Three Things for April 30, 2021
This week: the trials and tribulations of trust. Plus, reinvention through the Engine 1/Engine 2 concept and a little more on the race to podcast subscriptions
Welcome to the April 30th edition of the Three Things newsletter for public media leaders. This week we explore the elements of trust and public media, the Engine 1 | Engine 2 Concept, and a bit more on the rollout of paid subscriptions for podcasters.
THING ONE: The Trials and Triumphs of Trust
In 2016, the Media Insight Project - an initiative of the American Press Institute and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research - commissioned research to identify the qualities that lead people to trust the news. In the five years since this research was published, the challenge for news organizations to earn the public’s trust has been exacerbated by using the term “fake news” and endless divisions that have widened over this period.
Nonetheless, maintaining the trust of our audience and the public at large is a cornerstone for all public media, from the journalism and educational content we produce and distribute to the music we curate for audiences every day. We also know over decades of research that trust leads to loyalty, and loyalty leads to financial support.
I’ve been thinking a lot about how, at a time that so many of our public and private institutions have lost the trust of the public, public media can build upon its already trusted brands to serve more people and increase revenue. This past week, Morning Consult released its Most Trusted Brands 2021 report describing why now is such a critical time for brands (and institutions) to maintain the trust of consumers:
The current moment, as vaccines proliferate and the world begins to reopen, provides brands with a truly unprecedented and never-to-be-seen again opportunity to identify the shifts of the past year that will endure for the long term and which will soon fade.
Amid the countless shifts witnessed in the past year, one is certain: what consumers consider to be valuable to them is changing. A thirst for trust will define the new era of consumer spending and brand relationships.
For public radio, that creates such an opportunity to build upon our audience's trust for our journalism, storytelling, and music curation. Much of our audience is incredibly loyal to our work regarding our journalism, as evidenced by how our P1 listeners have stayed with public radio over the past 13 months as lifestyles and daily habits have changed dramatically.
However, as we all know, journalism has been under attack for several years, and it’s taking its toll. The latest Edelman Trust Barometer found that, worldwide, 59% of the public believe that journalists intentionally try to mislead people by reporting things they know are false and that most news organizations are more concerned with supporting a political position than informing the public.
On Monday, Reuters Editor-In-Chief Stephen J. Adler announced his retirement with an essay that discusses the challenges and the opportunities for journalism to regain the trust that has been lost by the divisiveness that has infiltrated much of our society. It’s well worth the read but is summed up with an equation he describes as H + T + O = TJ …where H is humility, T is transparency, O is objectivity, and TJ is trusted journalism.
There’s plenty of debate over the concept of objectivity. However, I still believe a variation of objectivity; perhaps accuracy is a better term, is critical to maintaining the trust of our audience.
When competition for people’s attention is greater than ever, public radio needs to go beyond our traditional audiences and build the trust of more Americans. In its conclusion, the Morning Consult report notes that it’s a turning point for trust:
Trust is now more than ever an imperative for brand and business growth.
Value, delivered through functional features and experiential elements, remains a table stake for a strong reputation – but trust, gained through delivering on your brand promise and underpinned by social responsibilities and emotional connections – is no longer just “nice to have.”
What steps are you taking to build trust for your organization in your community, particularly those who may not currently use your service?
THING TWO: Reinvention through the Engine 1/Engine 2 Concept
I’ve been a longtime fan of Clayton Christensen’s ideas around disruptive innovation but have recently stumbled upon the Engine 1/Engine 2 concept. This concept is now being adapted in the nonprofit sector to bring about sustainable innovations. Christensen’s theory goes back to 1995 and is still viewed as an approach that inspires entrepreneurs 25 years later and shares many similarities to the Engine 1/Engine 2 approach.
Last week, the Bridgespan Group published a piece explaining how nonprofits use Bain & Company’s Engine 1/Engine 2 concept to drive innovation in organizations.
Engine 1 efforts focus on delivering what you already know how to do.
In contrast, Engine 2 work is all about break-through innovation—developing, testing, and refining new solutions. Where succeeding with Engine 1 requires discipline and repeatability, Engine 2 demands requires agility, creativity, and a healthy appetite for risk.
Bridgespan (of note - the firm has been working with NPR and member stations on the latest collaborative fundraising pilot) describes the tension between running the core business while investing in innovation is a common challenge in the private sector.
The concept is equally useful for nonprofits that need to balance a focus between continuing to tend to their existing programs and services (their “Engine 1”) while simultaneously innovating new approaches to impact (their “Engine 2”).
This approach seems ideally suited for public radio seeking innovative approaches to serve and expand audiences on digital platforms and formulate the revenue models to sustain this investment while still maintaining its core business as a broadcast outlet.
The Stanford Social Innovation Review published research from the Bridgespan Group’s Ann Mei Chang and Laura Lanzerotti, offering specific examples of how the nonprofit sector has applied this concept. To learn more, I encourage you to register for a webinar where the Bridgespan Group will share more information on the concept on Tuesday, June 8 at 11:00 am Eastern time.
THING THREE: A Little More On the Race to Podcast Subscriptions
Last week’s news that Apple was rolling out a paid subscription service for podcasts was followed by this week’s announcement of the specifics of Spotify’s approach for podcast producers.
In an interview last week with Nicholas Quah of Hot Pod, Joel Sucherman, NPR’s Vice President of New Platform Partnerships, spoke at length about NPR’s strategy behind the subscription model.
As a member station will be getting a share of revenue from NPR Podcasts. And you, without having to create additional content yourself and building out your own podcast business, can use the stable of NPR podcasts to help create opportunities for more membership in your community. This is an opportunity to engage in an on-demand world in ways you might not have had the ability to do previously.
Sucherman noted that all of this is an experiment and that NPR plans to work closely with stations to make sure that everyone benefits from this new venture.
One other bit of podcast biz news, Roman Mars announced on Monday that he is selling his company, 99% Invisible Inc. to Sirius XM. PRX CEO Kerri Hoffman noted in a Medium post that Mars is donating $1 million over four years to PRX, the network where he built his mini-empire of shows. With the potential to trade public radio dimes for dollars in the commercial marketplace, this probably won’t be the last time something like this happens.
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