Company Profile
ideastream
Company Overview
ideastream® is public broadcasting and a whole lot more.
ideastream is a non-profit organization that applies the power of media to education, culture and citizenship. It includes WVIZ/PBS, 90.3 WCPN, educational and public service cable channels, broadband interactive video distance learning, the Internet and other interactive media.
Based on careful and ongoing ascertainment of community needs, ideastream acquires, creates and delivers content that connects those who seek knowledge with those who have it.
ideastream leverages technical, creative and financial resources through partnerships with other organizations that share interests in education and public service. Support comes primarily from contributions made by individuals, foundations and corporations. Funding from state and federal agencies also plays a critical role.
ideastream has attracted national attention as a new model for public service media. The services of ideastream multiple media are utilized by more than 2.8 million people a month
Company History
Forming ideastream
Stimulated by the success of a collaborative project, the planning committees of WVIZ/PBS and 90.3 WCPN met in the fall of 1999 to discuss how the two stations could continue to partner to better serve the community. As discussions evolved, it became clear that the then separate organizations shared a public service mission, had identical business models, and held a common view of the digital future.
In January of 2000, the committees made the following recommendation to their respective Boards: Combine WCPN & WVIZ to form a new non-profit multi-media entity with distinctive, locally-based content in areas of news, education, entertainment, culture and public service to serve the Northeast Ohio community and beyond.
Both Boards agreed, and each appointed members to an implementation team. That team worked diligently over the next nine months to outline a specific plan to merge the organizations into a new non-profit entity. The plan was approved by the two Boards and announced in October of 2000.
On June 30, 2001, the former non-profit organizations, Educational Television Association of Metropolitan Cleveland and Cleveland Public Radio, were dissolved. On July 1, a non-profit organization, ideastream, took life as a new public service multiple media organization with a Board of Trustees comprised of members of the former Boards of the predecessor organizations.
The concept of ideastream is to bring together a variety of educational and public service media programs to leverage creative, technical and financial assets to better serve our communities.