Jeff Bennett's Blog

National Public Radio (NPR) has launched the tools to form an online community to link it’s personalities and loyal followers on NPR.Org.

NPR believes that a community already exists that includes people who work there, work at member stations, listen to NPR on the radio, use NPR.Org and those who support NPR. There is an affinity to the movement called NPR and it is believed that few other American news organizations inspire such allegiance.

The goal is to enhance the experience of the loyal followers of NPR to provide a mechanism for more interaction and engagement. Also to link members of it’s large audience to foster communication amongst this base. NPR has added functionality that will allow anyone who registers with NPR.org the opportunity to comment on a story, create a profile page, a forum for infinite conversations on NPR.Org and more. NPR also hopes to get story ideas, tips, insights into the world we cover, tough criticism and even the occasional compliment through the online community. NPR wants to share more of the news we gather and the stories we tell with the audience.  Of particular importance is that in this effort NPR maintain it’s identity and style in this online effort.

NPR is quick to remind us that it is a non-profit and this effort is not intended to further commercialization goals. It would appear that NPR has the ingredients to extend it’s presence into an online community that has vitality. We will watch closely NPR’s efforts to build it’s online community.