Digital Transformation at National Public Radio - NPR (CXOTalk скачать в хорошем качестве

Digital Transformation at National Public Radio - NPR (CXOTalk

Digital transformation in radio: How does NPR adapt in a world with internet radio, podcasts, music streaming services, and other audio content? Thomas Hjelm, Chief Digital Officer of National Public Radio, tells CXOTalk about how NPR faces new challenges, such as increased competition, changes in listening habitsm and the need for personalization. For more information, see https://www.cxotalk.com/episode/natio... Based in Washington, D.C., Hjelm oversees NPR's strategies and roadmaps for reaching and engaging new audiences across new platforms, and works across the public radio system on collective strategies for digital innovation and growth. He previously spent five years leading New York Public Radio's digital, business, and audience development efforts. He has also served in strategic, creative, marketing, and business-development roles with NBC Local Media and NBC Entertainment, AOL, and two Hollywood-based media startups.Swarthmore College and an M.F.A. in Film Production from the University of Southern California. From the transcript: Michael Krigsman: (23:46) How does radio fit in today's digital networked world," which also, addresses, at the same time, a question that I wanted to ask you which is more fundamental, "What is radio today?" It has nothing to do with the airwaves alone. It's not about the airwaves anymore. What is radio, anyway? Thomas Hjelm: (24:41) Yeah. That is a good question! The way […] abstract things maybe a little too far, but there’s… Instead of thinking about radio, I think about a kind of continuum of curation, if you will. So, in other words, you have lean-back experiences and you have very lean-in experiences, right? So, radio is the ultimate lean-back experience. If you turn on the knob, and then we do the rest, right? We’ve been doing that expertly and that still has a very vital place in the media marketplace. Again, I just want to emphasize radio, unlike, say newspapers or other media, has not fallen off a clip. Far from it! Morning Edition, All Things Considered, all-time highs; those are our two most popular, most listened-to talk radio shows anywhere. (25:37) But, the… Go back to your question. So, there is a place for, and there's a value in that fully-curated experience which, today, is essentially radio. But, more and more, if you look at the analytics for websites across the public radio system, if you… I used to work at WNYC, for example. And, I looked very closely at the analytics and what are people doing when they go to WNYC.org or using the WNYC app? And, in my time there, the number one behavior was to hit "listen live," so people were essentially using the website, the app, what have you, as essentially a radio; a fully-curated experience. And then, they would do what they were doing… Cooking, working, what-have-you. Okay, so that’s one extreme and that’s something that will continue to have a very strong place. (26:26) [The] opposite extreme is “roll your own.” Find your own show, your own segment, your own podcast. And so, we are competing in that marketplace as well. We produce podcasts out of NPR. We produce any number of podcasts where we are, by a wide margin, the number one producer of on-demand audio, the number two producer is WNYC, the number three producer is Ira Glass. Again, public radio is top in the charts here when it comes to podcasts. Most of those podcasts are being listened to on third-party platforms. Maybe, it’s the third-party podcast on Apple; maybe, it’s overcast or pocket casts, or “name your favorite podcast” app. But essentially, people are finding and curating their own experiences based on podcasts that they’ve heard about or been recommended; that have been recommended. So, that’s […] on the opposite extreme, right? The fully self-curated listening experience. That’s another part of this landscape that we’re exploring. And then, again, visualize this sort of continuum, curated to un-curated. (27:27) In the middle, that’s where NPR One lives. One example: That is a curated, and yet personalized experience. So, if you want to listen to NPR One, we will give you a sort of stream of segments and podcasts and the more you use it, the better we get to know you and the more we will tailor that experience, the sequence, the topics, the nature of the segments that we’re delivering to you based on your interests, your location, what you like, what you don’t like. And so, it’s finding the middle ground, the white space between the fully-curated, the fully un-curated. And so, as a radio or an audio-first, not audio-only, but audio-first organization, we have to, and are eagerly exploring that entire spectrum. So, radio’s still going strong, we’re all about podcasts, but we’re also very interested in exploring this in-between zone of the next generation, the personalized radio listening experience that I was describing earlier.