The Alcove with Mark Molaro

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Images

The Alcove Website

Alcove Question of the Day in Facebook

Recent Alcove Guests

Budget

Raised to date: $100,000.00
Estimate to complete: $500,000.00
Total Estimated Budget: $600,000.00
The budget numbers above are accurate as of 02/23/2009

Status

Production

Media Type

Web

Project End Use

Internet

Key Personnel

Mark Molaro
Host, Executive Editor, Co-Executive Producer and Concept Originator
Mark Molaro is the executive editor and co-executive producer of The Alcove with Mark Molaro. He has over four years of full-time experience in this role and has grown the program from its origins to its current state. Mark Molaro has a background in documentary filmmaking, producing and directing films on Antarctica, education, the arts and human rights.

Janet Lawler
Co-Executive Producer and Guest Booker
Janet Lawler is the co-executive producer and guests booker for The Alcove with Mark Molaro since its beginning. She also has an extensive background with many years of experience as a producer, editor and writer for NBC in New York and independently as a writer.

Outreach/Engagement Plan(s)

We engage with our audience directly through our home website and especially through our use of social media. On Facebook and Twitter for instance, we ask our audience a daily "Alcove Question of the Day", a topical question on a variety of subjects that allows our audience to respond, interact and aggregate in a meaningful manner.

Our program is very popular online, with views in the millions, and what we are looking for is public grants to allow us to produce our program and reach as large an audience as possible.

Recommendations For Mark Molaro:

“Mark and his team have created an excellent long-form interview format online. He resists the trappings of the 24-second media cycle that seems to be moving toward a nanosecond. His interviews provide the familiarity of “a conversation” without the insider elitism plaguing many flagship interview shows. With a shoe-string budget, Mark’s tenacity to provide us diverse and accomplished subjects is more than admirable. I’m sure we’ll see more of Mark in the years to come. Stay online.” April 4, 2009

Jessica Duda, Interactive Consultant, PBS

“Mark Molaro represents a new media ideal. He is creating original, compelling media via The Alcove, then reaching out to various people and orgs via social media to help him share the media he has poured time and effort and thought into. So many people are creating every possible kind of media now. But Mark is creating the kind that will flourish in an online environment as it's just the sort of interesting, groundbreaking content which people engaged seriously in social media will be compelled to share within their own carefully cultivated networks. Mark just "gets it." He's an industry leader I am delighted to have connected with online as I know he cares deeply about developing relationships with people he considers far more than just a passive audience. Mark thinks of his viewership as partners, and there is so much power in that approach to media now. I appreciate and greatly respect what he's doing, and I look to Mark's examples as I go forward in creating original online content myself. Mark is setting a standard we can analyze and emulate with confidence and admiration.” March 24, 2009

Grayson Daughters, President, WaySouth Media

“The first time I met Mark, I was impressed with his passion for creativity, his deep intelligence and dedication to his craft. As I have watched him develop The Alcove, I have been so impressed with HOW he interviews people. He listens to them. He has a way of putting his guests at ease and as a result, they are more open, and the conversations become positively illuminating. The Alcove is such a pleasure to watch and it has everything to do with Mark's presence, focus and insights. I predict that The Alcove with Mark Molaro is on it's way to becoming an internet institution.” March 22, 2009

Patricia Hartwell, Independent Producer, Media Consultant, GalHart Media

“As the host and producer of The Alcove, Mark sets the bar high for everyone producing original shows for the Web. He is smart, thoughtful, prepared and deeply engaged in the interviews he conducts, which makes the show a delight to watch. When I think about truly outstanding Web shows, The Alcove immediately comes to mind. And as convergence continues to spread, I can see people flipping from watching The Alcove with Mark Molaro to Charlie Rose - and then heading back to watch more from Mark.” March 22, 2009

Dina Kaplan, Co-Founder/COO, blip.tv

“The Alcove with Mark Molaro is a delight, and it's no accident. I have tuned in on many occasions and always been impressed, both by the quality of the guests Mark books and the interviews he conducts. Mark knows how to have a real conversation: He asks good questions, listens with genuine interest, always brings out the best in his guests -- and also happens to be a really nice guy! I am definitely a fan, and I recommend Mark and his show without reservation.” March 21, 2009

Linda Lopez, President, MCAI New York

“I can honestly say that of the many media interviews I have done, the one conducted by Mark Molaro for The Alcove was the best. First of all, Mark has a manner that put me completely at ease. He is engaged, sincere, and unpretentious. He has excellent communications skills that also translate very well in the medium of video and in the 20+ minute interview format. Secondly, Mark is intellectually deeply engaged in the topic, a welcome change from much of the rushed and superficial journalistic treatments I have seen. Mark had carefully read my book "When Languages Die", which was the focus of our interview. He had also thought deeply about the interconnections among different areas of social and natural sciences, and was therefore able to frame highly articulate and probing questions that led me (and I trust, the viewers) down new paths of thinking. Since being interviewed on The Alcove, I have had a number of e-mails and comments from people indicating that the quality and presentation of the interview were excellent. I'm so grateful to Mark for that, and for his intellectual engagement with issues of social importance. He's a shining example of how thoughtful, unhurried and engaged media can be an effective conduit for ideas.” March 21, 2009

