WBUR BizLab’s mission is to identify and test ideas for new revenue in public radio.

WBUR strongly believes that all of us in public media and nonprofit journalism need to remain vibrant and financially strong, so that we can continue to serve our mission of being a trusted and indispensable source of news and information. And to do that, we need to work together to identify paths forward in sustainability. And that is what BizLab’s year and this Summit is about: all of us coming together to learn, and to openly share what we’ve learned, to collectively become stronger.

2019 was an exciting year for us. Because of funding from CPB and Knight Foundation, BizLab was able to work with a diverse group of NPR stations across the country, all with different challenges and different opportunities. The 2019 cohort of stations were the DCist from WAMU, Louisville Public Media, WDET from Detroit, Capital Public Radio from Sacramento, WLRN from Miami, and Vermont Public Radio. The challenge put forth to these stations was to spend 6 months with us identifying a new path to revenue.

How does an organization find a new path to revenue?

There are a lot of ways to launch a new revenue stream within an organization. Many of us have experience in doing this, both at our stations and in other industries.

One way is through acquisition of a business or expertise. For example, NPR, WBEZ, WNYC, and This American Life acquired the podcast distribution platform Pocket Casts. By acquiring a revenue-generating business in an adjacent industry (in this case podcast distribution), an organization can add a new revenue stream and valuable new assets to its portfolio: new technology, skills and expertise, and podcast consumption data insights. The acquisition of non-revenue-generating assets allows organizations to further branch off to create new products or to use the assets to increase revenue in existing revenue streams.

For organizations where acquisition of new products and other organizations is not a viable option, the best option for creating new revenue is by innovating internally, using the skills and resources already available to the organization. While “innovation” can be a buzzword, and R&D and innovation labs can be more flash than substance, there are known methods that work: Design Thinking and Lean Startup methods are used by startups and entrepreneurs of all shapes and sizes to identify product ideas and test them quickly and efficiently. This model for new product design has been used for over a decade by both  fledging startups and top corporations.

But we are a mission-driven non-profit. How do the principles of product development apply here?

Although we are in public media, where our content is provided as a public service, the principles of product design still apply. Even when we do not directly charge for the goods and services we provide, that doesn’t mean that the value we provide cannot be monetized. The example of corporate sponsorship is probably most clear: when corporate underwriters provide support for our station, they are receiving something of value to them: access to new customers. Our underwriters need access to our audience, and the on-air underwriting spots provides this to them.

This concept of value exchange also applies to a donation. Our public radio members donate to us because of what they get when they donate. It varies per donor: some donate because it makes them feel good that they financially supported something aligned to their values. Others donate because they want the tote bag or exclusive premium — they are purchasing a good. Others donate because they want to reinforce their identity as a “public radio nerd” and be an insider. By projecting to the world that they donate, they are making it clear they are true insiders.

Self-declared Public Radio Nerds on Instagram

The point is that new revenue comes from us providing new value to our audience, and asking them to pay for it. And the tighter the connection we can tie between the value we produce and the benefit people get from it, the more likely it is that the audience or user will contribute, by taking action and paying. 

The first step of product development is identifying a problem people want solved

With the six BizLab stations, we set out to understand the values, needs and wants of the target customers of their ideas. Through interviews, focus groups, surveys, and data analysis, each team spent two months focusing on listening and learning about what matters to the audiences, companies, and external stakeholders who interact with public media. Several themes emerged. From audiences, we heard statements like:

“I need my news delivered when and how I consume it.”

“I want to be up to date on what is going on near me.”

“I want the latest news on the topic I am passionate about.”

“I want access to exclusive events.”

“I want to be in the know.”

These needs and wants speak volumes to personalizing our delivery of news and information, on their terms and on their platforms. If we make their lives easier, we will have earned a place in their news landscape. From companies and potential sponsors we heard:

“I want to connect with people who care about my type of business.”

“I need a simple way of creating ads that work.”

“I need a one-stop-shop for buying ads across multiple regions.”

These statements reveal how complex the advertising world has become, and if we can simplify the landscape and enable connections between companies and their customers, we will be solving concrete problems for them.

Cohort Station Product Ideas

With these values identified, the six stations were each able to define a product around a specific need or want they could solve.

• WAMU designed a membership for the DCist, distinct from a membership to WAMU with perks designed for the loyal DCist reader.
• Louisville Public Media launched a new membership program for Do502, an events listing website, centered around exclusive events and ticket discounts, again, distinct from a membership to Louisville Public Media.
• WDET tested the product offering for small businesses in Detroit — a social media sponsored content product, designed to reach their desired customers.
• Capital Public Radio reimagining a cross-network underwriting sales product, converting a longstanding 15-second spot agreement between CapRadio and California public radio stations into a regional underwriting product, giving new access to underwriters to reach the state of California.
• WLRN created a new climate and environmental newsletter product, launching it with an eye towards it being a new membership donation channel and sponsorship opportunity.
• Vermont Public Radio focused on deeply serving Southern Vermont residents by delivering localized and targeted news on multiple platforms, to increase their engagement with VPR content and to increase donations from the region.

Lean Testing

Today’s Summit will share the details of these projects through lightning talks and panel presentations. Because teams followed our innovation process, they did not launch these products immediately after determining these ideas met user needs. Instead they tested them. They each created the tiniest example of what the idea was and quickly showed it to customers in as much of a real way as possible. In this way, the teams collected evidence that the idea was a good one. And sometimes it wasn’t good! But because they had moved quickly and hadn’t spent many resources on their test, the failures were quick and painless. The teams could move on, glad to have not expended more time on the idea. 

