To Current's home pageOriginally published in Current, May 27, 1996
By Steve Behrens
NPR dallied publicly with a major potential partner this month--TCI's Liberty Media subsidiary, which offered to lend a hand in new-media distribution and picked up the tab for the network's glamorous 25th anniversary party.
Peter Barton, president and c.e.o. of the firm, keynoted the Public Radio Conference May 16, urging public radio to seize new-media opportunities to distribute its programming. "Smart partnerships'' may make sense for NPR, he advised.
NPR President Del Lewis commented at the evening's party that public radio would want to "stay very close'' to Barton because their destinies "may be intertwined.''
Barton and other executives of TCI-related companies have made other overtures to public TV, and he was scheduled to speak at public TV's Pacific Mountain Network conference last week.
In the vast Black Entertainment Television studios where Barton hosted the NPR anniversary gala that night, logos of the Discovery Channel, BET and other famous-brand channels owned or part-owned by the TCI subsidiary glowed in spotlights alongside hastily added banners bearing NPR's own famous brands.
The annual Public Radio Conference ended two days later without announcement of a engagement between NPR and Liberty Media, but the network's executive v.p., Peter Jablow, said it was evaluating offers from a number of media companies, would take a plan to the NPR Board in July, and prepare a comprehensive business plan for member stations' review this fall and winter.
"We're having conversations with all sorts of people,'' Jablow told Current after the conference. "We're not in a process of doing a deal with Liberty Media.''
"We decided not to react on an ad hoc or individualized basis to each of the proposals coming to us, but to plan with a larger scope,'' Jablow explained. "The whole effort has to be multi-tiered,'' with compact discs, direct-mail offers and Internet services all complementing each other.
Maximizing revenue will not be the main criteria for business decisions, he said. "Everything must focus on bringing more people to listen to us on the radio. It's what ties into the mission of NPR and public radio in general. It's not strictly a financial solution.''
During NPR's membership meeting at the PRC, May 17, Jablow illustrated the revenue needs for the network's core functions, excluding its satellite distribution division and the recent satellite system rebuild.
Looking at the remaining parts of NPR's budget, member station dues recently have averaged 63 percent of revenues. But NPR doesn't expect that to grow much. (Indeed, dues are currently "locked down'' at the growth level of stations' revenues, and a dues ceiling may be extended somehow when the present pact expires Sept. 30, 1998.)
Jablow said he doesn't expect grants to grow much, either, which means that NPR will have to look to underwriting and ancillary product revenues for new wherewithal.
If spending on the core parts of NPR can continue to grow at 4 percent a year, it will reach $60 million by the year 2000--a 20 percent gain over last year's $50.5 million. And to support that spending level, Jablow said, underwriting and ancillary sources will have to carry a bigger slice of the budget, growing from 4 percent to 15 percent.
Jablow didn't specify which new-media offer the greatest promise, but the PRC featured sessions on such options as digital audio broadcasting and the Internet, and Morning Edition host Bob Edwards was glumly autographing NPR's third recent compact disc release in the PRC exhibition hall. "Opening Day with Bob and Red,'' based on a 1990 baseball special, has joined two NPR Classics releases from Performance Today: last fall's "Christmas Around the Country'' and April's "J.S. Bach in Performance.'' Sources said NPR was talking with Allegro, a Portland, Ore., classical recordings distributor to begin retail sales. So far, NPR has been wholesaling the CDs to stations as pledge premiums.
Easing the way for distribution of programming on the Internet and other new media, NPR and a group of independent radio producers agreed on a plan for setting royalties to indies, NPR President Del Lewis announced (story, page 9).
And Jablow said the network "will move expeditiously'' to draw up ground rules for member stations to "stream'' programming over the Internet. (PRI President Stephen Salyer told Current that his network was "closing in on exciting arrangements'' for Internet services involving The World and other programs.)
Barton keynoted the PRC after an inter-executive hug from Del Lewis, who called him "one of the brighest stars'' in media. And Barton, a self-professed frequent listener, returned the compliment to NPR many times over, citing for example its "first-rate news and information and cultural programming'' that "helps set the national agenda.''
Local stations, too, bring valuable assets to public radio, he said. "The critically important thing that you have going for you is your ability to be local, and that will differentiate you from many of your competitors.''
Barton advised public radio to extend the NPR brand into new fields, distributing program content through as many vehicles as possible.
"Why should the BBC be the standard for English-speaking radio imperialism?'' he asked. "Why not NPR?''
With new program distribution technologies and overseas markets crying for program content, and digital compression further expanding that demand, it's "a great time to be in global programming businesses ... which is some place where you ought to be,'' Barton said.
Distributors are "very hungry'' for "name-brand sources of information,'' Barton said. His firm is already a major investor in brands. "We create, we buy and we own branded products ... services like Court TV, E! Entertainment, Black Entertainment, Discovery, Starz, MacNeil/Lehrer and the Fox sports businesses. "Branding is a means of ... getting premiums for what you sell. The opposite is commodities.'' Liberty Media executives, he said, sit on 40 corporate boards.
"We try and be a sanctuary for entrepreneurs, because there is nothing more powerful in this world than the will of an entrepreneur to succeed,'' Barton remarked.
He gave a nod of appreciation to independent radio producer Jay Allison, who had just accepted the annual Edward R. Murrow Award. "We're proud to be associated with some of the best entrepreneurs and executives in the media industry--people such as Ted Turner, John Hendricks, John Sie, Bob Johnson, Rupert Murdoch and Barry Diller. And, Jay, I would put you in that category.''
"I'm suggesting that not-for-profit needn't mean not-for-revenue. I'm suggesting that you get as much revenue as you can and ... reinvest it in the business. ... And if Liberty or the rest of us in the programming business can help you create new streams of renewable resources through partnerships, or help provide the final piece of a puzzle that allows NPR to create new initiatives, then we'd be happy collectively to lend a helping hand.''
"This is not in our case about ownership or editorial control,'' he added. "It's more about duty. It's about preserving and enhancing a general national treasure, which is what you guys are, and what we'd be happy to help you continue to be.''
Though the demand for programming is high, the competition will still be fierce, Barton indicated. Cable operators and direct-to-home satellite services already are expanding into home audio and future car radios will receive direct satellite feeds. "It might not be too long before commercial radio in the car goes the way of the eight-track tape.''
The executive advised NPR to build defensive alliances to prevent being "gated away'' from audiences. "The main concern for NPR is that the audience that you currently enjoy may be distracted away or gated away from you in the future. ... Every form of media ... is vulnerable to new competitors looking to steal away audiences, sponsors, revenue, content and growth.'' Competitors are going after even the biggest brands like CNN, he noted. "Why not go after NPR while they're at it?''
Barton closed with a bullfight metaphor. "For NPR and others, changing technologies may dazzle like a flashy red cape, but the real danger or the real opportunity is how you respond the sword.''
"Seize the day,'' he said, "and decide you're going to grab the handle of the sword. It's much more fun that way, and it's great way to keep the beautiful dream ... brightly burning.''
current.org
Later news: NPR lays plans to consider moneymaking ventures, but president assures board that he'll protect public radio principles.