NPR cancels "New and Notes" and enters a world of suckitude
Washington-based NPR said it would lay off about 7 percent of its workforce and eliminate two daily programs produced out of its facilities in Culver City, Calif. The shows are "Day to Day," which was aimed at younger listeners, and the newsmaker-interview program "News & Notes," which NPR hoped would attract African Americans.
[...]
Some of those losing their jobs are veteran NPR voices, such as Ketzel Levine, an NPR reporter since 1977, and Vicky O'Hara, an editor and former diplomatic correspondent with 26 years on the job. Others include "News & Notes" host Farai Chideya, "Day to Day" host Madeleine Brand, Washington reporter Libby Lewis, entertainment-industry correspondent Kim Masters and national reporter John McChesney. About half the 64 people cut are journalists.
[...]
Combined with the elimination of "Day to Day" and "News & Notes," the cutbacks constitute a retreat from NPR's efforts to reach new listeners, especially young people and members of minority groups who are not part of NPR's "core" audience. The programs are carried on the Internet, but can be accessed on the radio in Washington only via WAMU's (88.5 FM) "high-definition" channel, which requires a special radio.
"Day to Day" is carried on 186 stations nationwide; "News & Notes" is on 64. Both will remain on the air until March.
So let me get this straight : NPR puts virtually no money to market to the negroes and young crowd. They absolutely spend no effort promoting the stars of their "new demographic" vehicles. They cap the show's distribution at the knees by limiting it to a handful or radio stations and some freakingly obscure high-definition channel that can only be listened to with a freakishly specialized radio and they're complaning the shows tanked?
Not only that : Are you going to tell me that you need to screw 64 journalists in order to keep all the lame bureaucracy that wasn't doing their job of selling the shows in the first place?
This is absolutely pathetic.
[Photo courtesy of Baratunde Thurston. That's the two of us over at the NPR studios on 42nd Street]
N & N
I couldn't agree more. News and Notes is spectacular radio for a generation of color and the loss suggests that NPR is willing to throw that powerful demographic under the bus in the Age of Obama.
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at the risk of repeating myself...
N&N is an excellent program, and Farai Chideya is a fantastic journalist who has done an amazing job with this program since its inception. I guess this shows you what NPR and its audience see as a priority, though. Apparently it's not stellar journalism from an African American perspective, and that's a shame.