Water-cooler talk

NPR working to expand options for listening

By Ryan Faughnder
LOS ANGELES TIMES  • 

LOS ANGELES — National Public Radio wants more things considered for its mobile applications.

As more people — especially those in younger generations — listen to programming on mobile devices and in Internet-connected cars, the public-radio institution is trying to improve its digital listening experience and collaborating with some of its biggest associated stations to do so.

To help fund the effort, NPR has raised $17 million from foundations and individual donors. It will also use the money to deepen its journalistic coverage of key subjects, the Washington nonprofit said yesterday.

Grants came from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Wallace Foundation and the Ford Foundation.

“NPR is responding to the increased demand by audiences for flexibility in consuming content seamlessly across various digital platforms,” Michael Maness, vice president of journalism and media innovation at the Knight Foundation, said in a statement.

The radio organization said it’s working to create better ways for people to listen to national and local programming with the same app.

That means that public-radio listeners will be able to create personal playlists to include NPR favorites — such as Fresh Air, hosted by Terry Gross — with local shows plus programming from stations in Boston, New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco, along with Minnesota Public Radio.

Nearly $10 million of the total amount is for the digital push, while the rest of the money is intended to fund expanded coverage of education and global development and health, along with NPR’s Code Switch initiative to cover race, ethnicity and culture.

The infusion of funding comes after budgetary constraints led NPR to introduce efforts to reduce its staff by 10 percent this year. In September, Paul Haaga took the post of acting CEO after Gary Knell resigned as CEO to head the National Geographic Society.

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