THE BOTTOM LINE

Stations need a carefully crafted promo plan throughout the day and particularly during the most listened-to program - Morning Edition®.

Extending Service: Promoting New Media 

What's wrong with this picture? Ten years ago many public radio stations spent considerable air time promoting their new web sites, most of which lacked substantial content and did not provide much service to listeners. Today - with new media offerings much deeper and more listener-focused -- there appears to be surprisingly little on-air promotion of these offerings.

Given the amount of time and resources most stations devote to new media and the growth in listener use of these services, they should be promoted on-air regularly.

The MEGS sm  project has analyzed the 7am hour of over 65 stations around the country. 37% of those stations never mentioned their web sites or other new media available. 26% had only one mention of new media in their most listened to hour of the day.

Current new media promotion most often promotes the URL of the station web site along with an ID, or mentions that the audio of a story is also available online. Other new media promos are for streaming, events calendars, newscast audio, podcasting, or social networking.

Here are some examples of creative new media promos:

  1. promo for a regional event that pushes listeners to the station web site for further details
  2. promo with audio for a story the station aired that both pushes listeners to the web site and reminds listeners that relevant regional material is being produced
  3. social networking - inviting listeners to comment on local election races
  4. promo for podcasting and other new media options for listeners