August 19, 2020
ONE OF OUR GREATEST INSTITUTIONS:
Radio listening has plummeted. NPR is reaching a bigger audience than ever. What gives? (Sarah Scire, Aug. 19, 2020, Nieman Lab)
Even as its legacy platform's audience has declined, though, NPR says it is reaching more people than ever. The dip in radio listenership -- 22 percent -- has coincided with a record number of people turning to NPR on virtually every other platform. More people than ever are reaching NPR through the website, apps, livestreams, and smart speakers ("Alexa, I want to listen to NPR").In total, 57 million listen or watch or read NPR content each week, up 10 percent from this time last year. Comparing spring 2019 to spring 2020, here's where NPR saw its numbers move:Unique weekly visitors to NPR.org increased 94 percentSmart speaker streams and on-demand audio increased 29 percentLive stream listeners increased 39 percentNPR app usage grew 22 percentNPR One app usage increased 19 percentNPR Music, through YouTube, saw its traffic increase by 90 percentThese changes have implications for NPR's bottom line, which draws on a mix of underwriting, member station fees, government funds, and donations. In 2020, for the first time, NPR will make more money from underwriting on podcasts than from its radio shows.
But, for its own sake, NPR should seek to liberate itself from any dependence on government funding at all.
Posted by Orrin Judd at August 19, 2020 1:21 PM
