After the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provided funding for public television and radio stations across the country, voted to dissolve itself earlier this year, many public media stations across the country are facing financial burdens, with some even closing their doors. That’s not the case at New Mexico’s largest station.
Jeff Proctor, the executive producer of New Mexico in Focus, a weekly local news show on New Mexico PBS, said the program has actually been able to expand its coverage.
“Just in terms of what has happened at New Mexico PBS, I’m just speaking for our station here, there have been no cuts,” Proctor said. “Nobody’s gotten fired. There have been no budget adjustments.”
The New Mexico Legislature even passed a tax credit for local journalists during its 30-day session earlier this year, though Proctor is uncertain about the idea of government funding for media.
“Having worked in for-profit newsrooms, both in print and in television, and nonprofit newsrooms, and now in public media, I don’t think that there’s a perfect way to pay for or fund journalism,” Proctor said.
New Mexico in Focus offers a different viewing experience compared to most other programs, according to Proctor — an hour of primetime television with no advertisements.
“One of the reasons that this exists, at least from my perspective, is to try to get at stuff that’s getting missed elsewhere,” he said. “That’s a big part of how we make our news judgment about what’s going to be in the show.”
While he’s in the control room producing a show, Proctor often splits his attention, directing the interviewer while listening to the guests.
“I’m looking for spots where I feel like the answer is incomplete, or whether I think the interviewee has more to say and they’re just not saying it,” Proctor said.
While more people turn to social media for news, New Mexico in Focus is facing a trade-off between depth and shorter segments with more digital appeal.
“In the broader landscape, it’s not a trade-off,” he said. “We’re still offering so much more depth, so much more context, and we don’t sound-bite people to death in our interviews, whether they’re in the studio or in the field, the viewer gets to see the question and the answer.”
Proctor has brought extensive journalistic experience to the show and changed it from primarily analysis to an hour with more investigative reporting each week.