Stations each went through four months of testing each idea, launching experiments as frequently as every two weeks. After each test, they refined their product idea. They continually built evidence of what was working, pivoting and changing as they learned what didn’t work.

Some examples of tests include: DCist and LPM asked people to join non-existent membership programs. LPM printed membership cards for the first 12 members on their office printers. WLRN posted sign-up sheets for non-existent newsletters to gauge interest in topics. WDET asked small businesses to sign up for a pilot program, simply to see if anyone would sign up. CapRadio pitched an advertising product that didn’t have a name yet. VPR asked people to register for a news & brews event that ended up being cancelled. But they learned in that test that people wanted to attend.

These teams went out on a limb and asked potential users to take action, so that they could see if there was tangible interest in this concept. They ran small, fast tests and earned small amounts of revenue in the process, in order to determine what would work and what would not work. It was through this process that the stations identified ways of expanding existing station revenue, whether that was through entirely new products or through new donation channels, or with new content to drive new donations. 

The Financial Results

Each project has many lessons learned embedded in the details you’ll hear today. In aggregate, the projects also tell a compelling financial story. During the testing phase, stations collected $83,000 in revenue. Remember, our goal during testing wasn’t to make revenue, but to learn what was working. And it was from this testing, that each team made proposals to their stations to launch a new product, defined based on the lessons learned. And their collective revenue targets for 2020, the first year of each product, totals to $600,000. The charts below break down these numbers by product type and by station. These teams deserve applause for these results!

Summit Overview

This introduction gives you the basic framework of how these stations went from a challenge to find new revenue to actually finding it. They took on the role of entrepreneurs this year, and through flexibility, speed, and curiosity they found new opportunities for their stations.

The rest of today will be about sharing our collective discoveries of what works, what doesn’t work, and the challenges we faced. The day begins with each station telling you more about their projects and results. Then we will discuss the organizational and cultural challenges of introducing new ideas and launching new products at an organization. We have a fantastic panel on leadership and innovation. And we will wrap up the day with concrete case studies of tools and tips for using text messaging platforms and asking for podcast donations.

In Conclusion

Lean in today, and have conversations and capture ideas that you can apply at your own organization. This work is not easy, but it is urgent, and we are in this together.

I want to emphasize one thing: all of us can do this. Every public radio station can identify new possibilities for revenue and quickly test and size the opportunity and choose to take it forward. When hearing about how BizLab cohort stations did it, in addition to observing what they learned, pay attention to how they did it. You can take both their lessons learned and their techniques home with you today.

[Download slides from this presentation or watch the video.]

All of these resources are provided here. You will see that these are written for the stations – giving them instructions about when they need to do planning or review with the BizLab team. There are references to enable teams to learn more – especially as our goal is to enable teams to continue to apply the BizLab method on future projects. 

We are pleased to be able to provide you with BizLab’s methods and tools. 

Packet 1: BizLab Method – An overview of BizLab’s 6 month engagement

Packet 2: BizLab Research Methods and Tools – 11 methods & tools plus how to recruit people and do preliminary analysis

Packet 3: BizLab Analysis Methods and Tools – 7 analysis & synthesis methods and tools

With these materials, may you find and implement new revenue streams at your station. 

Reach out to us with your use cases and questions on Twitter @WBURBizLab or email at bizlab@wbur.org.

BizLab stations across the country spent 2019 testing news ideas for revenue at their stations and in their communities. At the BizLab Summit, each station gave a six-minute overview of their project.

• Download their slides (PDF)
• Watch WDET, Vermont Public Radio, and WLRN’s panel discussion, followed by their lightning presentations
• Watch Louisville Public Media, WAMU, and Capital Public Radio’s panel discussion, followed by their lightning presentations

WAMU, in Washington, D.C., acquired and revived the digital news outlet DCist in 2018, helping to fill a void in D.C.’s news ecosystem. DCist.com has a large and loyal audience, but until now the audience was not directly supporting the website.

DCist’s project with BizLab aimed to craft a robust and unique membership program, distinct to the brand of DCist: knowledgeable, playful, and engaging. To test the team’s assumptions, their BizLab project invited previous backers of a Kickstarter campaign to join a beta membership program. That group was used to test hypotheses about which membership benefits and offerings would resonate. A few months later, the DCist launched its membership program to the public on November 1, 2019 and has seen a heartening initial response.

Louisville Public Media’s work with BizLab centered on integrating their new digital property, Do502, into their existing network of stations and membership offerings. Do502.com is an event listing site with a focus on curated lists that help people find new things to do and new places to explore in Louisville, KY.

Louisville’s BizLab experiments focused on creating and curating events specifically for the Do502 audience. Early research in the project uncovered that Do502 readers crave limited-access engagements and exclusive series, and the team used their project to explore how to engage their audience in this way. The team also experimented with how to launch and promote a membership to Do502, distinct and separate from Louisville Public Media’s existing membership program.

WDET, Detroit’s NPR Station, has identified many local, small businesses who are aligned with the station’s values, but can’t afford typical radio underwriting pricing. Additionally, it is neither efficient nor profitable for a WDET underwriting representative to pursue sponsorship at the level of a small business budget.

WDET worked with BizLab exploring social media underwriting opportunities for small businesses. Through in-person interviews, WDET discovered that small businesses frequently use Facebook and Instagram to promote events and drive traffic. They also learned these businesses care about the local community, telling their unique story and providing a niche service and product. They love WDET’s non-profit mission and its reputation within the local community. With this information, the team tested a WDET-branded social media post product on Facebook and Instagram that affiliated the small business with the WDET brand and halo, reaching a network of potential consumers. By prototyping it as an online, semi-automated process to sell and produce, WDET created an affordable underwriting product.

