NPR Kicks GMA’s Butt

Speaking of NPR, those guys are going great gangbusters, ratings-wise. Bucking the trend experienced by just about every other media outlet, NPR has seen major listenership growth in the past eight years, reaching a record in 2008. While there are no nationwide radio ratings, NPR adds up local ratings for stations that carry its programming, and that total has grown 47 percent since 2000, with nearly 21 million people tuning in to their daily news programs every week. Broken out into specific programs, this means that NPR’s “Morning Edition” has an average daily audience of 7.6 million, which the Washington Post says is “about 60 percent larger than the audience for ‘Good Morning America’ on ABC and about one-third larger than the audience for the ‘Today’ show on NBC.” Who knew?

Of course, as many of us in the non-profit world are aware, increased audience doesn’t necessarily translate to increased revenue. The broadcaster was recently forced to lay off 7 percent of its news staff due to revenue shortfalls (primarily because of a pullback in corporate giving) and they’re still about $8 million short for this year. At this risk of sparking flames of populist rage, I’d like to point out that NPR’s entire annual operating budget is $160 million, which happens to look pretty similar to another recent number, something to do with bonuses? Flames… of populist rage… rising…