Can Silicon Valley and NPR Save the News?

Journalism is dying! News has no business model! Reporting is for crap! Ahhhhhhhhhhh!

Welcome to the conversation about news media today. Faced with the onslaught of "citizen reporting" and social media, traditional news media is hemorrhaging resources and wondering if the whole house of cards is about to collapse.

Yet one news organization has not only not collapsed, but is seeing its brand and leverage on the rise. In the last few years, NPR has jumped from favorite of the intellectual commuter crowd to perhaps the most media-savvy news organization in the country.

Yesterday, NPR partnered with the super cool frog design to host a one day "digital think in" with top Silicon Valley leaders about how to improve NPR's use of digital media and generally prepare for a whole new era in news creation and consumption.

The group included some serious brains: designers from companies like frog and IDEO, the founders of Craigslist, LinkedIn, and other major web companies, new media innovators like Spot.US and The Extraordinaries, and more. The day was structured so that smaller break-out groups worked together to think through question in five areas which, while specifically related to NPR, are obviously relevant for the news industry as a whole. These included social media and audience connection, diversifying the revenue model, and the possibilities of an open API to increase creative distribution.

A huge volume of material has been captured on the NPR Digital Think In Ning page, including blog posts, photos, videos and more. I haven't had a chance to see if there were any strong conclusions, but I think the simple fact that NPR hosted this event demonstrates just how ahead of the curve they are.

I think NPR is kicking butt (particularly compared to peers) for a few reasons:

1. Diversified, nonprofit revenue model - NPR has always prided itself on being "member supported." Because they have a diversified revenue model, they can draw on not only sponsorship (their version of advertising) but the good will of the people who care about their station to support them. Turns out people are still willing to pay for a news product they care about; it just may be that donating feels more appropriate than buying.

2. Distributed network model of content creation and distribution - Radio was the original internet, right? NPR is not just a single national station but a network of more than 800 affiliates that both create their own local content as well as syndicating popular national shows. This networked model is right in line with how distribution of all content is evolving, even though it was born way before the internet.

3. Smart use of digital technology - NPR's iPhone app is arguably the most awesome application for people interested in news, world affairs, business, etc. With it you can listen to streams of the national station or hundreds of member stations, or you can create playlists of the most interesting pre-recorded content. Just one example of how tech savvy this group is.

4. Brand - It is literally impossible to overstate how important brand is with media consumption. News is all about trust. Do you trust the source to tell you the truth? One of the downsides of the unlimited choice that the internet provides is that it allows people to consume only the truth that reinforces their exciting beliefs and prejudices. What's more, the rise of punditry and slanted cable news programs has reinforced the notion that new sources are giving you the story through the political lens they've determined to be most salable to their audience and their advertisers.

I feel pretty comfortable saying this is bad for us. But the interesting thing is that while so many of us still participate in that politically inflected news, the brand power of news that comes off as consistently smarter than its prejudices has increased. The Economist and NPR are the best examples I can think of.

Whatever digital strategies NPR chooses, the quality of their product remains central to their sustained power.

(Photo: frog design)