KRWG Public Media is one of 50 public media stations across the country selected to participate in the Digital Transformation Program delivered by the Poynter Institute.
KRWG began the nine-month program in March 2025. Funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the program educates, assists and coaches public media leaders and staff on the best strategies to transform their organization’s digital operations and culture to meet the needs of local audiences.
While KRWG has had a digital-first approach in place for several years, the program will put the station in a position to better understand its audiences across TV, radio and web.
“It’ll help us develop more relevant content, and help us meet our audiences where they are,” says Adrian Velarde ’92, KRWG Public Media general manager.
As part of the program’s Fundamental Track, Velarde and six other KRWG staff members receive virtual one-on-one and peer group coaching sessions, educational webinars and practical work exercises designed to accelerate KRWG’s digital development and drive audience and revenue growth.
The Poynter Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to journalistic excellence and advancing press freedoms in democracies worldwide, will provide monthly training through December 2025.
The program aims to help participating stations create an audience-centric, digital-first focus and build deeper connections with their communities while growing revenues and strengthening their financial foundations. It also shows stations how to speed up their digital transformations by emphasizing the development and use of multi-platform digital content tied to local audience needs and expectations.
“I’m excited to take advantage of these new tools and training to help KRWG move forward integrating new digital capabilities in our growing community,” says Edmundo Resendez, KRWG Public Media director of development.
A key part of the program provides intensive data analytics training to enhance data literacy among station leaders to improve their decision-making capabilities.
“We use metrics to a certain extent already,” Velarde says, “but this will help us fine-tune how we identify what programming resonates with our local community.”
KRWG is part of the program’s second phase. Between 2022 and 2023, the program trained 79 public media entities and 458 station personnel.
Top: Adrian Velarde, KRWG Public Media general manager, speaks in front of a camera crew in KRWG’s studio on NMSU’s Las Cruces campus. Velarde and six other KRWG staff members are participating in the nine-month Digital Transformation Program. A key part of the program provides intensive data analytics training to enhance data literacy among station leaders like Velarde.
Dove Hall, Room 212
305 N. Horseshoe Drive
Las Cruces, NM 88003
