Three Things for January 27, 2022
This week: Is radio on the road to recovery in listening as the pandemic rolls on? Also, a look inside the window of nonprofits and their fundraising practices, and a public radio rainbow.
THING ONE: The Radio Recovery
Last week, Dave Sullivan and the folks at the Radio Research Consortium provided a comprehensive look at the state of radio listening trends in the 45 PPM markets across the country. The webinar looked at listening trends going back eight quarters to pre-pandemic days, measuring how radio is faring over these past two years.
Since our first newsletter in April 2021, Three Things has been tracking the progress of radio’s reach as listeners adapt to new media consumption habits and lifestyle changes brought about by COVID.
For the most part, the news continues to be on the upswing, with both listening and listeners back to 90% or higher compared to pre-pandemic levels in PPM markets. On the Cume Listening front, the RRC reports that 96% of the audience tuning to radio in the Winter of 20201 are back listening at least once a week.
You can click on each graphic to enlarge them for a better look.
One of the interesting slides was Weekly Cume and AQH listening by Market comparing Fall 2021 against Winter 2020. Only three2 out of 45 markets have recovered their entire Cume, while five3 have recovered all AQH listening.
I think it’s a positive spin to identify the markets that have recovered Cume and AQH. Still, looking at the markets at the lower end of Cume recovery (Riverside, Norfolk, Hartford, Phoenix, and West Palm Beach) is just as interesting.
What is it about these markets that radio listening is not returning at the pace of other metros?
The return of radio in Salt Lake City, both in Cume and AQH, is phenomenal, with more people listening than before than pandemic.
Perhaps it’s a coincidence, but in the September 30, 2021 edition of Three Things, I wrote about the Top DMAs ranked by smart speaker ownership. With an index of 139, Salt Lake City was at the top of the list.
Could the increased listening have anything to do with more smart speaker use in that market?
AQH listening, according to the RRC and Nielsen Audio, is still nearly one million persons less than pre-pandemic listening levels of over 9 million persons in the 45 PPM metros. Still, we shouldn’t forget how far radio listening had fallen off in the early days of the pandemic.
Total AQH Persons in the pre-pandemic Winter 2020 was 9.1 million
Total AQH Persons in Spring 2020 was 6.7 million
Total AQH Persons in Fall 2021 increased to 8.1 million
That’s a lot more listening to radio since those early days of the pandemic.
The two upcoming quarters will answer many questions about whether we’ll see a return pre-pandemic listening. If I were to guess, I don’t think it will for two reasons:
Some of the habits and lifestyle changes we’ve developed over the past two years will not return to the days before COVID, and
Radio listening was already falling with the increase in listening to podcasts, Spotify, and other streamers. The Share of Ear study has been tracking that for several years.
Another indicator of this is the reduced Out-Of-Home Listening to radio over the past two years. The chart below shows the decline and slow return to Out-Of-Home Listening since Spring 2020. On the positive side, although more people are returning to work outside the home, In-Home radio listening has remained steady over these past two years.
Since morning drive has always been a critical time for public radio news stations, another slide from the RRC presentation worth looking at is the daypart break-out. Remember, this is all radio listening (not just public radio) during AM Drive, Middays, and PM Drive.
Mornings have traditionally been one of the gateways to listening to public radio for new listeners, so this drop-off has most likely impacted Cume growth at many stations. It’s also probably affected on-air pledge, particularly with bringing in first-time donors.
A couple of other highlights worth noting from the presentation:
Weekend listening, which was on the rise in Spring 2021, has fallen back in the past two quarters.
In Fall 2021, listening by older adults, those 65+, is actually up 2% from Winter 2020. This is excellent news for public radio, which is still catering to older audiences. However, as public radio seeks to - rightfully - serve more younger and diverse audiences, we shouldn’t discount or run away from the service we provide to the Boomers that have long listened to and supported us through the years.
Another positive sign for public radio is that college graduates are also returning to radio in a tangible way. Since the Spring 2021 survey, persons 25+ with a college degree are within a few percentage points of where they were before the pandemic.
I’ve only shared six of the 77 slides from last week’s presentation. However, there is so much valuable information in these slides that I plan to return to them in future editions of the newsletter. I want to specifically provide a detailed look at listening by age demographic and education, plus some specific details tracking some of the top-performing public radio stations by format.
You can download the full slide deck from the RRC website if you’re interested in doing your deep dive on radio listening trends over the past two years. I appreciate the RRC making the slides available as it’s fascinating information.
