There is a large chunk of media consumers who believe that everything online should be free of cost. Even those who have some awareness of how expensive it is to do credible journalism balk at paying for it when the delivery mechanism is the Internet. They pay the cable bill, or the cell phone bill, or whatever service connects them to the Internet–shouldn\u2019t that be enough?<\/p>\n
No. Paying for the pipeline is not the same as paying for the oil. This applies not only to consumers, but also to organizations like public radio stations. Case in point: over the last fifteen years, the NPR network has made an ever increasing investment in online services that give digital access to the content stations broadcast, as well as to additional journalism and features not designed for broadcast. To date, all that has been free of charge to stations.<\/p>\n
NCPR has long been accustomed to paying for value received in online services, being an early subscriber to Public Interactive. Their tool set includes (among other services) our broadcast stream, the online pledge service whereby we receive member gifts, and the email newsletter service that delivered this message. NPR bought Public Interactive in 2008 and began the process of transforming the business from a subscription-based service provider into the digital technology arm of the network devoted to serving all member stations.<\/p>\n
The day had to come, and has come, when stations would be asked to contribute to the cost of the online network infrastructure, just as they pay for broadcast programming. Nonetheless, the move has occasioned much controversy, leading NPR to put together an 18-stop road show by top staff to pave the way for the change. NCPR station manager Ellen Rocco and I attended stop 16 on this tour yesterday, at joint PBS\/NPR licensee WXXI in Rochester.<\/p>\n
Since we already belong to the paying crowd, it turns out the impact on NCPR will be minimal. We\u2019ll just get some new and improved tools for our money. And the change is designed to insulate the smallest stations from prohibitive cost, with fees on a sliding scale based on each organization\u2019s annual budget, and phased in over a three-year period. But every station will have to pay something.<\/p>\n
This is an important turning point for public media in the digital realm. If member stations accept the paradigm shift, NPR– with a stable funding model–can ramp up its station services, nearly doubling the development staff devoted to the task. If stations balk at paying, everyone will be pretty much on their own to develop the technology they need. This would be bad news indeed for smaller players who seek to compete for attention in the new media landscape, and who have fallen a little more behind each year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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