Jim Schachter Joins WNYC Radio as VP of news next month. Schachter will be responsible for leading WNYC’s award-winning news brand.  He will oversee its strategic vision and planning, as well as editorial decisions related to production and operations. Schachter brings a wealth of news experience to New York Public Radio’s WNYC.

Schachter spent 17 years at the The New York Times, holding down senior editorial positions in both hard news and feature sections. Additionally, he was deputy editor of the business and culture news departments and of The New York Times Magazine.

Schachter will have editorial oversight of WNYC’s local and national radio and digital news properties, including the WNYC and New Jersey Public Radio local news teams, WNYC’s newly launched data news unit, the political site It’s a Free Country, and WNYC-produced news shows including the Peabody Award winning programs The Brian Lehrer Show, Radio Rookies, and On the Media.

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WNYC Radio has been awarded its first major grant toward an initiative that will significantly increase the station’s award-winning local journalism efforts.

The Charles H. Revson Foundation has pledged a total of $1 million in funding over a two-year period. The grant will support the station’s new digital journalism initiative using radio, digital and broadband technology to build greater capacity for coverage and conversation around issues facing New York City.

The three main goals of the initiative:

• To invest in robust editorial content on-air and online in key areas at the heart of a democratic society
• To engage in important conversations around meaningful and challenging issues
• To create sustainable editorial partnerships and open source applications that serve as models for collaboration and sharing across the public media system Read more

Last night, New York public radio station WNYC threw a gala at Gotham Hall to celebrate its recent acquisition of New York’s classical radio station WQXR and honor its former owner, The New York Times Co.

Hosted by Alec Baldwin, the evening featured performances by folksinger Judy Collins and opera diva Deborah Voigt. David Sanger, a New York Times correspondent and host of the “Washington Report” on WQXR — and grandson of the station’s founder Elliott Sanger — presented the Times Co. with an award, accepted by Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr., commemorating the company’s stewardship of WQXR since 1944.

Later, Baldwin announced that the winner of the evening’s raffle would get a radio — actually, an Internet radio tuned to WQXR. “The New York Times got a piece of glass, for the millions and millions of dollars they’ve coughed up,” he said. “A piece of glass. The winner of the raffle gets a radio.”

(Video and more pictures after the jump)

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Like almost every media outlet today, public radio station WNYC is facing tough times — as we reported yesterday it is now cutting 4 employees and eliminating eleven other unfilled positions. So it is with high hopes that the WNYC board has elected Herb Scannell chair of the station’s board of trustees.

Scannell seems like a wise choice to help lead WNYC into the future of media; he is currently chairman of Next New Networks, an independent producer of online television networks. (You may know it as the home of web celeb Julia Allison‘s “TMI Weekly” or the company that picked up Obama Girl creators BarelyPolitical.com.) He also previously served as vice chair of MTV Networks and president of Nickelodeon before co-founding Next New Networks in 2006, and he brings 25 years of media experience to his role at WNYC.

“As the models of traditional journalism are radically altered by the economy and the fast-paced demands of the online world, public radio has been able to retain its journalistic values while embracing new platforms and expanding its reach,” NYC president Laura Walker said in a statement yesterday. “We’re honored to have Herb, with his invaluable digital experience, at the helm during a time of rapid change and tremendous possibilities.”

Full release after the jump

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