National Public Radio“Local stations are wary of NPR’s embrace of podcasts and other new ways to deliver its news programs.”
- The Christian Science Monitor

Public radio stations make millions from pledge drives that intersperse the two hit news shows [”Fresh Air with Terri Gross” and “All Things Considered”], and NPR hasn’t wanted to undercut local stations’ fundraising by giving fans another way to hear the programs. But that could change, as NPR considers whether to fully embrace “new media” technology at the risk of bypassing some public-radio stations.

“The fear in its raw form is that NPR will market itself directly to consumers and … and completely eclipse their local stations,” says media consultant Michael Marcotte, a former San Diego public-radio news director.

The debate within NPR became public last week after the network’s board fired CEO Ken Stern. Mr. Stern, who’d been in charge for 18 months, had pushed NPR to offer its news through mediums other than terrestrial radio.

News reports blamed the firing on Stern’s embrace of technology initiatives, but NPR officials deny that. A larger factor, says Mr. Marcotte, may have been Stern’s inability to persuade member stations to trust his plans for delivering programming via technology other than old-fashioned radio.

- Randy Dotinga, The Christian Science Monitor: March 14, 2008: Link.

Disclosure: I work for Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) as a software guy. The events at NPR don’t directly affect me or MPR; but MPR is in a similar market niche, so I’ll be following this issue closely.