NPR to Non-Old People: Thanks, But No Thanks

National Public Radio announced last week that it has canceled its Web-radio hybrid, The Bryant Park Project, after less than one year of broadcasting. (Actually, The New York Times announced it. That's where most of the show's staffers discovered last Monday that their jobs will soon be no more.) In the history of Things That Are Stupid, the move falls somewhere between CBS booting Bob Schieffer from the Evening News and The New Yorker asking the reanimated corpse of Jesse Helms to draw its cover illustration.

NPR's dereliction of duty to its employees is obscene, but obscene on a small scale. Having been privileged to spend a few minutes every week with the BPP staffers, I know they'll land on their feet. I'd like to say it's because they're all talented folks with cutting-edge ideas about how the old medium (radio) can interact with the new (the Web), but that's not why. It's because they're mostly young and their bodies can handle the strain of eating one meal a day while they wait for all the Boomers entrenched above them to die off or retire to North Carolina. At any rate, they'll get by.

No, the grandly obscene part is that after spending all of 10 months trying to lure listeners who don't remember what it was like when the boys came home from the Spanish-American War, NPR has decided it's not worth the trouble. They'll just stick to what they know, thank you very much. What they know and whom they know.

According to Arbitron, the portion of Americans who listen to public radio grew from 10.5 percent in fall, 2005, to 11.2 percent in fall, 2006. While all age groups the firm measures experienced growth, the greatest increases occurred among Americans ages 55 and up (the group better known as "old people"). But public radio listeners aren't just old -- they're loaded. They are more likely to drive a luxury car than any other vehicle; more likely than their fellow Americans to invest in real estate and the markets; more likely to listen to oldies than any other music format. They are more likely to buy a high-definition TV than a computer.

In a post-Times story press release, NPR Vice President for News and Information (redundancy, anyone?) Ellen Weis said, "We came to understand that a radio-format show produced almost exclusively for the web was not the best way to grow the online audience." But absent from said press release is any mention of who that audience really is: people under 35. Note the use of the word "people." To call the BPP audience "listeners" would belie a lack of even an Internet for Dummies understanding of what used to be the future of media and is now the present. Bryant Park was aimed at users, not listeners. They used the show's podcast and online streaming features, read and responded to its blog and talked to each other on Twitter (if you don't know, don't ask). It was no new-media utopia. But it was the beginning of something -- and it isn't unreasonable to guess that the young people who care about these modes of communication aren't much use to a cash-strapped public-broadcast network.

No, NPR isn't giving up on the Web. It's just giving up on its younger audience members, the ones who don't have Scrooge McDuck-size moneybins they can dig into come pledge time. But what will the network do in 15 years when all the folks with the deep pockets are getting their content from sources that aren't Morning Edition? By taking food out of the mouths of its babies to give to its elderly, NPR is making a critical mistake. Old people, after all, die a lot faster than babies.

"Public radio listeners are more mature, and therefore less likely to have children living at home," Arbitron's 2007 Public Radio Today report says. That means public radio's largest audience is tuning in without anyone in the house to pass the habit down to. But as Jerry Seinfeld would say, that's Morning Jerry's problem. For now, NPR has no use for poor, debt-ravaged kids maxing out their credit cards to buy iPhones. At least it doesn't think it does. Public radio is nothing if not an exercise in vote-with-your-dollar democracy. So all you second-hand beater-driving, 401K-less non-55-year-olds, listen up. The next time public radio passes the hat, keep your money in your pocket and pass it right on. Don't subsidize programming for the wealthy. Instead, write your local member station and demand content relevant to your community, your lifestyle and the stuff you care about -- the Hold Steady, not the Stones; student loans, not retirement accounts; Stuff White People Like, not stuff white people like. Make their e-mail servers buckle beneath your righteous weight.

And say you want a Twitter feed, too. It'll confuse the hell out of 'em.

Comments

[abaer]

I'm a 35-year-old reporter at the NPR affiliate in Portland, Oregon.

I've got a sackful of mixed emotions about BPP's demise. A lot of us on the sidelines wanted it to work. (Some of us fantasized about working on it!) I'm a big fan of the BPP staff, and of the chances the show took. That said, my takeaway is this: rather than obsessing over the age of the production staff, we should be obsessing over the sophistication of the shows we make. Want proof? Look at the man who's probably most responsible for reeling in young public radio listeners. Ira Glass is pushing... ehhhmmmm... ok so he's not 25 any more, but he's still one of the greatest brains in the business, and he's still on top, because he's relentless.

I can't speak for the network, but as far as NPR member stations go, I haven't met a single program director who isn't freaking out over younger listeners, and how to nab them. So no one's got the formula. So resources are short these days. So how is your local station supposed to take chances on new shows and new producers if you don't shell out?

