A day at NPR
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my day at NPR. Smart people, but then that’s obvious. Andy Carvin, our host, live-blogs the morning and I think he’ll put up videos from the afternoon. Dinner remains undocumented and that’s a good thing, after a few glasses of Italian-joint plonk. A few random notes:
* Maria Thomas, the impressive head of NPR.org, explained the history of the organization and its relationship with member stations. It was the stations that decided, in 1971, that they needed an NPR. And when NPR almost went belly-up in 1983, it was the stations that rescued it.
I think the reality of today is that it’s NPR’s turn to rescue the stations. But I also wonder whether they can afford such loyalty. The value of broadcast distribution is bound to continue to diminish and some portion of the 300-odd NPR affiliates are mostly distributors, rather than creators. So the question is what an NPR station should become. Like newspapers, it seems they need to find their fate in being local. But what this is is not entirely clear.
* Rob Paterson, who generously put this event together (I say generously because it’s amazing that a consultant brings in other outside voices), said that after a big event across NPR and its member stations, involving 1,000 people, it became clear that direct relationships with listeners are inevitable and desirable. That’s a big deal; it’s a shift of control.
* Fascinating demographics of public broadcasting. In very rough numbers, PBS viewers’ average is is 60ish; NPRs is 50ish; NPR.org is 40ish; and the podcasts are 30ish.
* NPR has an operating budget of $140 million with 750 employees. By comparison, last I checked, Entertainment Weekly, a single magazine, had a budget more than double that.
* NPR is working on a new show with Michel Martin and they’re doing that — this is new for them — in public, via the Rough Cuts blog.
* Matt Martinez is a producer working on another new show, a news show aimed at youth, and I liked hearing him say that what they do has to be heard and found not just via NPR and its stations and web site but where the people are (read: YouTube and blogs).
He also said that in this new effort, they believe that the show never ends. The stories continue. Amen. It’s a process.
* Many nice lines from David Weinberger. My favorite: “There is an inverse relationship between control and trust.” The more you hand over control, the more trust you earn. True of media, business, government. He also said that trust is not a goal but an enabler: if you have trust, you can do more.
* Many nice lines from Doc Searls. My favorite was about the “because effect” of open source. Because there is Linux and such, we can have Amazon, Google, et al. This is how I look at my efforts to preach the benefits of an open-source ad marketplace. If we had it, because we have it, many things would bloom.
* Many nice lines from Jay Rosen. My favorite came in response to Michel Martin on the difficulty of dealing with controversy — that is, with speaking bluntly in divisive matters. “NPR,” he said, “has to maintain its political innocence and sometimes that comes into conflict with the truth.”
* Many nice lines from Euan Semple, who quoted someone when we discussed getting pilot projects that what you want are “Trojan mice.”
* A highlight for me was meeting Zadi Diaz, star and cocreator of JetSet. She’s one of the people reinventing TV and she had much good advice for bit, old media.
Tags: npr, publicmedia
February 16th, 2007 at 9:18 pm
[...] By all accounts it was a great event and you can read a variety of accounts from the participants: Jeff Jarvis, Andy Carvin (who has posted text and video from today’s gathering), Dave Weinberger, Robert Paterson, and Doc Searls. [...]
February 17th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
[...] Jeff Jarvis spent a day at NPR: “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my day at NPR. Smart people, but then that’s obvious. Andy Carvin, our host, live-blogs the morning and I think he’ll put up videos from the afternoon. Dinner remains undocumented and that’s a good thing, after a few glasses of Italian-joint plonk… I think the reality of today is that it’s NPR’s turn to rescue the stations. But I also wonder whether they can afford such loyalty. The value of broadcast distribution is bound to continue to diminish and some portion of the 300-odd NPR affiliates are mostly distributors, rather than creators. So the question is what an NPR station should become.” Read more at the BuzzMachine. Posted on February 17, 2007 | Permalink | | View blog reactions » [...]
February 17th, 2007 at 1:43 pm
I used to donate to NPR occasionally, but I don’t anymore. They use terms like “fallen soldier” on a regular basis and often have people such as Dick Cheney on with no editorial response from Independents, Socialists, or even the lowly Democrats.
They’ve caved in to the war machine and are appeasing the very people who wish to see them gone.
February 17th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
Hi Jeff,
I’ve uploaded a bunch of videos from the afternoon session on my blog and will do the same on YouTube. -andy
February 17th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
Mr. Jarvis.
I believe that NPR Utah KCPW would make you proud. It is not WHYY with its Fresh Air, but it does a lot of local programming and reporting.
February 18th, 2007 at 1:12 am
Oh yeah, thanks for blogging about the NPR social media shindig!
February 18th, 2007 at 10:28 am
WVIA-FM in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, PA market has also been doing local content for a good long time, they have a weekly program covering regional arts and theatre, plus their weeknights from seven to eleven is all local origination including a weekly showcase of regional original musicians and periodic live in studio and remote performances. There is also some cross-over with WVIA-TV of certain locally produced shows, noteably the regional political debates are simulcast by both.
February 19th, 2007 at 7:32 pm
[...] BuzzMachine » Blog Archive » A day at NPR - I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my day at NPR. Smart people, but then that?s obvious. [...]
February 20th, 2007 at 12:00 pm
[...] Last week, Rob Paterson and Andy Carvin pulled an A-List of social media gurus into the hallowed halls of NPR to brainstorm and discuss how community engagement will play out in public radio’s overall strategy. Not surprisingly, the discussion has dribbled onto the blogs of those in attendance, including all-around-smart-guy Doc Searls, rising star and TV disruptor Zadi Diaz, and our old pal Jeff Jarvis. Of course, Andy blogged just about everything on his Waste of Bandwidth, with video and more of Jay Rosen and David Weinberger (wonder where J.D. Lasica and Dan Gillmor were?). It is an interesting look not only at how an organization like NPR is dealing with social media, community and citizen journalism, but also at the challenges at play in weighing these critical concepts. I’ve infamously ranted in the past about the need for public broadcasting to embrace community; it says a lot about NPR for assembling a group like this, knowing they would be as transparent as they are. [...]
February 20th, 2007 at 3:27 pm
[...] Last week, Rob Paterson and Andy Carvin pulled an A-List of social media gurus into the hallowed halls of NPR to brainstorm and discuss how community engagement will play out in public radio’s overall strategy. Not surprisingly, the discussion has dribbled onto the blogs of those in attendance, including all-around-smart-guy Doc Searls, Euan Semple, rising star and TV disruptor Zadi Diaz, and our old pal Jeff Jarvis. Of course, Andy blogged just about everything on his Waste of Bandwidth, with video and more of Jay Rosen and David Weinberger (wonder where J.D. Lasica and Dan Gillmor were?). It is an interesting look not only at how an organization like NPR is dealing with social media, community and citizen journalism, but also at the challenges at play in weighing these critical concepts. I’ve infamously ranted in the past about the need for public broadcasting to embrace community; it says a lot about NPR for assembling a group like this, knowing they would be as transparent as they are. [...]
July 20th, 2007 at 11:23 am
good morning.
January 31st, 2008 at 7:41 am
[...] way to go, but by the power of the idea and how much it actively moves within the space. Credit to Jeff Jarvis for that thinking, which I think is 100% right. This is similar to what Radian6 does in their [...]
March 7th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
[...] said that at NPR sometime ago when I visited with other graybeards of the social media world, giving them our solicited advice. Here was my [...]