JARL MOHN: “EVERY NPR STATION SHOULD BE THE #1 NEWS/TALK STATION IN THEIR MARKET”

Jarl Mohn at NPR HQ (Stephen Voss/NPR)

Earlier this week, Spark News conducted a wide-ranging interview with NPR President and CEO Jarl Mohn. Today we have Part One dealing with ratings and best practices.

Next Friday, March 8^th, we will have Part Two, in which Mohn discusses the “state of radio,” the power of podcasts and what Mohn has learned after five years of leading NPR.

There is no doubt that Mohn is optimistic about the future of NPR and its member stations. During the first minutes of our interview, Mohn said what he thought NPR and stations can accomplish in the near future:

Mohn: My personal belief is that there is no reason at all why every news-oriented NPR member station can’t be the number one news/talk station in every rated market in the country. This is our goal.

Just a few years such a prediction would be disregarded as hyperbole but the results of the Fall 2018 Nielsen Audio PPM and Diary ratings indicate  that it not such a wild dream.

Over the past couple of weeks, Spark News published an in-depth review of full-time NPR News/Talk stations in Fall 2018 and a comparison to Nielsen ratings frpm Fall 2016.  This is important because during Fall 2016 many stations reached record high numbers of listeners, in part due to the November 2016 presidential election. There was considerable speculation at the time that the ratings NPR stations would fall back to pre-2016 levels.

In our analysis of the data for both years, many NPR News/Talk stations surpassed their results for Fall 2016 and are likely still increasing listening shares today. Spark News found:

• Full-time NPR News/Talk stations had the top average-quarter-hour (AQH) percentage of all news/talk stations in at least 26 markets.

• Seven full-time NPR News/Talk stations in PPM markets had more estimated weekly listeners than any other News/Talk station in their market in Fall 2018.

• 57% of the NPR News/Talk station in PPM markets had higher AQH shares in Fall 2018 than they had in Fall 2016.

• More then half (52%) of the full-time NPR News/Talk stations in PPM markets had more estimated weekly listeners in Fall 2018 than they had in Fall 2016.

Mohn at the How I Built This summit in

San Francisco in October 2018

(Larry Zhou / NPR)

Spark News asked Mohn if he and others at NPR expected these results:

Mohn: “I don’t think many of us expected after the election of 2016 that the audience growth would continue. So, we are delighted in many cases that the share, and in some cases the cume, has actually gone up.”

We asked Mohn why some stations didn't see continued audience growth since Fall 2016. Also Mohn told us what the prospects are like for the next election cycle:

Mohn: “We have seen in some markets a bit of ‘news fatigue’ about what is going on in Washington and it has caused ratings to go down. That said, as the election gears up for 2020 there is going to be more activity. I think we are going to see increases across the board. We are going to see continued growth.

Mohn began his career as

Rock DJ called Lee Masters

Spark News asked Mohn if the increases mean NPR is doing better or is the commercial radio news/talk competition getting worse:

Mohn:  “I do think we, and our member stations, are doing a better job. We are doing a better job on the journalism, we are doing a better job as programmers, and we are doing a better job as promoters. We haven’t promoted particularly well in the past but there have been major improvements.”

“It is also true that our commercial competitors in many markets are not investing in the local community coverage as they should. That represents an opportunity for us.”

We asked Mohn why folks in public media should care about commercial station’s rating performance?

Mohn and pals at KPCC in 2014

Mohn:  “It is a good question, Ken. When I took the job, I came from the commercial world and I cared greatly about ratings.  We did get pushback from some quarters, that, by itself, just looking at the ratings, is not a positive thing. I agree with that.” 

“But I do think the ratings are a measure of how many people are engaging with us. To me, if you are a NPR member station, the bigger your audience, the greater the likelihood you will increase your membership.”

“For us at NPR, we can’t do well and don’t do well unless the stations do well. Our ratings are nothing but a rollup of our member station’s ratings. We can’t do well unless the stations do well.”

We asked Mohn if NPR and member stations are doing better with the "basics of radio" now than they were when Mohn became NPR’s CEO in 2014:

Jarl and Pam Mohn

Mohn: “It is hard to make a broad statement, but I would say in general that across the system execution of the basics is much better than it has been.”

“That said, if I listen to almost any NPR member station, I can pick out things that can be improved."

“One example is there are so many stations that don’t give their dial position in every break.  My belief is that even P-1’s can’t tell you exactly where your station is on the dial.”

“There are stations that do it well. At KPCC during every single break they say ‘89 point 3, KPCC.’ In DC it is ‘WAMU 88 5’  during every break. But we still have stations in big markets that don’t do it. They could increase their cume by 10% at the snap of a finger and at no cost by saying their dial position.”

“Some programmers have said to me ‘With PPM, I don’t need to say the frequency.’ This blows my mind! PPM only picks up the station a person is listening to. It call tell yor where to tune in the station.”

“Another example is forward promotion. It takes a lot to get some stations to even do them.  I’ve heard some PDs say that promo liners make stations sound too commercial. But the stations that have a solid market position and use promo liners tend, on the whole, over time, tend to do better than those who do not.”

Tune in next Friday, March 8^th, for Part Two of our interview with Jarl Mohn.