NPR: Digital Distribution Strategy: OSCON2010

NPR: Digital Distribution Strategy
Daniel Jacobson, Director of Application Development
Jeremy Pennycook, Operations Manager for Mobile
July 23, 2010

Who is NPR?
National Public Radio (now known as NPR)
Leading producer and distributor of radio programming
All Things Considered , Morning Edition , Fresh Air , Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me , Car Talk , etc.
Broadcasted on over 800 local radio stations nationwide
Over 35 million weekly listeners
NPR Digital Media
Website (npr.org) with audio content from radio programs
Web-Only content including blogs, video, slideshows, etc.
Mobile properties including iPhone app, iPad app, Android app, mobile site
API, RSS, podcasts and other syndication

Page View Growth: NPR.org vs. NPR Mobile NPR News iPhone app NPR News Android app Relaunched NPR mobile site NPR iPad app NPR Music iPhone app API launched in 2008, at OSCON

Architectural Philosophies
COPE (Create Once Publish Everywhere)
COPE drives all other architectural decisions
Build Content Management tools, not Web Publishing tools
Separate content/data from display/presentation
Make sure that content is modular/portable
Understand the Atom
Story is the Atom for NPR
Stories contain ‘Assets’ (ie. text, audio, video, images, etc.)
Stories belong to ‘Lists’
Know When to Build and When to Integrate
Core systems built and/or managed internally
Other systems depend on cost/benefit
When possible, use open source solutions
It is better to be incomplete than inaccurate

System Architecture Supporting COPE

System Architecture Supporting COPE Java JSP Struts

System Architecture Supporting COPE R / W MySQL

System Architecture Supporting COPE R / O MySQL Cluster NoSQL-like XML Repository

System Architecture Supporting COPE PHP5 SimpleXML PHP5

Distribution of API Usage by Application PLAYLIST API

Distribution of API Usage by Application Raw data and content is stored in the normalized databases and is made available to APIs through the flattened Infrastructural API.

Distribution of API Usage by Application Core APIs contain the clean API content, closely resembling the data model. PLAYLIST API

PLAYLIST API Distribution of API Usage by Application Wrapper APIs are custom-built interfaces that serve the needs of a given presentation layer. The wrappers can transform API content, pull from multiple APIs and tailor the queries to the abilities of the calling application.

Distribution of API Usage by Application PLAYLIST API Presentation applications can take advantage of the Core APIs directly or they can have a custom Wrapper API built, depending on the needs of the application.

Inside the Black Box of the API

NPR’s Target Audiences for the API
Ourselves
Supports the entire infrastructure of our new site
Improvements to CMS to enable custom feeds by Editorial and Design
Stations
Enables us to serve content to our member stations more easily
Enables our stations to serve their communities better
Partners
Creates new opportunities because - easy to implement with very little integration cost
Makes existing opportunities easier to maintain and grow
Public
Engages the community – part of NPR’s Public Service Mission
Lots of great widgets, tools, sites built using the API

Ourselves
Stations
Partners
Public
Launch Expectations: Improve development efficiencies for NPR.org Some sophisticated stations will use the API Partner integration will be easier The public will do amazing things with the API

Lifecycle of an NPR story COPE in the wild

NPR CMS

NPR API

NPR.org

NPR iPad/Tablet Site

NPR.org Audio Player

NPR iPhone App

NPR Mobile Site

NPR Android App

NPR Addict iPhone App

NewsMap

Google Chrome Extension

iGoogle Gadget

KQED.org

NorthCountryPublicRadio.org

KPCC.org

WBUR.org

Metrics

NPR Story API : Requests per Month - About 20 requests to the Story API every second

- NPR API delivers almost 400 stories every second Slide provided by John Musser of ProgrammableWeb

API Keys and Consumption by Audience

Ourselves
Stations
Partners
Public
Launch Expectations: Improvements to development efficiencies for NPR.org Some sophisticated stations will use the API Partner integration will be easier The public will do amazing things with the API Actual Results: NPR dramatically improved development efficiencies NPR’s mobile strategy took off Some sophisticated stations have used the API Partner integration has been easier API has facilitated business development opportunities The public has done some interesting things

Output Format Distribution This distribution chart is from June 2009 and does not include NPR consumption. We believe the distribution still applies today.

NPR API : Non-NPRML Output Format Growth

Writable Story API Station/Partner Ingest

Station Content in the NPR API (today)

KLCC Displaying N3 Stories from NPR API

WBUR Displaying N3 Story from NPR API

Public Media API (future)

API Enables Mobile Growth…

Mobile

The NPR API Powers Mobile Products

The Numbers

Different Modes of Development

Why Open Source?

Why Android?

Our Project

NPR News 2.0 for Android

Join Our Community @nprandroid

Questions?
To see the API: http:// www.npr.org/api
To follow the API development: http://www.npr.org/blogs/inside
To see the NPR News Android app code: http:// code.google.com/p/npr -android-app/
Jeremy Pennycook [email_address] Twitter: @tehpennycook Daniel Jacobson [email_address] Twitter: @daniel_jacobson

NPR: Digital Distribution Strategy: OSCON2010

by Daniel Jacobson on Jul 23, 2010

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NPR: Digital Distribution Strategy: OSCON2010 — Presentation Transcript

http://www.oscon.com	12
http://rbcws2010.posterous.com	4