Capital Public Radio, in Sacramento, CA, has an existing network of NPR stations across California where in exchange for Capital Public Radio’s State Capitol reporting, partner stations provide weekly underwriting units on their airwaves. The BizLab project was focused on re-designing the function and mission of this network, Capital Public Radio Network (CPRN).

CPRN enjoyed financial success in its early years, through selling these partner station underwriting units, but revenue began to decline in 2009 and eventually fell to zero. Through BizLab, the team explored how to resurrect, restructure, and return CPRN to financial sustainability, by redefining the product in terms of the value it offered to underwriters: a one-stop-shop for reaching NPR listeners across the state of California.

WLRN in Miami has invested in their local coverage of the environment and climate change with a commitment to hosting local events and hiring an environment reporter. WLRN’s goal in their BizLab project was to explore how to generate revenue through this topical coverage and the creation of an environmental newsletter.

Their BizLab experiments tested different newsletter content, styles, and format, and then expanded into a technology integration project: the team brought in News Revenue Hub to integrate their newsletter, payment and CRM platforms. The final environmental newsletter product combines journalism and community engagement through the delivery of specialized content on a significant community issue. The newsletter is driving new membership, increasing current levels of giving, and is a vehicle for targeting specific underwriters for this newly developed product.

Vermont Public Radio’s vision is “exploring the whole Vermont story, together” – no small task when you consider VPR is a statewide public radio service in a rural state with few concentrated population centers. In 2018, during VPR’s 14-county listening tour, listeners consistently asked for more coverage of their local communities. VPR’s BizLab project centered around the idea of making the station “feel more local” in Windham County, located in Southern VT, to determine if this would increase loyalty, engagement, and ultimately, revenue.

To accomplish this, in partnership with VPR’s dedicated Southern Vermont reporter, the team worked to raise the visibility of regional content and the reporter’s profile in the community via social media and a new email newsletter. They also increased engagement with the community by soliciting story ideas and planning a “News & Brews” event to involve residents in the news gathering process. They are now also exploring the possibility of geo-targeted underwriting opportunities that would allow local businesses to reach their local customers.

In this panel each station discussed their reasoning behind keeping the product distinct from existing station offerings, how they made the case internally, and the pro’s and con’s of launching a new brand.

Panel Video

Moderator:

• Candice Springer, Assistant Director of Community Engagement, WBUR

Panelists: 

• Lisa Cooper, Underwriting Executive, Capital Public Radio
• Tracy Karem, Corporate Marketing Representative, Louisville Public Media
• Rachel Sadon, Editor-in-Chief, DCist

Audience Questions

Our panelists provided written answers to audience questions not covered in the live discussion.

Limited resources in marketing has come up a lot…. How do I convince my VERY busy marketing person to create a new brand communication plan?

• Lisa (Capital Public Radio): In the CapRadio BizLab project we stumbled in that regard. At first, we did not know that our network was even on the marketing team’s docket and the marketing team did not know we were razing the old model, beginning anew, changing the name of the Network.  Marketing had invested significant time and effort in ensuring the Network was included in the stations’ new branding plan. This meant a lot of their time and resources were already invested when we told them we of the name change. It is taking time and dialogue to for us to get on the same page. Moving forward, we are working closely with our marketing team to ensure we are in agreement as we continue to consider a name-change, website, and marketing for our project. We have found there is no such thing as over-communicating.  I realize how basic that is. We were very excited to move forward with a new name which appeared to be a dismissal of all the work our marketing team had already done.  That was not our intent. Rather than being put into a position of damage control and mending fences, you should first get a new brand communication plan get on the radar of your very busy marketing person. Get their take on it, then take baby steps – make sure you talk in detail and start at the very beginning. Discuss the importance of your vision and how it aligns with their goals and the overall success of your operations.  It takes more time than I’d imagined.

• Rachel (DCist): We’ve struggled with this exact issue, and in a lot of cases it has just meant taking these kind of projects and work on ourselves.

Do502 found a distinct part of the D502 Audience that was NOT part of the LPMedia Audience.  Did the same thing emerge at DCist? Please talk more about that.

• Rachel (DCist): We don’t have as much data on this as I’d like, but we definitely see a substantial part of our donor base hadn’t given to WAMU.

How much did you rely on your legacy platforms to promote the digital platforms?

• Tracy (LPM): We promote Do502 on the three stations of LPM, especially on the music station. We announce ticket giveaways on WFPK, telling folks they need to go to Do502 to register to win. We also rotate promos, telling people to go to Do502 if they are looking for something to do.

For DCist, are the membership donations generated by your digital product eligible (Usable)  to receive CPB’s CSG grants the same way the radio $ is used?

• Rachel (DCist): I don’t officially know the answer to this, but I imagine that they are? We are wholly owned by WAMU.

What’s wrong with “millennial newspaper of record?” How are you broadening the DCist brand appeal? 2. Is it possible to create a brand that serves everyone?

• Rachel (DCist): I’m just not convinced that the things millennials want from their news is all that different from what everyone else wants; we see all demographics increasingly looking to mobile, consuming newsletters, wanting to know how to spend their weekend, enjoying well-written content, etc. Marketing to just millennials also runs a major risk of alienating a lot of people — including longtime Washingtonians — who would otherwise get a lot of value from the work that we’re producing. No, I don’t think it’s possible to create a brand that serves everyone, everywhere. But I do think that it’s possible to cover a city the size of D.C. holistically, in a way that all Washingtonians can find something that appeals to them and their needs.

Tracy – how many staffers did Do502 have prior to BizLab and how many would be ideal?

