NPR executing the ultimate distribution strategy
Still think NPR is a cute little public radio station? Think again.
The same technology that brought Google Maps to so many websites – the Application Programming Interface (API) – is now enabling NPR to become a distribution juggernaut. The news organization distribute the same content in many forms to many destinations with hardly any extra effort. This is the scale that publishers have longed for: create content once and see it published anywhere that can be imagined.
The NPR API delivered more than 1.1 billion stories last month and almost 5 million total in the past six months, according to a blog post today by NPR Director of Application Development Daniel Jacobson.”The big jump in total API requests from July to August are due to the launch of many new products in July,” Jacobson wrote. “Among them are the new NPR.org, the NPR.org Flash Player, the NPR News iPhone app, WBUR’s new web site, and Minnesota Public Radio’s new site.”
“While some media companies, such as News Corp, attempt to block their content from distribution, the NPR API seems to be making access to its content widespread,” Mike Melanson wrote on ReadWriteWeb.
Indeed, this strategy and execution is impressive. The combined reach through all the different channels that NPR content flows does nothing but build audience and brand loyalty, critical pieces of the NPR model.
Jacobson also posted an amazing slideshow (embedded below) that illustrates the life cycle, distribution and some key metrics for an NPR story. This is the way all new publishers should be producing their content and organizing their workflow.
That’s very impressive distribution, but how are they making any money off it?
NPR’s business model is based on reach. You can see the breakdown of funding here, but it’s all predicated on the strategy of delivering news and information to the most people possible. The more people who find value in NPR’s “product,” the larger the pool of potential donors.
It’s basic economics, really. I haven’t seen recent figures, but my assumption based on past metrics is that the NPR audience has never been larger. If it remained “just a radio station,” it wouldn’t be able to compete in the digital age.
Making money off of API distribution is one of the toughest problems to solve. NPR’s approach is as follows:
First, unlike many other APIs, NPR’s core asset is audio. Our Story API pushes out full text, images, etc., but also links to audio. Although the full text could appear anywhere, they often link to the audio which still resides on our servers. Because we have comprehensive transactional audio sponsorship engines, every audio request (from the API or otherwise) is an opportunity for an audio sponsorship.
That said, the majority of consumption from the API is from NPR products. The API is a perfect case of NPR eating our own dog-food. The NPR News iPhone app presents API content to the users in an environment that NPR controls. That means that NPR can present banner and audio sponsorship with the API content in that (and other) platform(s).
Also, as Mark points out, NPR’s strategy is to extend reach as much as possible. Through viral distribution, NPR can hopefully reach new audiences, extending our brand and creating new revenue opportunities.
Finally, while revenue is very important to NPR, the proposition is different for us than other major media organizations like NYTimes (who also has an excellent suite of APIs). Because NPR is a non-profit with a public service mission, the API allows us to satisfy other key goals.