By Barrett Golding 2009.03.21 1 Comment»
Fast Co wonders: “Will NPR Save the News?”
NPR’s listenership has nearly doubled since 1999, even as newspaper circulation dropped off a cliff. Its programming now reaches 26.4 million listeners weekly — far more than USA Today’s 2.3 million daily circ or Fox News’ 2.8 million prime-time audience. When newspapers were closing bureaus, NPR was opening them, and now runs 38 around the world, better than CNN. It has 860 member stations — “boots on the ground in every town” that no newspaper or TV network can claim. It has moved boldly into new media as well: 14 million monthly podcast downloads, 8 million Web visitors, NPR Mobile, an open platform, a social network, even crowdsourcing.
No surprise to me. Standard news broadcast devolved to ‘Bert & Ernie’ entertainment / pseudo-new decades ago. I can no watch local TV news years ago. Too cutesy, bs.
Further, NPR, PRI, HV, TAL, RadioLab, PBS, et cetera have embraced new technologies. I deeply value the ability to download hour long programs that I can listen to on my schedule.
And, we gladly contribute financial support to our favorites, annually.
HV, keep up the good work.
jrbox
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