• Tracy (LPM): Do502 came with one staff person, who is still with us. Since acquiring Do502, we’ve added two additional people. One is the Digital Director, she is in charge of Do502, but also in charge of the digital for all the properties.  What we have now seems to work really well, so I doubt any more staff will be added

What other kinds of potential acquisitions are you considering or are being discussed in your organizations?

• Tracy (LPM): No other acquisitions at the moment. Apparently, we get approached a lot about buying other brands, but I think if we were to buy another property, it would have to align very much with our mission.

How do you create success when Human Resources are limited and there is no budget to expand.

• Tracy (LPM): For LPM, it did require some people, including myself, going outside their role in the organization. If resources are limited, talk to underwriting about ways to sponsor what you have in mind. They may have some ideas and relationships in place that can make the process go easier, especially if you start small with the experiments. The beauty of experiments is that you can try things on a smaller scale, so no one is being asked to do that much more.
• Lisa (Capital Public Radio): Similarly, at CapRadio, we were given an opportunity that had not previously been available to our Corporate Support team.  That meant we had to stretch our underwriting roles to include statewide buys. Knowing this would increase revenue in the future, we have had to be patient as it has affected pur regular and new business income in the now.  This patience must also be exercised by management since we are building for growth that will show up later. We are stretched very thin at the moment – a sacrifice we make for said growth.

Curious what the motivations are for acquiring a brand if you want to change its brand reputation and associations anyway?

• Lisa (Capital Public Radio): Within the world of prospective buyers, the CapRadio Network didn’t have a brand to speak of. With the exception of a couple of hand-picked grantors, the Network had been marketed to stations, not buyers. with the intent of ensuring participation based on content in exchange for units. We knew the Network had real potential for revenue – it had been built that way – and without specific effort and marketing to buyers, its revenue potential would likely continue to founder.
• Rachel (DCist): I don’t think that WAMU/DCist has done this at all (if that’s what was being implied here). We have kept the strategy the same largely as it was before. This wasn’t the case at our sister publication, LAist, where they have change the brand, etc. I suspect the motivation there and in other cases is the large platform already built in and strong brand recognition. 

How do you find a marketing/branding consultant who isn’t largely full of crap? (Not a joke Q)

• Rachel (DCist): Ooof. Bring as much of it in house as you can? Come in with a really strong vision and seek more help in the execution? If you find the answer, tell us!

Thank you to our thoughtful panelists and engaged audience members!

Panel Video

Moderator:

• Adrian Ma, Bostonomix Reporter, WBUR

Panelists: 

• Brendan Kinney, Senior Vice President for Marketing and Development, Vermont Public Radio
• Giselle Reid, Director of Strategic Initiatives, Friends of WLRN
• Meta Stange, Digital Producer, WDET

Side-Panel: 

• Howard Weiss-Tisman, Reporter for Southern Vermont & The Connecticut River Valley, Vermont Public Radio
• Katie Lepri, Engagement Producer, WLRN
• Toby Tabaczynski, Associate Director, Business Development & Marketing, WDET

Audience Questions

[The panelists provided written answers to audience questions not covered in the live discussion.]

Did you find opportunities to better serve your audience by collaborating together?

• Meta (WDET): Absolutely. Editorial/business collaboration allows us to present a more cohesive product to our audience, both on-air and online.
• Howard (VPR): Yes. Our project opened a direct link with some listeners. I think they felt closer to the station in communicating through our newsletters. 

What are ways you fostered communication between your business & editorial folks? Cross-departmental team meetings, Slack channels, email groups—what worked?

• Meta (WDET): We’ve found that periodic cross-team meetings are effective for fostering communication across the station and breaking down silos. For our station, the ability to connect in-person reduces miscommunication and enhances understanding of what everyone is working on. We have bi-monthly membership meetings and a monthly marketing meeting, both of which have representatives from membership, marketing, underwriting, and editorial. Also, the business team is always welcome to pop in to our morning news meetings to keep a finger on the pulse of what’s going on editorially, and they often do stop by!
• Toby (WDET): Adding on to what Meta said, the ability to work together comes from building respect and trust which is what we do at WDET.  If you have that, conversations and mutual commitment can take place. We are fortunate at WDET that we have those relationships.
• Howard (VPR): Since I don’t work in the same office as the development team, we swap email messages regularly. I felt like I was always in the loop and knew what was going on. There were no surprises.
• Brendan (VPR): We formed a podcast committee a number of years ago that brought representatives from various departments together to coordinate our efforts. As a result, we have built the infrastructure necessary to sell and deliver sponsorships, hold events with impact around the state and promote the shows more effectively. We use in-person meetings, Slack channels and email to communicate.

Is the concept of a firewall outdated? Should we be more concerned with transparency, disclosure and truth as opposed to separation and sequestration?

• Toby (WDET): Yes. All departments can still protect their unique goals and mission AND have open conversations to explore areas to work together and compromise as needed. 
• Howard (VPR): We have to stop using the word “Firewall” when talking about BizLab projects. Firewalls are real. They are important and they should not be penetrated. A development project can never direct content. Ever. The reason I think it is so damaging to continue using the word is because I don’t think these projects have anything to do with firewalls and continuing to use the word will scare away people who might have some legitimate issues with this. 
• Brendan (VPR): The firewall plays an important role in ensuring integrity in our editorial process. However, organizations can respect the firewall and better coordinate efforts to make our organizations sustainable for the long term. 

Is “engagement” on the revenue side or the content side? Some of the comments seem to imply that focusing on engagement is bad for journalism.

