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Belying its reputed distaste for crass commerce, NPR has become quite entrepreneurial--in a once cozy environment that has turned surprisingly competitive. NPR doesn't own any radio stations. It is an independent producer and distributor of shows, led by the venerable news programs Morning Edition and All Things Considered. More than 700 of the 908 public-radio stations in the U.S. pay annual NPR membership dues of $7,845, plus "carriage fees," which run as high as $1.3 million a year, to broadcast NPR programs. But in contrast to common practice in commercial radio and TV, public-radio stations...
Nonetheless, NPR, PRI and many large and medium-size stations have surprisingly healthy balance sheets. Though NPR has suffered a 40% drop in corporate underwriting revenues, from a peak of $33 million in 2000, its total revenue has fallen only 6% and is projected to rise in 2003. NPR plugged much of its shortfall by raising carriage fees and wheedling new cash from big charitable donors. (It recently won a $14 million MacArthur Foundation grant.) NPR has also started selling ad space on its headquarters building, and is widening its brand with two channels on Sirius Satellite Radio...
Many stations can afford to pay higher fees for NPR's programs these days because they have a broader base of listeners to tap. New York City's WNYC just completed its strongest winter fund-raising drive, reaping $1.2 million, and in the past six years its budget has increased nearly threefold, to $24 million. "We get very little government support," says WNYC president Laura Walker, 45, "but our listeners come through...
...scant noncrisis coverage. The percentage of Americans who listen to radio for at least 15 minutes at any given time has fallen to 14.5%, from 17.5% in 1989, reports Inside Radio. Commercial stations are "losing out on the growth in the U.S. population," says Inside analyst Tony Sanders. NPR's Stern says this trend "has been to the detriment of radio generally but to the benefit of public-radio listeners...
With an average household income of $78,000, NPR's audience is among the most affluent and educated in the nation. Public-radio listeners are staying tuned in for the same amount of time weekly that they did in 1995, despite an 8% drop in time spent listening to radio overall. One reason: NPR spent much of the 1990s bulking up its news staff, adding 28 reporters and correspondents and opening 31 offices, with the aim of becoming more of a primary news source rather than a purveyor of features a few days late under the guise of "analysis...