media landscape, inspiring this response. Many of these thoughts also apply to public broadcasters — a good number of which present and promote arts to their audiences. The guidance reflects my experience as a follower of various kinds of organizations through media and what I’ve come to expect and appreciate from them.

This may sound basic, but first an organization must review what it most desires to accomplish via promotional media. Then it must determine which opportunities are its biggest priorities. An organization should do a great job on starting a new blog or overhauling its website in lieu of trying 20 things all at once and doing most of them poorly.

The launch of “My Performance Today”

May 4, 2009 by Mike Janssen

Check this out: On its website, public radio’s Performance Today is trying something similar to the YouTube Symphony Orchestra concept. The show is asking listeners to submit audio and video recordings of their own performances of classical works (public domain or copyright-free, of course). These recordings will then appear on Performance Today’s website, and some could even make it onto the broadcast.

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