• Meta (WDET): For us, it’s both. We rely on community-first reporting for a significant number of stories which requires engagement to be at the forefront of our editorial process. What we’ve found through that process is that our content is more thorough and representative of the communities that we are reporting on. 
• Katie (WLRN): For us at WLRN, it’s both, too. Although, when I talk about engagement, I’m strictly speaking about editorial. Stories about the economy, immigration, healthcare, education, etc. are told through the lens of the experiences of people who reside in our communities. The community is a big part of our newsroom. 

Why is it an either/or? Why can’t engagement be on both revenue and content? 

• Brendan (VPR): Engagement has largely been the purview of development at VPR. Over the last few years our thinking – and practice – has evolved thanks to two initiatives: the first was the launch of Brave Little State, a “people-powered” show that uses Hearken to engage the audience in helping choose topics; the second was a 2018 statewide listening tour that brought us to all 14 counties in Vermont to learn how we could better serve our audience (and to help our new CEO learn about his new home state). 

How do you balance the need to set editorial priorities early enough to raise money, while keeping flexibility to respond to changing news events?

• Howard (VPR): From the start my development people said, “Just continue doing what you do and we will find ways to get your stories to the audience.” So they never directed my reporting to raise money. 

Is having reporters “pitch” on air in a pledge drive considered “okay” or “not good”?

• Meta (WDET): Our pledge drives are an all hands on deck process. Everyone gets on air at some point, and our listeners seem to appreciate hearing directly from the reporters, hosts, and producers that they already hear from every day. 

Have any of your content people made a suggestion on how to word a donation ask?

• Katie (WLRN): As far as I know, no.
• Howard (VPR): No 
• Brendan (VPR): As I mentioned during the panel, many of our news staff “pitch” during membership drives and craft an ask on the air. They have the opportunity to word their own asks. 

From a pledge perspective, do you consider a reporter issuing CTAs a firewall breach, such as giving phone # and web address?

• Meta (WDET): Without member support, there is no reporting. Our news team is keenly aware of this and willing to make direct asks during pledge drives.

I’m getting the sense that newsletters seem to be controlled by the business side of the house. Is this the case? Why?

• Howard (VPR): For me this whole project has come out of business. So when they say they want to send a newsletter or link a story on Facebook I’m happy to do what I can to make it happen. With my workload I am more than happy for business to lead it, though there was some back-and-forth when we were deciding how to word some emails. 
• Brendan (VPR): We have worked collaboratively to develop newsletters at VPR. We have a daily “headlines” newsletter that is curated by our Morning Edition producer. We also launched a newsletter for our BizLab project which automatically ships whenever a new story is posted to our website about Southern Vermont. Our development team worked with our digital team to develop the template and the technical capability to have it go out with minimal intervention. 
• Meta (WDET): At WDET, our newsletters are editorial products, but we work with marketing + underwriting to determine if there are additional opportunities for support/sponsorship. 
• Katie (WLRN): At WLRN, we currently have a “member” newsletter that’s controlled by Friends of WLRN. But our BizLab project opened the door for our first newsroom-written newsletter. We’ve since launched another from the newsroom and a third will be coming in 2020. 

For WLRN – has your relationship with the other side changed at all as a result of your project? 

• Katie (WLRN): Yes, definitely. It’s more open than it used to be. Before this project, I could bet that business didn’t know what was happening in editorial and vice versa. That’s changed. Employees from Friends of WLRN frequent editorial’s weekly story meetings. And they will definitely be more collaboration in the future. 

How important is it for development/business staff to be regular consumers of the content your station is making? Should it be required? 

• Meta (WDET): Our business/development staff is constantly consuming the content that the editorial team creates, which makes it much easier to work collaboratively and nimbly because the business team already has a baseline understanding of what we’re working on. I guess the bigger question is if the business staff isn’t interested in consuming your station’s editorial content, why would they want to sell it? 
• Brendan (VPR): Much of our “case for support” is about the work of our content team, so our expectation is that staff are also listeners and readers of our content. I would consider it a big red flag if you have to “require” staff to consume your station’s content! 

At most entrepreneurial news startups, editorial and business sides are working closely together on new initiatives. Is public radio handicapping itself?

• Toby (WDET): There are certainly some legacy habits and structures that exist in public radio and for that matter, have existed in all traditional media.  Other media have been making changes for years. Public radio has a unique opportunity to change this now. 

Not necessarily a firewall breach, but ALL content people have to be aware that they ARE revenue generators. I know many who *aggressively* don’t get that.

• Toby (WDET): If everyone understands they can help and have a connection to helping generate revenue, mind sets are changed and doors open.  Often, people feel they need to “stay in their lane” and not look at the bigger picture of how they can help. Some of the best revenue ideas we have have come from staff outside of the Underwriting team. 

Thanks, everyone!

Tamsen Webster, a 20-year brand and message strategist and former TEDx Executive Producer, will be the keynote speaker, explaining how to make it easy for your team to say “yes” to your innovation ideas by creating the right message and presentations.

This video recap summarizes Tamsen’s approach for making the case for your innovation, with a special guest on stage, Rebecca Lavoie, from New Hampshire Public Radio. Rebecca and Tamsen build the case for a new podcast focused on a beloved New England store, Market Basket.

Moderator:
Joan DiMicco, Executive Director, BizLab, WBUR

Panelists:
Andi McDaniel, Senior Director of Content and News, WAMU
Ellen Oost, Director of Development, Louisville Public Media
Paul Adams, Director, Corporate Underwriting, Capital Public Radio

Moderator:

Joan DiMicco, Executive Director, BizLab, WBUR

Panelists:

Tina Pamintuan, General Manager, KALW, using Give Lively for donations

Katie Lepri, Engagement Producer, WLRN, using GroundSource for audience engagement

Kathleen Moura, Membership Manager, WBUR, using Hustle for donor engagement

This panel will feature three successful case studies, as well as outline best practices and tips for engaging this unique audience. While we at WBUR have experimented with podcast donation, what impressed us about these panelists is that they’ve figured out the best practices for making the ask.