K. David Harrison, PhD, Linguist, consultant, National Geographic Society

“Being interviewed by Mark Molaro when my book came out was a surprise. I hadn't heard of Mark and didn't know what to expect. He turned out to be a solid interviewer. He'd read the book and was prepared with detailed questions. At the time he assured me that though his operation appeared modest--we worked out of a makeshift studio--the interview would be distributed widely. He wasn't kidding. I am a subscriber to Google Alerts. Each time my book is mentioned I get an email notice. For months after the interview--and I mean months and months and months later--I kept getting emails indicating another website had featured the Alcove interview. Mark is one of the new breed of entrepreneurs who are making incredibly productive use of the Internet's vast resources. He's putting Old Media to shame with his focus on substance instead of filler. Rick Shenkman Editor of History News Network Author of: Just How Stupid Are We? Facing the Truth About the American Voter. http://howstupidblog.com” March 20, 2009

Rick Shenkman, Editor, History News Network

“I give Mark and his interview show, The Alcove, my very highest recommendation. I had the privilege of being interviewed by Mark on The Alcove in November 2007, and it was one of the best interviews (out of hundreds on television and radio) I ever have had. Mark's manner is relaxed and deeply informed. It was during that interview that I first publicly discussed my concept of "New New Media," which is the title of my forthcoming book. I frequently assign this interview - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqZNGYit3kY - to students. I consider Mark Molaro the Charlie Rose of the Internet, and commend The Alcove as necessary viewing in our complex age, and as a wonderful opportunity if ever you are invited to be a guest.” March 20, 2009

Paul Levinson, Author (media history and theory) & Professor of Media Studies, Fordham University, New York

Funders

Name	Amount	Date
Starbucks Coffee Company Grant	$0.00	11/01/2008

Location

30-44 34th Street
Apt. 5D
Astoria, NY, 11103

See Google Maps

Short Synopsis

The Alcove with Mark Molaro is a smart, informed and socially conscious in-depth interview program based in New York focused at the next generation. We are listed in Open Culture's list of "Intelligent YouTube: 80 Smart Video Collections" along with the NYT, the BBC and PBS: http://www.oculture.com/2008/03/youtubesmartvideos.html

Description/Treatment

The Alcove with Mark Molaro is an in-depth online interview program that is working to be the next generation of intelligent, informed and thoughtful conversation. Our distinguished guests come from a wide variety of backgrounds, including the arts, science, technology, journalism, politics, religion, world health, economics, academia, activism, and education.

Recent guests on the program include Carl Bernstein, Campbell Brown, Naomi Klein, Rich Lowry, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Arianna Huffington, Thomas Frank, David Smick, Tina Brown, Jimmy Wales, Harry Frankfurt, Naomi Wolf, Amity Shlaes, Helen Epstein, Jonathan Schell, Peter Yarrow, David Singh Grewal, Greil Marcus and many others.

The genesis of the program came out of the realization of two major cultural observations. Firstly, that despite a fine tradition of in-depth interviewing in public broadcasting with the likes of Bill Moyers and Charlie Rose, there was unfortunately a dearth of this kind of quality interviewing in the next generation, especially amongst those under the age of forty. Secondly, that given the rise of new media and it's capacity for creative and intellectual communication, as well as its potential for aggregating emerging social media, that there was thus both an enormous need and opportunity for our program. To date we are not aware of a solely new media-based interview program focused on quality long-form interviewing such as ours is.

Our program also engages in quality interaction with our audience using social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. A recent feature is our "Alcove Question of the Day" where we pose important and topical questions directly to our audience. Two of the questions we directly asked our audience this week include "What do you think of the $819 billion stimulus bill that was just passed in the House by only Democrats?" and "Is a lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians likely if the US focuses on the problem for the next four years?". We have been heartened by the strong participation of our audience in response to our communication outreach to them.

Our key personnel include Mark Molaro, who is the host, co-executive producer and executive editor of the program. Mr. Molaro has a background in documentary and informational programming and has a distinguished record as a notable interviewer in New York. One recent guest on our program, the Fordham University media professor and author Paul Levinson enthusiastically described Mr. Molaro as "the Charlie Rose of the internet". (Source: http://paullevinson.blogspot.com/2008/07/ariana-huffington-interviewed-o...)

Janet Lawler is the co-executive producer of our program. She has an extensive background in news and informational programming, including her work at NBC in New York as a content producer, editor and writer.

The Alcove with Mark Molaro has been fortunate to recently have drawn some dedicated corporate support from the Starbucks Coffee Company of Seattle and we are currently developing other responsible corporate relationships with other potential sponsors.

The Alcove with Mark Molaro can be found at the following links:

www.markmolaro.com
www.youtube.com/markmolaro
http://markmolaro.blip.tv

Click here to ask for more information about this project:

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