World TV and WorldCompass.org continue to aim for younger, diverse viewers

The World TV channel, launched in 2007, re-imagined over the past couple years (Current, Sept. 8, 2009) and relaunched last year (Current, June 7, 2010), continues to evolve in its quest to lure younger viewers to its PBS documentary programming and website, reports the MediaShift blog. "Currently, a majority of our viewers are your usual PBS demo of 50- to 60-year-olds," said Matey Odonkor, WorldCompass.org's manager of online communications. "Not that this is a bad thing." However, "we want to offer age-relevant programming to young adults who grew up watching PBS programs with their parents but stopped watching." WorldCompass.org wants to engage 30- to 45-year-olds as well as the coveted 18- to 34-year-old demographic. It's featuring several bloggers including the edgy Hari Kondabolu, an up-and-coming comic who recently starred in a Comedy Central Presents special. His videoblogging for WorldCompass is "more intimate and personal than his stand-up but no less funny," MediaShift notes. So far WorldCompass.org has 285 fans on Facebook, 96 Twitter followers and a YouTube channel with 44 subscribers. "While these numbers are small, the staff is experimenting with ways to increase them," MediaShift says.