Panel Video

Moderator:

• Charlotte Cooper, Director of Audience Growth and Marketing, PRI/PRX

Panelists: 

• Rebecca Lavoie, Digital Director, New Hampshire Public Radio
• Amira Valliani, Co-founder & CEO, Glow.fm
• Kjerstin Wood, Digital Fundraising Officer, KUOW

Audience Questions

Our panelists provided written answers to audience questions not covered in the live discussion.

What/when is a good threshold for admitting you’ve failed & need to pivot, in terms of both total podcast listens and podcast revenue?

• Rebecca (NHPR): I think it’s really important to understand why your podcast exists…if you’ve made something simply in order to make money or getting tons of downloads, that’s not enough. It’s also important to understand that some very small podcasts make a LOT of money, and some very big ones don’t. The most honest answer here is that I would have to know/hear more about the project you are asking about in order to weigh in with a solid opinion!

How do you measure success: downloads, impressions, donations, sponsors?

• Kjerstin (KUOW): We’re still learning what success looks like. Yes, we track downloads, number of donors (and if they are new, renewing, lapsed rejoin, etc), revenue generated from events and other typical measures. But what we are seeing is huge progress in how our teams work together and the trust we are building between different departments that may typically fall into siloed behaviors. We are operating from a place of meeting individual goals to serve the overall mission of getting great, eye-opening content to our listeners and flexible in how to get there. That’s been a huge success that we are tremendously proud of.
• Rebecca (NHPR): It depends entirely on the content of the podcast. Honestly…build your success metrics custom for each project you do, because you will make yourself crazy trying to replicate past successes of you don’t take that approach.

How do you communicate the call-to-action? How do you get someone to go from listening to engaging with their device to make the donation?

• Amira (glow.fm): Be crystal clear in your call to action about how to give, and then include an easy link in the shownotes to the donation page. In the call to action, it’s helpful to say how easy it is to give: “It’ll take no more than 30 seconds of your time, and 3 taps. We’ll wait here while you go ahead and click on the link in the shownotes or navigate to www.station.org/donate.” We’ve actually seen massive spikes in giving when the hosts emphasize how easy it is to give and articulate the process for doing so. A lot of listeners anticipate a clunky road to donating, so they continuously ‘save it for later.’ Make it easy to give and tell your listeners how easy it is.
• Kjerstin (KUOW): I second what Amira said!
• Rebecca (NHPR): Think about the listener and make it AS EASY AS POSSIBLE. Put your donation link in your show notes and tell the listener to look there. ALSO put it on your website. Consider using PayPal, which is a platform most people who’ve ever bought anything on the internet use all the time, whether they know it or not. Think of it like buying a magazine or a pack of gum at the grocery checkout, and create that experience for the listener. Ideally, your listener shouldn’t have to remember to do it later, but should be able to hit pause right then and get it done quickly, without having to fill in a bunch of personal information on a donation form. Email is enough.

When in a podcast’s life cycle is the best time to start asking listeners for contributions?

• Kjerstin (KUOW): I don’t think it’s ever too early, because it sets the expectation that this content they are enjoying takes time and resources to create. The earliest we’ve asked at this point for actual donations is the second episode, but we will do other asks like asking people to pass on the podcast to two friends, rate and review in their podcast app, or sign up for an email newsletter. We’ve basically taken the typical engagement ladder strategy for on-air and just sped things up. Our digital director likes to say that the time from dating to marriage in podcasts is a lot shorter than with on-air listening, so you could see a higher rate of return if you start your asks earlier.
  Rebecca (NHPR): It’s never too early, especially if you’re making something you think people will love (which should be everything, right?

Can you share some successful marketing techniques to drive listening?

• Kjerstin (KUOW): Our marketing team has seen success using an audience engagement strategy that helps influence the algorithms. We ask listeners to pass on the podcast to friends as well as rate and review in their podcast apps. The team also develops robust social strategy and newsletter content that is easily shareable for listeners to help spread the word. We’ve also seen success with doing swaps with other podcasts in similar content verticals, and being selected for new and noteworthy lists has given us a bump.
• Rebecca (NHPR): Buy ads/do ad swaps with other podcasts outside of your station (and maybe even outside public radio). This is, hands-down, the best way to drive listening to a show. Ask your podcast teams for ideas on what shows would be a good fit.

How much are you moving podcast supporters into “regular” members of your station? Does it work / not work?

• Kjerstin (KUOW): We are still working on refining tracking mechanisms, so we won’t be able to evaluate whether our first robustly tracked group of donors from podcast donations renews until April 2020. But overall, when people give to “podcasts,” they are contributing to unrestricted KUOW funds so they end up in our regular membership pipeline. That means they get stewarded like the rest of our members, although we are hoping to do more customized messaging as we move into a new email marketing system that better links with our donor database.
• Rebecca (NHPR): My question would be WHY do you want to do this with podcast supporters? Is it good service to push someone who lives in a different state to think of themselves as a member of your station, or is it a better service to have them support the show that connected them to you in the first place? Is the better answer to change your internal thinking around/definition of “membership?” And then to hyper/custom serve the folks who’ve opted in financially with you via that channel? I think so. That being said, at NHPR we do try to identify folks who live within or near our state and have donated to one or more of our podcasts and then communicate with them in a more membership-focused way. We have some work to do on creating systems around that across teams, however, because our opt-in/open rates for podcast email subscribers are very high, and we don’t want to abuse their trust by putting them in a membership funnel without serving them at the same time. One of the ways we’ve worked around this is to maintain those email lists in duplicate on separate sides of the firewall so that a person could, for instance, opt-out of fundraising messaging but still get podcast emails.

