A new NPR boss and a new deal for public radio?

FIRST PUBLISHED AT WAMU'S THE CONVERSATION

PLEASE NOTE:-
THESE ARE MARK'S VIEWS. NOT WAMU's VIEWS, NOT AU's VIEWS, NOT ANY OTHER 'U's VIEWS.......

Vivian Schiller, NPR's new Chief Executive Officer, has a unique opportunity to slay the dragon which has had many public radio stations breathing fire at the mother ship these past few years - the web.

At a public media conference a few years back a station delegate, fed up with paying top dollar on behalf of his listeners for NPR's news magazine shows, summed up the marriage:

"NPR wants to sleep with other people, and we're tired of being told to 'lose a few pounds'."

The problem is NPR-DOT-ORG, which has been perceived by many stations as a rival, not a partner, with its slick one-shop content, and contextual information to add to the stories aired.

Recently, NPR even offered live steaming event coverage which competed for listeners with NPR-sponsored station programming, and promoted it on air in a program the stations pay for - Morning Edition. Meanwhile, even the biggest stations can barely afford a webmaster (or webmistress?) for their own sites.

Rather like the poisoned chalice handed to President Obama of drinking the collegiality and cooperation Kool-aid with the fisticuff-prone democrats and republicans, Vivian Schiller will face entrenched positions. But she has a vital task to unify the public radio community system behind one, dedicated website, which can be customized by individual stations according to geography to make it local or "hyperlocal", and contain all the great public radio programming there is from coast to coast and around the globe. The one-destination goal is surely the most economic choice for the system's future survival, and the fairest and most accessible for public radio's community of loyal listeners, who won't be asked to fund competing services.

Especially now with the economy in the tank, and the new media revolution well underway, its clear we public service broadcasters all need each other if we're to continue to set the standards of excellence our listeners have come to expect.