[jvalenti]

Yes yes yes yes. I couldn't agree with you more, Daniel Holloway. I am a 26 year old lawyer in Portland, OR. My mom works for public radio and I grew up having it constantly in the background. I LOVE public radio. I listen to it every day. When I found the BPP, I was delighted that NPR was FINALLY catching up to communicating culturally with a younger demographic. I uploaded it as a podcast and listened to it literally every day on public transportation. It wasn't perfect, but it was smart. Mike Pesca is by far the best prepared NPR interviewer I have ever heard. Now, instead of dropping the broadcasting to a bare-bones web and podcast (which I greatly prefer anyways) they are canceling the show.

There is a definite rift between what I see as the "greatest generation"/baby boomers to the "gen x"/20-something crowd in public radio. This is really a ridiculous debate. It is basically the same well educated, affluent, liberal demographic, just at different ages. As Mr. Holloway intimates, I don't give a damn about a 1940s screen actor who I've never heard of or a profile on a band's 12th studio release 30 years after they are relevant.

I have money. Target me.

[TheCurrent]

"Instead, write your local member station and demand content relevant to your community, your lifestyle and the stuff you care about -- the Hold Steady..."
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/07/22/the_hold_steady/

"And say you want a Twitter feed, too."
http://www.twitter.com/thecurrent

If only some local public radio station were that cool. Our average audience member is 38+

Michael Wells
Web Producer, The Current

[cinder42]

As a loyal BPP listener, I thank you, Daniel.

[fleaba]

What a lot of people don't realize is that NPR is the only rational alternative in many remote and not so remote parts of the country. It is the connection for all of Alaska. It is also the connection to native americans across the country with their own programming. My 13 year old thinks that David Dye rocks. And personally, as a 52 year old sans 401K, driving in my ancient hand-me -down caddy (no I can't afford anything else right now, thank you), I would rather listen to NPR than the Clear Channel-ranchera-metal-80s rock-rushlimbaugh-focus on the family c**p that passes for radio in Colorado.
Anyway, who knows, I may need that car talk advice some day.

[Zeje]

I'm an old person and I stopped listening to NPR years ago.

[Cathexis]

Unfortunate decision on NPR's fault. I'm one of those "old folks" -- I don't have any desire for iPhones or iPods ... but I do hear they are popular ... and gaining a following for your broadcasting is just good business sense ... something which transcends all age groups.

Have to admit ... even though I am not in that demographic, if it were up to me, I'd invest in targeting it.

[paulsimon]

Take the ageism with a grain of salt, people. He's obviously making a joke.

I love the idea of withholding money from pledge drives.

NPR invested 2 million bucks in this show, and then got cold feet less than a year later? Some of the staff found out by reading the NYT? So many NPR shows have lost their sheen these last few years, and the cancellation of this nascent shows illustrates the network's fundamental lack of trust in the talents of another generation.

[NYCBear]

I'm sorry you don't much like old people - with any luck, you'll be one someday, so you might re-think that. As an old person myself, I find most young people curiously conservative and repetitious. They so often think that their observations and thoughts are brand-new, not realizing how rare new observations and thoughts are.

There are many old people who aren't fond of NPR's blandness, and who dislike their current pandering to large corporations. And there are lots of old people who use the internet for all kinds of things, and who would love to hear NPR loosening up more.

Rather than pointing the finger at old people, be more accurate, and say that NPR is unfairly using their old people demographic to obfuscate their real program-choice motivations. They are actually paying attention to only the richest slice of their old-people audience, the old people their "corporate sponsors" will give millions of dollars to reach.

NPR's management have gotten addicted to easy corporate money. That's the root of the problem.

Lots of the old people who listen to NPR have been and still are innovators - we're a natural audience for things like the Bryant Park Project. You might try enlisting our help, rather than attacking us. That would be unusual in a man your age, but you don't HAVE to act like men your age usually do. Be bold - innovate!

[hopehappens]

What a bunch of ageist tripe. I guess everybody over 35 and certainly those dreadful boomers who are over 40 need to just stand back and let the twenty-somethings have everything. Let's see, every media outlet should now be geared to them? Good grief. Maybe some people over forty have some money because they did what twenty-somethings do -- they paid their dues and worked their way up. Oh but wait, that doesn't matter. Some kid wants your job, and you've got a few wrinkles. Better get the hell out of the way and go find a rocking chair. Never mind that you're at your peak and haven't had time to fulfill your potential or prepare financially for your actual old age. You're in the way.

[AustinCynic]

I'll listen to the news for about 15 minutes on weekday mornings on NPR, because the alternative is a news/talk station that runs Limpbaugh, Boortz, and Dr. Laura.

For everything else, there's my iPod.

[Citizen54]

Hey, I'm almost in that group of "old people" you seem to not like--and I agree with much of what you say about NPR. The blandness and the tone of things like All Things Considered drove me away years ago. I used to contribute and have answered their pleas with notes about why I don't contribute any more. Still, I thank the masters of NPR for allowing us to hear on our public airwaves great stuff like Cartalk and that Ira Glass show and the best discussion show on the radio, On Point with Tom Ashbrook (wbur.org).