For Kjerstin: When your podcast donors get added into the membership funnel do you treat them always as a separate segment or send them general messaging?

• Kjerstin (KUOW): In an ideal world, they would get a separate messaging stream. Once we have finished transitioning into our email system that aligns better with our donor database, I am hoping to customize messaging streams attached to the campaign codes that we currently use to track funds raised by podcasts. This would still include some education around the larger messaging about our station and how that podcast fits into our overall mission of creating and serving a more informed public.

Do you ever see content donation fatigue with so many asks, often at regular intervals?

• Kjerstin (KUOW): I have not seen evidence of donation fatigue in our podcasts, and certainly not at the rate in which I receive comments about our on-air solicitations.

To the panelists working at public radio stations, does $ raised by a particular podcast go towards that podcast or into the station’s general money pot?

• Kjerstin (KUOW): We are very clear in our messaging that their donations go to support “innovative content like Podcast XYZ.” It is unrestricted fundraising that goes into our general fund.
• Rebecca (NHPR): Right now, we don’t have a dedicated pot, but we are looking at making a change there – I think it’s a good idea to invest directly in the business model when possible, but also know when it’s not.

How do you think about earning revenue off of your back catalog and/or a short-run series?

• Rebecca (NHPR): This is where working with an ad agency and/or hosting your audio on a dynamic platform really helps. If you have the data to show that your back catalog is seeing discovery, that’s a great place to sell new campaigns – ideally, with the right technology, most ad campaigns you (or your agency) sell would be full-catalog, and then expire after a period of time or a set number of impressions/downloads have been reached. The exception here would be a presenting sponsor, which you might want to bake right into the audiofile and sell it as a “forever” ad.

Do premiums work? Branded items? Goofy one-offs?

• Amira (glow.fm): Premiums work, and evidence demonstrates that premiums and bonus content earn higher on-average conversions than asks for listener support. Of course, this has to be balanced with the investment required to produce and offer premium content. On average, we’ve seen asks for listener support convert at about 1-2% and premium content convert 4-6% of listeners to paid.
• Kjerstin (KUOW): We’ve seen mixed results. I’d say premiums are a “nice to have” if you have a highly engaged audience who wants to show off that they are part of the community, but we saw that they weren’t necessarily a major driver of donations. About half of the donors to season 2 of one of our highly-engaged audience podcasts selected a thank-you gift, which is aligned with what we see in terms of people taking thank-you gifts for on-air drives.
• Rebecca (NHPR): We have had VERY mixed results with podcast premiums. Outside/In has been the most successful, mostly because the team has had a heavy hand in creating the premiums and made EXACTLY what they knew their audience might want (buffs, custom wooden pins, etc.) They also created content around their premiums (like this cheeky video and this cheeky video). I think our station has also been afraid to do the kinds of premiums that would actually work for certain shows, because they aren’t traditional “public radio” – for instance, we had a brainstorm when we launched Stranglehold (which is very edgy) about creating merch or premiums featuring a quote from the podcast, “We don’t give a SH*T about Iowa!” I’m pretty sure listeners would have loved it, but it didn’t get off the ground here.

Do you make paywalled content available to members who are already giving to the station (as opposed to the podcast)? Or do you treat them separately?

• Rebecca (NHPR): We tried this as an experiment when we launched Patient Zero. I don’t see a downside to doing this at all. We did it as an opt-in, however, by sending current station sustainers an email with a button to push that would indicate they wanted the content. If they did so, they received an autoreply with instructions on how to get the content.

A comment – many public radio stations deploy a paywall strategy with pledge-free streams.

• Rebecca (NHPR): They sure do. This is a great “precedent” to lean on if you’re having a hard time selling the idea of early/exclusive content produced for donors.

Do listeners actually care about bonus (paywalled) or windowed content?

• Amira (glow.fm): Your biggest fans absolutely care. It might be a small subset of your listener base, but the people who love your podcast and can’t get enough of it will pay for more of it and pay early. Podcasts that offer extra content in exchange for payment often see higher conversion rates to paid.
• Kjerstin (KUOW): Yes, bonus content can be a huge driver for those fans who just can’t get enough. It does take a lot of work from the production team, however, so you have to work closely to make sure you’re all on the same page before you embark on producing special episodes. There are lower lift ways of producing special content (mailbag episodes answering listener questions, extended interviews, for example) and then there are more produced bonus episodes like recording a live event and making it available in the bonus feed. We bundled our bonus feed for one of our podcasts into a “Starter Pack” with an enamel pin and poster that was really popular, along with many people opting for the bonus feed itself at the $20 donation level. Where we see challenges is the technical side of getting the feed into the user’s preferred podcast app, so that is something to consider.
• Rebecca (NHPR): Heck yes they do. This is why Patreon is a thing. And you don’t need a lot of people to make a lot of money this way…for instance, my own (non-NHPR) show has only 1550 or so Patrons on Patreon, and while that may not seem like a lot of people to make additional content for, that number of people translates to $8,500 a month. Not bad, right?

Are there any partnerships between Patreon and public media that the panelists are aware of?

