Staking a claim for NPR.org as a “news destination”

“We are a news content organization, not just a radio organization,” says NPR President Vivian Schiller, in this New York Times piece on the redesign of NPR.org that launched over the weekend. Improved navigation and readability–especially for news audiences–are hallmarks of the revamped website, a demonstration of NPR’s push to create content that makes NPR.org a “news destination in its own right,” she said, rather than an online companion to its radio programming. Web users who designate a favorite NPR station get a co-branded homepage that’s one click away from a menu of local content. Schiller acknowledges that the site does not resolve the the long-festering “bypass issue.” In a Q&A with Newsweek, Schiller says NPR has plans to help stations strengthen their web services.