NPR, Minnesota link to create network for station web sites
Originally published in Current, March 22, 1999
By Jacqueline Conciatore
In an unprecedented partnership between public radio's two biggest producers, NPR and Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) have joined forces to create a new online network.
The deal shakes out a crowded competitive field. In recent months several organizations had announced plans to develop or commission Internet services keyed to station sites. They include NPR, Minnesota, PRI in partnership with NewMarket Networks, and a 12-station caucus.
The NPR-Minnesota combination surprised a public radio system accustomed to business deals between Minnesota and PRI, a company that Minnesota's Bill Kling created in 1981. For their Internet ventures, Minnesota and PRI were competitors from the early stages. Both sought to partner with NewMarket, developer of several public radio web sites including Car Talk and Savvy Traveler's.
NewMarket head Tom Lix wouldn't discuss Minnesota, but did say he he felt sympatico with PRI's habit of working cooperatively with stations and producers. "I saw we could create win-win situations. It wasn't a question of trying to milk the value from the public radio audience, but rather [of] what we could give them. . . ."
Minnesota "wanted to strike a deal with NewMarket, but we weren't interested in modifying our criteria so much. They wanted us to," says Minnesota Public Radio spokesperson Tony Bol. But the state network first talked Internet with NPR in 1996, he says.
The NPR-Minnesota deal capitalizes on the former's production strength and the latter's business acumen. After Minnesota announced plans for extensive web offerings in November, the looming question was, "What is the content that's going to be so great that will keep people coming back to that service?," says Vinnie Curran, g.m. of WXPN, Philadelphia. With NPR, the proposed service seems a stronger contender, he says. "National Public Radio has the programming and Minnesota Public Radio has the direct marketing experience to make something that really has a lot of power."
NPR President Kevin Klose and Kling barely sketched a vision of the service during a March 12 telephone press conference. They plan to make a detailed presentation--including the network's name and launch date--at the Public Radio Conference in May.
Here's what they did outline: a new public radio site that users can access several ways--directly, or through station web pages and producers'. Some of the content on the "super" site--such as news headlines--may also appear on station pages.
The news will be updated throughout the day, with headline news delivered by the New York Times. "We hope to add regional, cultural and business heads as we grow the sites," said Klose. "There will be powerful immediate gains for local stations who have substantial staffing issues in keeping their web sites fresh and current."
There will also be mediated forums and chat rooms. Kling says he's particularly interested in facilitating creation of online communities among public radio's highly educated, well-informed listeners. "We think the information they have will start to mix with information others have, build on itself and produce value for the audience" and for producers, he says.
The listener participation will also inform the network's e-commerce ventures, says Kling; "Some of what they tell us will give us the opportunity to provide products and services." But the sites wouldn't collect user demographic data surreptitiously, only asking questions openly and for specific purposes, he said. A product example? An adventure-travel book guide or one on best Western hiking trails. Stations and the networks would share revenue.
The service will also include the Radio Scout search tool--already being tested on several station sites, including Minnesota's--which helps users find reports, by topic or other keyword, that aired recently on major national programs. The database now includes NPR newsmags, Fresh Air, The World and several others.
The offerings would be supported by underwriting, advertising and e-commerce. NPR and Minnesota would not disclose its projected costs.
All the expected players have been gearing up to create new Internet services for stations since at least last fall, after an ad hoc group of station managers met in Seattle to discuss ways to strengthen stations' overall web presence. The group--Public Radio Internet Service Alliance (PRISA)--put out a request for proposals, which they'll review next week in Boston. NPR-Minnesota and PRI-NewMarket are set to make presentations.
The best outcome would be for all parties to partner, says John Perry, PRISA member and g.m., WKSU, Kent. "This is the opportune time for major players to do the right thing," he said. "Obviously, having one unified, focused super site with station interest will provide a collective strength that will be very attractive in the e-commerce sector and would provide superservice capacity to end users. . . .Right now, one of the major problems on the Internet is there's so much out there and people don't know where to go."
He wonders if "historical animosities and competitiveness" will prevent a united approach, however. And as a "major player" in its own right--stations control the air and therefore the ability to publicize web sites to listeners--PRISA if pressed would probably go with PRI/NewMarket because of PRI's "business acumen, history of association with e-commerce, and their business plan," he says. "On the National Public Radio side, you still have this humongous, slow, plodding body that at times is difficult to deal with," he says.
Both NPR and PRI stress that they're willing to cooperate on Internet ventures. "The door is always open to PRI and other partners," said Klose at the press conference.
Salyer says the same, but doesn't want too much unity. "A little friendly competition, a little different effort is very constructive, particularly in the early stage of the development of a new medium," he said. "The rush to have everyone move lock step into the future may not be the only way to do this."
Curran and others say the next task is for public radio to think systematically about its approach to Internet activity. The Internet unlike radio allows for reciprocal communication between listener and producer or station. Given that paradigm shift, the critical questions Curran sees: "What are the service opportunities that arise from that? What are the revenue opportunities? And how does what [producers are] doing relate to what other stations are doing and what the networks are doing?"
Web page created April 22, 1999
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Earlier stories: PRI allies with NewMarket Networks for web offerings,
January 1999; Minnesota Public Radio offers web services, and (separately)
PRISA comes together to hire web assistance, November 1998. 
Later news: Group of public radio stations, PRISA, chooses an independent
web development firm to help build their sites, April 1999.