• Amira (glow.fm): I’m not aware of any, but glow.fm would be thrilled to chat about partnerships.
• Kjerstin (KUOW): I’m not aware of any – we had looked into partnering with Glow.fm, but we are a university licensee so there are roadblocks to adding new payment processors and we couldn’t find workarounds in time for the podcast launch date.
• Rebecca (NHPR): I haven’t seen any public radio shows using Patreon, but there are a small number of newsroom podcasts using it, including Accused from the Cincinnati Inquirer.

How do you blend donation ask with sponsor credits?

• Amira (glow.fm): The easiest approach is simply to stagger them. For example, you could have a donation ask in the preroll and offer sponsorship for midrolls. Having multiple asks in one show is normal and doesn’t necessarily dilute the impact of the asks. Another approach is to stagger by episode: one week you might ask for a donation, and the next one only allow sponsorships, etc.
• Kjerstin (KUOW): Our traffic manager has created an inventory tracking system for podcasts just like we use for on-air promos, so that we can clearly track which messages are going out in preroll, midroll and postroll. We have not run into any major conflicts yet, and usually only include one message per placement. The production and marketing team also maintain a shared spreadsheet that keeps track of ALL calls to action in each break of every episode. This is important because they want to be sure that we have consistent and simple messaging. So for example, we want to avoid accidentally pairing a donation ask back-to-back with a “leave us a review” ask.
• Rebecca (NHPR): We do a preroll for the ask, and do sponsor ads as midrolls – we’ve also used an ask as a midroll when there’s no ad booked.

A staple of on-air fundraising is matching gifts. Do matching gifts — be they from a major donor or foundation — amplify asynchronous giving on podcasts?

• Rebecca (NHPR): We used a major donor match before the launch of Patient Zero to do a kickstarter-like “help us make this podcast” campaign. That worked okay-ish, but I don’t know how or if it would work on an actual podcast ask. I strongly believe podcast listeners see themselves as individuals supporting a thing they love, and that they don’t spend much time thinking about other supporters.

Are underwriting departments bringing podcast Sponsorship revenue to the table?

• Kjerstin (KUOW): Our business support team is experimenting with overall podcast sponsorship as well as the traditional CPM model. The sponsorship package they are working on pitching includes preroll messages in all episodes, tags in on-air promo (promo and then sponsored by XYZ). There is a high price tag on this package because it involves broadcast and presence at any events held for the podcast, and is pitched along the idea of brand alignment/affinity just like for on-air revenue. This strategy is still in its infancy. We are also experimenting with selling preroll spots in podcast episodes of our on-air shows, which is having a slow start because our download numbers aren’t quite there. One big challenge is that many of our current business supporters are in the local area, and our most popular podcast, The Wild, has national reach. Our business support team has pointed out that willingness to collaborate in this space has been huge – we had one podcast host actually generate a list of businesses that may be good leads for sponsorship revenue because the host knew the audience and content so well, they knew what would best align to produce mutual benefit.
• Rebecca (NHPR): Yes – we work with an agency to sell national ads, but our local underwriting team can also sell ads. The one challenge there has been working with that team on what podcasts ads should sound and feel like (not like public radio underwriting copy), and how to sell the value of them. I wish our sales team all listened to podcasts, but since they don’t, it’s hard for them to sell their value sometimes.

Are there any examples of securing grant funding for podcasts?

• Kjerstin (KUOW): The only podcast we have received grant funding for is our RadioActive Youth Media podcast, which is a little different than the rest of our podcast content. We did receive a grant for an Emerging Platforms Producer, a position that does a tremendous amount of work on podcasts and smart speaker content. That’s who I work with regularly to evaluate donation data compared to listener/download data for our podcasts.
• Rebecca (NHPR): Yes, Civics 101 is supported by a big grant from the CPB, and we are pursuing other grant opportunities for that show and some of our other shows.

Can you share best and worst attempts at raising revenue? ($$$ amounts, conversion rates)

• Kjerstin (KUOW): Our best attempt so far was very low lift: our host asked for a dedicated donation form/link for them to share out, with one in-episode ask, that generated just under $6,000 in less than 60 days. We have not been able to replicate that success since, although I do think it was boosted during the calendar year-end fundraising period. Events have also helped generate revenue, we’ve held a few events related to podcasts and have seen success with including a suggested donation during the free RSVP process (ranging from $10-30), as well as using a DipJar system to quickly collect credit card donation in-person at the events. As far as worst attempts, we had one in-episode ask that sounded too much like the episode content itself, and it wasn’t clear to the listener that it was a separate ask from the content. We would have benefitted from a little more separation or maybe even having someone outside of the host team do the the ask.

Could you provide some examples of excellent independent podcasts who fundraise well?

• Amira (glow.fm): A best-in-class example of this is Making Sense with Sam Harris. Sam’s podcast is entirely listener supported. There’s no ad revenue, but at the beginning of every episode, he makes an extended call to action (sometimes as long as 10 minutes!) explaining why he doesn’t take ads and believes it’s important to create a listener supported show. He has an entire staff that now helps produce the show and manage his website, and 100% of his income is from various calls to action where people either support the show or pay for additional content.
• Amira (glow.fm) (continued): Acquired is a mid-sized podcast about technology that has generated over $40,000 this year through offering premium content. They’re a small show, where both the hosts put it out in addition to their day jobs. But, they’re diligent about releasing both free and bonus episodes regularly, and work creatively to promote their premium content subscription program.

Thanks, everyone!

We shared best practices, tools, tips, and real life examples of this work, enabling attendees to hit the ground running at their own media organizations. The Summit covered revenue generation through digital audience engagement, spinning off new brands, event monetization, text-to-donate platforms, and podcast donation strategies.

https://youtu.be/dIqNF0-vSXg