GPB to use Jackson Spalding for Strategic Planning.
“We’re partnering with Jackson Spalding here in Atlanta to help us because part of the strategic plan is also kind of re-envisioning and relaunching GPB’s identity in the community.”
GPB President and CEO Bert Wesley Huffman said at the fall meeting of the Georgia Public Telecommunications Commission Thursday.
“We really want people to recognize GPB as a service organization here to serve the people of Georgia.”
Huffman was named CEO this past summer, succeeding longtime CEO Teya Ryan who retired following a dramatic cut to GPB’s state funding by the legislature last spring.
In Thursday’s meeting Huffman laid out a timeline for the strategic plan development that runs through next summer.
“First thing that we’re going to do, hopefully before the end of the calendar year, is a deep dive on audience research. We’ve wanted to do this for a long time, and it’s time to make that happen.”
“We’re going to work with Jackson Spalding to go out to, we’re casting a really wide net, 25 to 85. All over the state of Georgia. … That’s going to be the quantitative side of this. And then once we get into the strategic planning part early in 2024, we’ll move toward more of the qualitative. Really talking to stakeholders….”
“Probably the late spring next year or early summer we’re going to have some brand-new kind of goals.”
“We’re also going to have … the opportunity to speak with one voice across the entire company as to what we do here at GPB, I think that’s really been my biggest goal.”
According to its website and LinkedIn pages, Jackson Spalding is an “integrated public relations and marketing agency” whose clients include Coke, Delta, the University of Georgia, plus the Georgia Department of Human Services.
Working closely with other state agencies is now a focus with Huffman citing a recent documentary on opioid addiction produced with the Department of Behavioral Health and another on children and mental health in development.
GPB will screen the opioid documentary for the women’s caucus during the upcoming special legislative session, another effort to court lawmaker support after last session’s cut.
Huffman and CFO Liz Laprade said the agency is allowed to ask for a 3% increase in FY25 funds but would like to ask for more to make up for the cut.
The budget process will unfold in 2024 during primary election season and in a year when legislators, but not the governor, are on the ballot. There are splits between Gov. Kemp and MAGA Republicans in the state for which GPB funding could be a proxy battle.
There are also tensions in the Democratic Party along generational lines on issues like Israel and Palestine, and “Cop City” that have a media component.
Everyone’s a media critic now.
Huffman said donor numbers are not down, but the average contribution amount is. He said they’ve been very strict on budgeting.
“We’re also continuing this conversation with the staff at GPB about accountability and the biggest piece of that conversation is around budgets. So ultimately, the goal is managing your budget most appropriately. Yesterday we had an all-staff meeting that was supposed to last an hour, it lasted four hours. Nobody flinched….
“It was great because I really gave Liz an opportunity to do something that hasn’t really been done a lot here at GPB and that is just to pull the curtain back and show them every challenge that we face from a budgeting standpoint, in order to inspire them to want to do better and to care for this thing, that is a gift to us every day.”
Under Ryan there were anonymous staff complaints about finances and budgets being kept under wraps and favoritism.
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Two new commissioners were in attendance and introduced themselves. Jeff Dantzler, a UGA sportscaster from Athens, and Donna Sheldon, a business owner and former Republican member of the Georgia state assembly from Gwinnett County. Both were appointed by Gov. Kemp this summer.
Dantzler replaces former state Senator Cecil Staton who applied for the CEO position Huffman obtained.
Sheldon replaces the Commission’s Vice-Chair Jerald Mitchell whom Gov. Kemp appointed to a different state board.
Commission Chair Brian Dill moved to make Mark Parkman Vice Chair which the commission then approved.
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The only other programming discussed was High School football which has gotten more sponsorships and is, of course, not controversial with the legislature.
News programming and radio were not discussed nor the recent high-profile hiring of longtime Atlanta TV personality Jeff Hullinger.
The public portion of the meeting lasted just a half hour before going into executive session. I was the only public there and was quickly escorted out once the motion to go into executive session passed.
