TREND TO WATCH: NPR NEWS MAGAZINES ARE LOSING LISTENERS

According to new research presented at the New/Talk Stations meeting at last week’s PRPD conference, Morning Edition and ATC have lost listeners and listening in the past four years. The losses are greater than all radio listening, which is declining 1% - 2% per year.

[Charts courtesy of Jeff Hansen, News/Talk group coordinator. Research was done by NPR, RRC, Walrus Research and National Audigraphics.}

And the average age of a NPR Newsmagazine listener keeps getting older: Morning Edition is around 55 and ATC is 56.

People under age 55 are listening to less to radio.  So, people over age 55 make up a larger portion of radio listening. However, NPR News listeners are aging, proportionally, faster than listeners to all radio:

 The best news for NPR News stations at the PRPD is that core listening (sometimes called P-1) remains strong.

Here is a vital trend to watch: listening by College Graduates. They are using somewhat less radio in the average week:

We end with is a terrific summary slide from Jeff Hansen. I heard that Jeff is retiring from KUOW and might even move to France!  Jeff is one of best program directors I’ve ever worked with.  He has made major contributions to the growth of public radio.

Here are takeaways from the New/Talk station meeting: