poetry foundation presentation final

8/2/2019 Poetry Foundation Presentation FINAL

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Amy Funk, Joyana Dvorak, Bridget GreenfieldMPS 524

11/10/11


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The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine, is anindependent literary organization committed to a vigorous

presence for poetry in our culture. It exists to discover and

celebrate the best poetry and to place it before the largest possible

audience.

The Poetry Foundation was created in 2001 $200 million gift from Ruth Lilly Previously Poetry magazine With the name change came a leadership and mission change


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"I concluded what poetry most needs is an audience ,"-John Barr, Poetry Foundation President since 2003

Schoolchildren Teachers

General American Public Academics Poets Not donors the organization does not fundraise


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Internal

Strengths Weaknesses

1. Only organization that has funds to do outreach and

research

2. Unique mission

3. New building draws attention.

4. Utilizing social media

1. One person staff for initiative.

2. Many proposals come in, but have limited

time/resources

3. Balancing national audience and Chicago audience

4. Some Media Initiatives are outdated (2009 was last

post)

5. Media connection is not always in depth experience.

External

Opportunities Threats

1. Many more possibilities of where poetry could be

integrated into media.

2. Chicago building new space

3. Reaching smaller audiences vs. the current focus of

largest audience possible

4. Focusing on children to instill love of poetry

1. Endowment limits budget based on the economy

2. Survey results include report that poetry is boring


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Current Audience = active, engaged adults who participate in avariety of leisure and social activities

70% below 55 years old

73% with children

80% of past readers found poetry boring or difficult to understand

Exposure is the first step to reach the widest audience possible of

people who otherwise wouldn

t experience poetry.


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99% incidentally

encountered poetry

81% reported reading or

listening when

encountered


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Who Cares about poetry? 90% of American readers!

Poetry is for EVERYONE

Poetry offers many benefits:

Solace Comfort entertainment Mind expanding An escape Inspiration Helps you understand yourself and others.


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To reach a new audience for poetry

Put poetry in peoples pockets.

Help people overcome their bad experiences of poetry from their past

Increase poetry's presence on the internet

Create new opportunities for incidental exposure


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Aims to achieve an enhanced presence for poetry in each of themajor traditional media channels--print (newspapers, general and

special interest magazines), radio, television, film, out-of-home--

and new-media technologies and venues as they evolve. Through a

variety of collaborations, the Foundation invests in poetry

programming to reach the American public across the full mediaspectrum.


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PBS Newshour American Life in PoetryPoetry Everywhere Poetry Tours

The Writers Almanac Readers Digest

Classical Baby Poetry Radio Project

Poetry Mobile Application Social Media


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Poetry Everywhere PBS Stations

Classical Baby - HBO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRTve5Q0s_Mhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biJ3FP8aDjY


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Audio & Podcasts, Video Users can bookmark and share

YouTube Channel: only 44 videos with 304 subscribers


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Harrietblog: dedicated tofeaturing vibrant online

discussions of poetry and

poetics.

The Learning Lab: online

resources for teachers,

students, and learners

Sign up to receive bi-weeklyupdates and feature stories

via email


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Based on the survey results, the PoetryFoundation realized that their website

was an untapped medium for reaching

new audiences

In 2009, the Poetry Foundationcontracted Tierra Innovations, Inc. for

$354,722

Developed the mobile app, a content

management system (CMS), a new

layout for the Audio & Podcasts andVideo sections of the website, and

The Learning Lab


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In total, the Poetry Foundation paid $1,338,138 to develop andmaintain their site in 2009

The re-design attracted 3.5 million unique visitors to the site and 1.5

million podcast downloads

The website also provided users access to over 9,000 poems, an

increase from the 6,000 available in the 2007 archive

In 2009, the website and other media channels garnered $38,872 in

advertising revenue for the Foundation


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American Life in Poetry, a free weekly column featuring

contemporary American poems, is nationally syndicated to4 million readers in more than 60 publications every week

The Writers Almanac, a radio program that recounts this

day in history and reads a poem or two, is heard by more

than 2 million listeners on more than 300 public radio

stations and XM Satellite Radio every day

Poetry Foundations YouTube channel:

the most viewed video was posted 3

years ago and has 12,788 views to date

22,183 followers on Twitter
http://www.youtube.com/user/PoetryFoundation?blend=7&ob=5


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In 2011, John Barr stated that the Poetry Foundation reached 19

million new poetry readers in 2010

Their website had 4.5 million unique visitors last year

365,000 students participated in the 2010 Poetry Out Loud

competition


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Media director monitors and reports on the Media Initiative

The director receives a $74,000 salary to develop poetry outreach

programs for a variety of media channels and overseeAmerican Life

in Poetry, the weekly poetry column

The Foundation also employs six people to maintain and produce

content for the website, including an editor, web producer, and

permissions coordinator


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New building cost: $21 million

In 2006, conducted $700,000 study on Americans views towardspoetry

Annual website upkeep: $1 million annually

Poetry Out Loud competition: $50,000 per year

The foundation has a budget of $7 million per year received throughthe Ruth Lilly endowment


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Reduce the dichotomybetween the mission and thelook/feel of the Poetry

Foundations materials

Incorporate more modernforms of poetry such as rap,or even twitter

Make more use of multimediatools like YouTube but be

more adventurous in what isexplored and in theanimation/voiceover work
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1GtBpIORJY


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Questions?

Comments?

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