PRPD Delivers Content Right to Your Desk

The conference is done and dusted, everyone is back to school and we’re turning into the mid-term election coverage and Fall fundraisers. Now is the time to take a moment and take stock in the things we discussed, debated and learned at the PRPD’s 2018 Content Conference.

Ultimately, it comes down to the three pillars that PRPD has been emphasizing for the last several years: Consumption, Relevance and Sustainability. 

Consumption
Terrestrial, streaming, smart speakers, podcasting – this is a GREAT time to be in the audio content business. The acceleration of on-demand audio will continue. Your options are going to be greatly influenced by:
•    Your willingness to focus like a relentless laser beam to make sure your broadcast/ streamed service is a compelling, essential destination. 
•    Your ability to conceive, produce, fund and distribute meaningful on-demand content.
•    Your current investment, in education, training, product development, in the voice-enabled media world.  
•    Your willingness to embrace and accept investing in projects that will fail. Train your teams, your Boards, your funders in why it’s necessary to have clear goals for our content, executing on measured risk taking, taking those informed shots on goal, assessing the pass/fail early and then either doubling down on an investment or cutting the losses. 

Relevance
Public radio was built by and for white, college-educated baby boomers. The future will require developing relationships and a service mindset for everyone else. 

Meaningful, substantive, authentic cross-departmental engagement work is the path forward. The past allowed a media company to make and ship content AT and audience. Thriving public media entities of the future will be the organizations that build community services - news, information, music, and entertainment – WITH their desired audiences. 

Sustainability
People are paying for content like never before. Our culture has embraced the monthly pay-as-you-go model. Public radio is highly effective at driving sustaining giving. This is more evidence that it’s a great time to be incumbent media.

The teams who use data, technology and new approaches to drive individual giving will show us the difference between struggling and thriving. Listener revenue generation is a 365-day endeavor and every content leader has a stake in the outcome. Content leaders who build energized, forward-leaning partnerships with their entire development teams, Boards and donors will have the richest set of tools for making the best content. Know your audience, know your data (and we don’t mean Nielsen…!) and lean into the psychology of giving, mobile, CRM and other leverage points. 

Recordings of the conference sessions are on the PRPD website for you to watch, listen and most importantly -- share with your team!

Keep learning and growing.