A special message from Executive Director Michelle Kristel

Welcome to IN THE LIFE's new website and our new season. This month IN THE LIFE turns "Sweet 16" with a new look, a new host and a renewed commitment to documenting the issues and people that are shaping the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender experience in the United States and abroad.

This new site has far greater bandwidth and will soon be home to 20 hours of streaming IN THE LIFE episodes and, eventually, our entire series will be available for download. Now you will also be able to subscribe to pod-casts of IN THE LIFE that will automatically download our new episode on the 2nd of each month. Please visit our Podcast page to learn how you can sign up for automatic downloads of each new episode of IN THE LIFE.

Our New Look

While IN THE LIFE grew and evolved over the past 15 years from a variety show, to an anchor-based news program, to the award-winning newsmagazine it is today, we have had the same trapezoid logo. The trapezoid served us well as the symbol for our organization, and show, since our first broadcast in June 1992. But like many people and organizations, we needed a "makeover." Last fall, to keep up with the ever-changing media landscape, and to freshen our look to more adequately reflect our program and mission, IN THE LIFE began an extensive rebranding project.

Through board member Jonathan Saw we retained the pro bono services of a team of brand strategists. The process of articulating our purpose and updating our look began with the board and staff participating in detailed interviews and completing extensive questionnaires. Our brand development strategist, Camille DeSantis, analyzed the results that provided the basis for a facilitated retreat in which organization and programmatic attributes and objectives were debated, coalesced and refined.

Over the winter, we examined over 5,000 member and viewer surveys designed to ascertain what we were getting right and wrong, and how we could better satisfy our most valuable asset...you. The respondents were remarkably consistent in their desire to see more segments in each episode, and to see segments on a wider variety of topics. The surveys results indicated strong interest in segments focusing on history, international issues, politics and investigative reports.

This spring, with organizational goals and program composition defined, our strategic brand design specialist, Maria Casini, and her team of designers at Casini Design, began work on the visual elements that reflect our refreshed brand. Casini designed our new logo, which reflects IN THE LIFE's position as a "voice" for the LGBT community, surrounding two interlocking "screens" that represent that duality of our position on public television and, increasingly, the Internet.

In Gratitude

We are grateful to the Arcus and Gill Foundations for the generous financial investment in our work that has made this new site possible.

We are also grateful to Camille DeSantis, Maria Casini, and our board member Jonathan Saw, who so graciously donated their time and knowledge to make our dream of a "new" IN THE LIFE a reality.

Most of all, we are grateful to our donors and viewers, whose loyal support for the last 16 years has made IN THE LIFE the source for an intelligent, provocative, and independent medium that informs and inspires.

Feedback

We'd love to hear what you think about our new look, website and season. Please send your comments to webmaster@inthelifetv.org.