KCTS Seattle

Here’s an interesting transformation: Seattle public TV station KCTS has merged with Crosscut, a local nonprofit site, and acquired a community site, What’s Good 206, rechristening itself Cascade Public Media. Dru Sefton reports on the changes, which won’t see layoffs (but will see some part-timers becoming full-time), and how they’re geared toward extending journalistic reach.

President Rob Dunlop said the Seattle PBS outlet is “flipping the model” of the typical public TV station by creating original digital content that will be broadcast later. “We are not diminishing our commitment to Channel 9,” Dunlop said. “But in order for us to be a public media institution of tomorrow, and to engage new audiences where they are spending time — online and mobile — we need to create content first for those platforms.”

The head of the Seattle noncommercial outlet resigned Thursday, citing family issues. Rob Dunlop, EVP of operations at Fisher Communications in Seattle, will lead the station on an interim basis.