Comments on: NPR – doing everything right

By: How not to throw a programme trail together - James Cridland

How not to throw a programme trail together - James Cridland — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 18:14:57 +0000

[...] written some incredibly positive things about NPR’s online stuff. It’s a constant let-down to me that the on-air product [...]

By: On-demand speech radio: disaggregation and transcripts - James Cridland

On-demand speech radio: disaggregation and transcripts - James Cridland — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 21:33:04 +0000

[...] while back, I went to chat with NPR. I was pretty impressed at what they were doing – particularly, their automated [...]

By: A trawl round the net, July 2010 - James Cridland

A trawl round the net, July 2010 - James Cridland — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 19:58:27 +0000

[...] presentation (getting another outing in Zurich in a few weeks’ time) by mentioning the bright things NPR does online, including their API. It turns out that WBUR, the NPR station in Boston, has agressively used this [...]

By: TrackInTheBox, the NPR API, and more things UK radio misses out on - James Cridland

Sun, 25 Apr 2010 23:53:01 +0000

[...] API, which I’ve written about before, delivered 1.1 billion stories in March. The readwriteweb article I’ve linked to goes into [...]

By: When NPR.org is still too long… hello n.pr - James Cridland

When NPR.org is still too long… hello n.pr - James Cridland — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:24:43 +0000

[...] NPR stuff that makes people really sit up. I’ve detailed the really clever things that NPR do already: things like transcripts, a decent API, and their wildly successful iPhone [...]

By: Jonathan Marks

Jonathan Marks — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 07:30:43 +0000

Just been doing some travelling in the US too, and dropped by KQED one of the largest public stations in the US and operating on a combined budget of 55 million dollars a year. They get 13 million from public funds, the rest they beg for over the air. Sounds horrible, but it seems it works. Interesting that their radio audience is 35-50, their TV audience is 60+ and it is the radio audience that generates most of the cash. I think the picture they have of the Beeb is mainly based on their experience of BBC World Service programmes fed to them and programmes like their coproduction with the WGBH, The World. They told me that of their digital listening, 80% was live, 20% on demand. HD Radio listening is under 5% at the moment. Tend to agree on the NPR Style comments. It’s too 80′s for my liking – people presenting for you rather that building a conversation.

By: 6 music, photography, and tidying up - James Cridland

6 music, photography, and tidying up - James Cridland — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 08:03:13 +0000

[...] mobile phones, and my figures from NPR’s iPhone app are surprising people when I present them. Another interesting set of figures comes from the Public [...]

By: James Cridland

James Cridland — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:44:28 +0000

Spike: of course, I don’t profess to be an expert on radio programming, particularly speech. I’d probably agree that NPR’s style could do with a bit of re-working.

Chris: Of course I’m not comparing like with like: except for online, where I believe the BBC has a -long- way to go to get anywhere near what NPR are doing. NPR really are showing the BBC the way to go.

By: Chris Mac

Chris Mac — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:37:38 +0000

Are you comparing like with like James? Basically NPR is one production house and production affiliates making one core domestic programme offering and supplying a stream of a relatively small number of programmes for its affiliates mainly in the US. Many affiliates add their own local speech or music programming around the national NPR offering. The BBC radio offering instead is 8 distinct 24×7 national domestic thematic public broadcast strands. The sheer breadth of even just Radio 4 far surpasses the range of NPR’s output, although some of those set NPR pieces are indeed very well done. I think NPR does make good use of its smaller collection of programming, much of which has not changed in years, and some of which has an element of BBC reporting and programme making within it anyway. I do think BBC R4 transcripts should be available and that 7-day timeout misses the point of online radio archives. NPR is a resource for the English-speaking world which unfortunately few beyond US shores are exposed to. I am a fan and it would be great to hear more of NPR on UK DAB for instance, if only for a slightly different view of the world. I think some BBC, RTE, Australian ABC and CBC programming is just as good and increasingly available via the web and web radios.

By: Spike Nesmith

Spike Nesmith — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 01:16:09 +0000

Infrastructure-wise, it’s hard to fault NPR. It’s an astonishingly well-run organisation, even at the local levels. But I have to take exception on their doing “everything” right.

After listening to it for a decade, I can tell you that the staff were right. NPR needs to take a long, hard look at Radio 4 and the BBC’s news department and reverse-engineer them for an American audience.

By: Ben

Ben — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:04:25 +0000

Interesting stuff – especially the bit about the CMS. Its good to see the concept of COPE still alive in the face of so much effort in the opposite direction.

Talking about their mobile app – they also have one on Nokia phones, produced by some clever chaps at Apadmi, a UK based company.

The real magic is not necessarily their app, but the access to content provided by NPR via their API.