NPR launches social-network features
p2pnet news view Radio | P2P:- America’s National Public Radio is coming of age — the online digital age.
It says it’s boosted its digital ambitions with yesterday’s launch of its own social-networking features and also plans to overhaul its Web site and expand the tools for sharing its programs elsewhere over the next few months.
“And it is working to increase the flexibility of its popular ‘podcasts,’ audio downloads that have tripled in usage over the past two years,” it declares.
Behind the moves are a plans to capture and retain audiences, “particularly younger people who aren’t habitual radio listeners but who represent the future for fundraising at NPR’s member stations,” it says, continuing »»»
Yet NPR faces a challenge in finding common ground with the stations, which rely on traditional, local radio offerings to draw contributions.
The national organization, acknowledging that its early Internet initiatives at times collided with its member stations, insists many of the new offerings have been developed with the stations’ needs and concerns in mind.
“We definitely see ourselves at a pivotal point,” said Dana Davis Rehm, NPR’s senior vice president for strategy and partnerships. “We know where we want to be, but navigating the waters can be challenging at times. Every now and then we get rough seas.”
Jeffrey Dvorkin, a former NPR ombudsman now with the Ryerson School of Journalism in Toronto, described the tensions as “growing pains as NPR uses its considerable editorial and creative muscle to use the Internet to maximum effect.”
But there are concerns.
Example, will the NPR.org Web site encourage listeners to bypass the individual stations on the Web as well as on air? – NPR asks.
And, ” If listeners get everything they need from the central organization to which local stations pay dues, they might stop giving or give less to their local stations.”
Nonetheless, it states, public radio audiences and contributions to public radio have been going up.
Online traffic is up
“NPR stations combined had 31.3 million weekly listeners in spring 2008, a 3 percent increase from the same period a year earlier,” says NPR.
Online traffic is also up. According to comScore, NPR.org had 2.6 million unique visitors in August, a 78 percent increase from a year earlier.
Rehm also promised long gone are the days when NPR waited, “until the 11th hour, if ever” to consult with stations on its digital plans.
According to Bob Lyons, director of new media for WGBH in Boston, even though the new social-networking tools will initially be available only at NPR.org, they’ll still help local listeners connect with one another and with local stations.
NPR also plans to expand its library of the new social-networking APIs (the new social-networking tools) to let the general public and local stations incorporate NPR content into their own applications.
“One use of the APIs plots the subjects of NPR stories on a world map,” it says, and others, “promise to help stations blend local and national content online”.
Laura Walker, chief executive for WNYC, said 60 percent of its contributions now come over the Internet, and the expanded audience for local shows has resulted in pledges from as far as Japan and China.
And, “Consumers’ expectations are changing, and our audience wants more flexibility,” has Darren Mauro, a digital media director at NPR, saying, adding:
“To be realistic, the Internet is a fast-moving place. That makes everybody nervous on one level, and everyone sees new opportunities on another.”
National Public Radio – NPR boosts online offerings, seeks larger audience, September 29, 2008
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October 1st, 2008 at 6:52 pm
“Example, will the NPR.org Web site encourage listeners to bypass the individual stations on the Web as well as on air? – NPR asks.”
Easy solution to that:
1. Have the member-stations who create content of their own send it to npr.org. That way, interesting “local” programming can be easily accessed from the central site.
2. Create a sub-page with allows access to the “listen on the web” function of those stations which have web presence.