WATCH

Public media’s mission hasn’t changed—but the job has. In this talk, Seth Resler explains why the future of public media is in community building. He explains that the internet’s real disruption wasn’t delivery (AM/FM/cable vs streaming) but the end of barriers to content creation, creating an attention crisis and breaking legacy revenue models built on scarcity. He shows how public media can win by providing what’s scarce now: genuine community and live local connection. Seth’s speech at the Public Media Content Collective’s 2025 Content Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, includes examples from WYSO’s Community Voices, Radio Milwaukee’s Grace Weber’s Music Lab, WXPN’s “Losties,” KQED’s Forum Discord server, as well lessons from Vivek Murthy and Robert Putnam. You’ll learn three secrets: (1) You can’t build community with content alone—create a space; (2) Cultivate that space as an ongoing act of co-creation with strong safety and norms; (3) Community drives loyalty, growth, and revenue—even intangible wins that strengthen democracy. Learn how to build community for your station.Public media’s mission hasn’t changed—but the job has. In this talk, Seth Resler explains why the future of public media is in community building. He explains that the internet’s real disruption wasn’t delivery (AM/FM/cable vs streaming) but the end of barriers to content creation, creating an attention crisis and breaking legacy revenue models built on scarcity. He shows how public media can win by providing what’s scarce now: genuine community and live local connection.

Seth’s speech at the Public Media Content Collective’s 2025 Content Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, includes examples from WYSO’s Community Voices, Radio Milwaukee’s Grace Weber’s Music Lab, WXPN’s “Losties,” KQED’s Forum Discord server, as well lessons from Vivek Murthy and Robert Putnam.

You’ll learn three secrets: (1) You can’t build community with content alone—create a space; (2) Cultivate that space as an ongoing act of co-creation with strong safety and norms; (3) Community drives loyalty, growth, and revenue—even intangible wins that strengthen democracy. Learn how to build community for your station.