NPR Clock Changes Delayed to Late Fall

After reviewing input received during the comment survey re: changes in the NPR news magazine clocks, the adjustment to the Morning Edition and All Things Considered clocks will be delayed until late fall (not before mid-November).  The integration of the Marketplace Morning Report intro ME will still go ahead as announced on September 22.  Below is the memo sent to stations this afternoon.

As you'll see, PRPD weighed in on the timing issue - due to pressures of fundraising planning, upcoming elections and other factors with the original date.  In light of these developments, we will offer a session at the upcoming Public Radio Programming Conference on "Best Practices" for implementation of the clocks at the local level.  We will follow with webinars leading up to the implementation date.  MEGS and PD Workshop trainer Scott Williams (KJZZ/KBAQ) will lead those efforts.

FROM:                  Kinsey Wilson, Chief Content Officer
SUBJECT:             Update on NPR Newsmagazine Clocks

Dear station colleagues, 

Thank you for your constructive and thoughtful feedback on the proposed newsmagazine clocks.  We’re currently reviewing and discussing all this feedback to determine what changes might be necessary before moving ahead with implementation.

As Jarl mentioned earlier this week, we received a proposal from Arthur Cohen and the PRPD Board to  postpone the tentative launch date (Sept 22) to a date sometime in the late Fall/early Winter. Arthur and his team make many good points in support of this suggestion; it’s also something we heard from many of you in the Clock feedback survey.

After close consideration, and further discussion with the PRPD and our partners at Marketplace Morning Report/APM, we’ve decided that pushing back the implementation date is a sound decision for the public radio system.

So, the new clocks themselves will NOT go into effect on September 22. Working with the PRPD, we are looking for a new implementation date.  It will not be until November at the earliest (taking into account fundraising activities, the election cycle, and Thanksgiving.)

In the meantime, we ARE going ahead with the Morning Edition/Marketplace Morning Report arrangement on September 22 as planned.  There are good business reasons for proceeding with this element and, we believe, minimal operational hurdles at NPR, APM and stations for making this happen.

We will get back to you in the near future with more details, a new overall implementation date and finalized clocks.  Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with the Member Partnership team in the meantime with your questions. 

Thanks and best regards, 

Kinsey and the Clock Team

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NPR | Gemma Hooley | VP Member Partnership | ghooley@npr.org | 202.513.2834 | @stationinfo