Nothing is free, and that's true of public radio.
No matter how consumers get their NPR content, they must endure sponsorship messages every so often. Public media promises that these messages are less intrusive and less frequent.
But sponsor messages cover a significant part of NPR's budget and everyone has to listen to them. This is true on the radio, on the mobile app, on a podcast or when reading NPR stories and newsletters. It's true for casual listeners, and true for those who support NPR through donations as well.
So why can't donors to NPR just skip the ads on the app? Someday soon (possibly in 2027), paid supporters may be able to do just that.
The complaints I receive about the NPR app have gone up recently. This may mean that more people are using the app. When they do, many people question whether NPR has too many ads.
I recently talked about the app with NPR's new chief content officer, and a few weeks ago I interviewed the head of ad operations. Those two executives provided insight into how NPR wants to design the app for its audience and what NPR's plans are for new products.
Read on to see what I learned and what I think public radio supporters should expect. — Kelly McBride
Too many ads on the NPR app interrupt the flow
Benjamin Marcus wrote on Aug. 21: It is with extreme sadness that I report I have just now permanently deleted the NPR app from my phone and will no longer consume NPR content. You have continued to insert advertising into my playlist (typically Morning Edition and All Things Considered stories) that I did not select and do not want to hear. … Today was exceptionally bad. I had to stop playback at least ten times to avoid commercials for Grainger, DSW Shoes, Subaru, or the daily cadre of healthcare, tech, finance, or policy advertising that interrupt my queue. … Long ago, I “cut the cord” and carefully restricted my media consumption because I refuse to accept the influence of commercial advertising in my life, which in humans comes at the cost of time, attention, motivation, and wellbeing. Advertising is a pervasive influence, and I do not want to be targeted in that way.
Simultaneously, NPR asks me to donate to support its programming, but I could never do this because doing so would feel like endorsing a practice of advertising for corporate entities that I do not want to support. If you want me to support NPR, stop playing commercials. …I think NPR programming and journalists are top notch, and I am not sure where I will get my news going forward. However, I absolutely will not listen to an outlet that fails to respect me as a human being or as a consumer. … NPR has lost a lifelong listener today. I am nearly 50 years old and have relied on NPR for news and analysis for decades. But being taken for granted in this way feels insurmountable.
Marcus' perspective is a valuable view into the audience's needs. People turn to NPR for quality journalism. But they also expect a quality consumption experience. For years at NPR, engineers have focused on the signature sound that listeners got from their radios. But now people want more. They want NPR content on their phones, and they want to control the distractions and interruptions they get while trying to stay informed.
A few other news organizations are experimenting with ad-free premium subscriptions. But most are not. Even when people pay for an app like The New York Times, they still encounter ads.
NPR does have one ad-free premium product. It's called NPR+, and for $8 a month or $96 a year, users get access to more than 30 podcasts ad-free. But it's difficult to use, requiring several steps to activate the subscription on the NPR app. It's also possible to use the NPR+ subscription to get sponsor-free NPR podcasts through third-party apps like Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube Music.
I won't go into the blow-by-blow details of what makes using NPR+ so hard. As I was struggling with this process, I reached out to member services at my local station for help. They sent me an 18-page PDF with screenshots of the process.
NPR execs won't tell me how many people pay for NPR+. They did say the program has returned $7.5 million in donor revenue to stations since the premium service launched in 2022. If everyone using it paid the annual $96 a year, that would be fewer than 20,000 annual subscriptions over that four-year time period.
NPR is investing in the app to make it better. They've beefed up their internal team of developers and are working with outside firms as well, chief content officer Nadine Zylstra told me. She came to NPR from Pinterest, and she embraces the idea that digital companies have to constantly improve the technology that connects them to their audience.
When people open an app on their phone, what they see and hear reflects the values of the company that owns the app. NPR's journalism is high quality. And NPR has been intentional about how its advertising sounds, but less intentional about how the app works.
"Users, viewers, listeners all come to our platforms with a certain expectation of a non-commercial environment," said Brett Robinson, senior VP for ad operations at National Public Media. "And we try to deliver that as closely as we can."
That said, even reasonable, calm NPR ads are annoying. And in the regular stream of national and local stories on the app, known as NPR One, listeners hear ads roughly every 10 minutes. They also hear calls for donations and internal promotions.
"As we build the next generation of NPR's digital platforms, we're thinking carefully about how to balance the experience audiences want, with the support that makes our journalism possible," the senior VP of communications, Heather Walls, told me in an email.
NPR has a long way to go to make its app better. Building the features that deliver what the audience wants will signal respect. This means considering the needs of people who want to access quality news for free as well as those who are willing to pay for no ads.
NPR launched its streaming app in 2014. In a review back then, I said it was a cool little app that had the potential to be a game-changer for podcasts and audio stories. However, shortly after that, NPR stopped investing in its development. In 2015, the new CEO signaled a reinvestment in the broadcast, saying he was "putting the R back in NPR."
Only now, 12 years later, is NPR reinvesting in its neglected mobile app and the news consumers who want to use it. With the hiring of Zylstra as the new chief content officer, NPR is taking the app's potential seriously. When I initially interviewed Zylstra, she was just starting her new job. She forwarded my questions to Walls.
"Over the next year we'll be building a new app platform from the ground up; one that is fit for purpose to support the network and to support the audience we have now and the audience we want," Walls said. "The end goal is a new home on digital that can support five times the audience we have now."
This is a huge effort and long overdue. And yes, it will include an ad-free or reduced-ad option for donors. Robinson said NPR is aiming to have it available by summer of 2027. I would put money on it taking more than a year to fully launch. But if they succeed, NPR could reclaim lost users like Benjamin Marcus, today's letter writer, as well as attract a whole generation of people who are embracing healthy digital habits.
To reach that crowd, NPR will have to build an app that offers significant value for those who want to pay for more, while still delivering a dignified experience for the people who want their news to be free.
Giving listeners reasonable choices conveys respect for the audience. I'm cautiously optimistic that this new version of the NPR app will be ready by the beginning of 2028, when we launch into a presidential election. If NPR doesn't hit that deadline, I worry there will be little hope of building a large enough audience on the app to sustain it going forward. — Kelly McBride
The Office of the Public Editor is a team. Reporters Amaris Castillo and Nicole Slaughter Graham and copy editor Merrill Perlman make this newsletter possible. Illustrations are by Carlos Carmonamedina. We are still reading all of your messages on Facebook, X and from our inbox. As always, keep them coming.
Kelly McBride
NPR Public Editor
Chair, Craig Newmark Center for Ethics & Leadership at the Poynter Institute
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