The Rise of Alternative Media: Will CEOs Listen?

by lisa ~ March 26, 2009

National Public Radio has achieved record ratings and The Huffington Post is one of the few news outlets adding staff. At a time when the Rocky Mountain News has closed and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has shifted to online-only publication, it’s a relief to know that some news organizations are still going strong.

NPR has been the subject of two recent, highly complimentary features. The Washington Post points out that “the cumulative audience for its daily news programs hit 20.9 million a week, a 9 percent increase over the previous year. The weekly audience for all the programming fed by Washington-based NPR - including talk shows and music - also reached a record last year, with 23.6 million people tuning in each week, an 8.7 percent increase over 2007.”

FastCompany says that NPR’s listenership has nearly doubled since 1999. “Its programming now reaches 26.4 million listeners weekly - far more than USA Today’s 2.3 million daily circ or Fox News’ 2.8 million prime-time audience.”

Meanwhile, Mediabistro’s FishbowlNY blog claims The Huffington Post is launching coverage in three new areas: sports, technology and gadgets, and books.

Despite the beating that newspapers are taking, despite the rise in popularity of these alternative outlets, despite the splintering of the media landscape, there are still executives who think their campaigns are useless unless they see their names in print. The challenge for PR pros is convincing their clients of the value of these other outlets.

To see the complete FastCompany article, “Will NPR Save the News?,” click here.

To read the complete Washington Post article, “Consider This: NPR Achieves Record Ratings,” click here.

Lisa Tibbitts (Lisa.Tibbitts@Me.com) is a New York-based corporate communications professional with an MBA in marketing. Follow her on Twitter: http://twitter.com/FinancialPR.