NPR going off the rails

Recent top-level departures and revelations of executives pay have made me change my mind on whether NPR is as innovative as they claim. The news that they are spending money on covering the Olympics in London says to me that editorially they seem to be off course. And without a crystal clear editorial plan, they can say goodbye to serious corporate underwriting. An article in the Washington Post goes into more detail about the decisions being expected. Watch this space.

Loving Radio - but not the money

Chanced upon a site with NPR Valentines cards, rather too late for this year. I wonder how their campaign went? My feeling was that the cards with lines connected programmes and to the radio itself were amusing, the ones connected to money and NPR's structure were contrived and lame. Would you send any of these to a loved one though?

Actually, I think Absolute Radio in the UK owns the joke about having a face for radio, at least for me. And now back to National Public Radio in Washington.

And then the fun really goes wrong.... What were they thinking?

Public Radio Cuts proposed in USA

The Bush Administration's final budget proposal for National Public Radio will mean a 60% cut to member stations, dropping NPR's federal subsidy to US$200 million for 2009 and $220 million for 2010. NPR says the cuts are "significantly deeper" than in past years when pubcasters successfully lobbied the public to put pressure on lawmakers - and restore their funding (via Inside Radio).

This puts the subsidy for NPR well below what some larger European countries spend on public radio, for a population of 301 million.