THING TWO: The World is Changing and So Are the Fundraising Practices of Nonprofits
In last week’s Three Things, I shared some trends from Jessica Browning of the Winkler Group on where philanthropy may be headed this year.
To add to the conversation about the state of nonprofits and fundraising, CCS Fundraising, one of the world’s largest fundraising consultancies, just released the findings of the fundraising practices of 877 organizations taken from data collected in October and November 2021.
The results from the CCS Fundraising’s Philanthropy Pulse of the greater nonprofit sector offer a glimpse that, in many ways, mirrors the state of public media in its fundraising strategies and activities.
The survey respondents represented a variety of sectors in the nonprofit sphere, with 22% coming from Human Services, 16% from Independent Schools, Arts & Culture4 and Health each made up 11% of those responding, with Higher Education accounting for 9% of those participating in the research. The remaining sectors included Religion, Environment/Animals, Other Education, Public-Benefit Society, Advocacy, Associations, and International Affairs.
The respondents also represented a wide range of budget sizes, so the survey provides a good snapshot across the nonprofit industry in America.
When CCS asked to select the top three fundraising challenges their organization faces today, respondents most frequently cited donor acquisition, donor retention and stewardship, and data-driven decisions to guide their fundraising activity.
All of public media should share this concern about donor acquisition, given some recent data from CDP shared last week on a webinar.
The issue is most significant for public radio, as shown in the graphic below.
The survey also found that, as of November 20215, 70% of respondents had at least partially returned to in-person donor meetings and events since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, many respondents intend to permanently adopt some adjustments made during the pandemic: 61% plan to continue virtual events, and 55% intend to continue part-time or occasional remote work schedules for staff members.
The Philanthropy Pulse survey also sought insight on diversity, equity, and inclusion in the nonprofit sector. Unsurprisingly, respondents demonstrated widespread support for incorporating diversity, equity, and inclusion into donor relations:
91% reported that they discuss the concepts of diversity, equity, and/or inclusion (DEI) with their donors at least occasionally
62% reported that DEI is part of their organization’s strategic plans for future fundraising activities
Another 28% said that DEI strategies were “under consideration” for future fundraising priorities at their organization
One takeaway from the research is that from those surveyed, there is still not a clear focus on governance-related tactics to meet an organization’s DEI goals.
For example, only 52% of those responding reported that they have made changes to board recruitment and/or relations practices over the past two years to make the organization’s fundraising practices and operations more diverse, equitable, and inclusive. And only 23% have revised their strategies for building our donor pipeline to reflect a focus on DEI.
The survey also asked fundraisers about their satisfaction with their organization’s donor database or customer relationship management (CRM) system use, while 23% were dissatisfied, 58% reported they were satisfied. How CRMs are used by an organization’s staff factored heavily into these responses: 68% of satisfied organizations reported that comfort in using the data made the difference in their satisfaction. Among dissatisfied respondents, 56% said that inconsistent, inaccurate, and/or incomplete data were the top challenges.
Overall, there’s optimism in the report, with 69% of respondents receiving major gifts expecting to see a fundraising increase from this source in 2022 and 61% surveyed expecting an increase in the organization’s annual appeals this year.
If you’re at a station, how optimistic are you in seeing an increase this year?
THING THREE: Generosity Comes With a Coffee Mug
There was a time when Ellen McDonnell, the Executive Producer of Morning Edition, mentioned that she hoped that the show could provide the audience with at least one rainbow in each half-hour of the program.
That statement has always stuck with me as something worth striving for in public radio.
We live in a time where there is not enough good news to help us fill up even a portion of our day, so for this final thing this week, I just felt it’s worth bringing a bit of a rainbow into the newsletter.
This is the story of a retired public radio executive making a remarkable statement of generosity and support for the stations that are part of our public radio family.
This person would convey this generosity by making a major gift (at least in how we define a major gift in public radio terms) to every NPR member station across America.
And all they asked for in return was a coffee mug.
Now that’s a rainbow.
Thanks for reading.
This would be the period from January through March 2020.
Salt Lake City, Providence, and New York are the three markets that have fully recovered Cume.
Salt Lake City, Providence, San Antonio, Raleigh, and Philadelphia are the five markets that have recovered all AQH listening.
Public media will typically be classified in the Arts & Culture sector.
With the recent increase in COVID cases due to the omicron variant, there may be some recent changes in the outlook.