NPR's Digital Distribution and Mobile Strategy

NPR's Distribution and Mobile Strategy
By Daniel Jacobson and Demian Perry
National Public Radio
June 25, 2010
Digital Media Conference

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
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

Architectural Philosophies
Build Content Management tools, not Web Publishing tools
COPE (Create Once Publish Everywhere)
Separate content/data from display/presentation
Content is modular/portable – separate markup from content
Understand Your Atom
Story is the Atom of NPR
Stories contain ‘Assets’ (e.g. images, text, audio, video, etc.)
Stories belong to ‘Lists’
API: Better to be incomplete than inaccurate

System Architecture Supporting COPE

Target Audiences for the API
NPR
Supports the entire infrastructure of our sites and apps
Product owners can quickly build products without internal dev resources
Stations
Stations gain easier access to NPR content
Stations are better able to serve their communities
Partners
Makes partner integration much easier for both parties
Generates new opportunities!
Public
Engages the community – part of NPR’s Public Service Mission
Promotes viral distribution of public media content

Features of the API
Over 400,000 stories from NPR.org
Access to our extensive audio repository, including:
Over 500,000 audio files
Over 30,000 hours of programming
Over 12TB of audio files, in MP3, WMA, RM and AAC formats
Transcript API, including nearly 100,000 transcripts
Nearly 30,000 blog posts from 33 blogs on NPR.org
Over 7,000 categories
Content from dozens of NPR member stations
Information and programming for over 800 NPR stations
Extensive rights management system

In Other Words…
Virtually everything that is on NPR.org that we have the rights to redistribute.

Lifecycle of an NPR story From CMS to API to Presentation Layers

NPR CMS

NPR API

NPR.org

NPR iPad/Tablet Site

NPR.org Audio Player

NPR News iPhone App

NPR Mobile Site

NPR Addict iPhone App

NPR Android App

Google Chrome Extension

iGoogle Gadget

KQED.org

NorthCountryPublicRadio.org

KPCC.org

WBUR.org

NewsMap

Station Content Ingest

Station Content in the NPR API (today)

KLCC Displaying N3 Stories from NPR API

WBUR Displaying N3 Story from NPR API

API Metrics

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

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

WBUR Growth : With NPR API Content

The Future of the API
Video and multimedia
Improved image availability and sizing capabilities
More station content
Social Media API
Public Media Platform!

Public Media Content in the PMP (future)

Mobile

Short-Term Mobile Strategy
iPhone Apps
Continue to develop and support NPR News and Music apps
Identify new app opportunities
Android Apps
Continue to develop and support NPR News app
Identify new app and widget opportunities, such as Music and stations
Mobile Site
Continue to grow mobile site
Long-Term Mobile Strategy
Focus attention on scalable mobile site and apps solution
Use technologies such as HTML5 to build robust site solutions
Bundle site solutions into wrappers for app distribution
Build specialized apps as appropriate
Identify key strategic platforms and opportunities

New Platforms

NPR Music iPhone App LAUNCHED WEDNESDAY

Mobile Metrics

Distribution of Page Views About 60% of monthly page views are on NPR.org, which means almost 40% of NPR’s total traffic is on mobile. About 20% is on the iPhone app.

Page Views per Monthly Unique Visitor

Conclusions
Our API allows NPR to:
Build fast
Build for multiple platforms
Score contributions from individuals and organizations
Spend less brain power on technology and more on strategy

Questions?
To see the API: http:// www.npr.org/api
To follow NPR developments: http://www.npr.org/blogs/inside
To follow NPR on Twitter: @NPRTechTeam
Demian Perry [email_address] Daniel Jacobson [email_address] Twitter: @daniel_jacobson

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NPR's Digital Distribution and Mobile Strategy

by Daniel Jacobson

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