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.
Mark Briggs 
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