Insert another "i" in that "SoCalist" and I do believe you have a winner!
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KPCC Rebrands as LAist 89.3
- Thread starter coachguy6
- Start date
The suffix being used is "-ist," not "-ish."
Clever! 🤣 (As an aside: NPR programming sure doesn't live up to its 1990s "liberal yuppies only" reputation. Some of the best-articulated conservative viewpoints I've heard were from recent interviews on NPR.)
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May I be the sourpuss who thinks the LA-ist branding will fizzle in about 2-3 years (on the radio). Then a soft drift back toward something more conventional? It may never return to "KPCC" (which is weird branding, and as CTListener correctly points out is literally a symbol of communism) — but maybe it will drift back to something like "89.3 Public Radio L.A."
I'm right in the demo the "LA-ist" branding is supposed to target (late 30s) and even as a former LA-ist reader, I just do not connect with the brand name at all. Frankly, it's a stupid name for an otherwise pretty good web site.
It was a good site in it's earlier days, great for breaking news and full of fun, snarky humor.
Founders Jake Dobkin and Jen Chung sold out big-time to Joe Ricketts in 2017 and took down all the negative stories about their new boss that they had published over the years. I lost all respect for them over that.
Ricketts killed Gothamist and the rest of the related "-ist" sites soon thereafter, shutting them down in a union busting scheme.
A few months later, WNYC, KPCC, and WAMU bought Gothamist and its related sites and turned Gothamist into the dreadful political site that it is today. I don't know if LAist is a similar sort of site now but I assume it probably is. I do know Dobkin and Chung are still at Gothamist and now NYC Public Radio. I never regained any respect for them and rarely read Gothamist any more.
I got it ! But there really isn't any difference based on context.
KQED is a powerful brand for both TV and Radio. The KQED brand had been around for nearly 69 years. I don’t see the sophisticated Bay Area audience buying in to a cutesy name.
While LA is a larger market, the KPCC brand as an NPR News Station is comparatively young. There’s also no tie to the also recently (12 years ago) branded PBS station, KOCE which is known as PBS SoCal.
The LA TV market is nuts with PBS...Several years ago KCET left PBS then KOCE moved its xmitter from OC to Mt Wilson and started calling itself PBS SoCal. Now KCET is back with PBS. The LAUSD station KLCS is PBS, and finally KVCR-TV SB/Riverside is also PBS. To add insult to injury, although these stations are free for everyone to watch over the air with an antenna. To use the PBS app you must now prove you're a paid subscriber...Funny, I thought it was Public Television ! I guess the writing was on the wall (or the screen) many years ago when KCET started running Ford commercials between programs. At that time I called in to cancel my KCET subscription/membership. They asked my why and I told them that they clearly don't need my money if they are now selling advertising.
Haven't been to Williamsburg in a while, huh David? They're all over the place. (And that's just the Hasidim.)
Almost gives one the idea that the whole public broadcasting thing is a racket.
Similarweb seems to underestimate visitor numbers (and that's all it is, an estimate, only LAist/American Public Media will know the actual figures). The Similarweb estimated figure for your site is around 261,000 per month.
Interesting data. I had not been familiar with Similarweb so this is good to know.
Still, if we figure they underestimate by 50%, that is a tiny figure relative to the population of the LA metro. It can be estimated, on a weekly basis, to be less than the cume for the radio station in a comparable week. This sounds like a case of the cart pulling the horse.
But your website, David, has a lot more compelling content IMHO
I agree
It's what happens when you set up a system where the stations are in charge, not the centralized corporate network.
There is no way for a member of the public to become a member of PBS. You're a member of a station.
Same with public radio. In LA, there are several NPR stations. Membership in KPCC doesn't give you any benefits with KCRW.
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I think that most members are aware that the membership applies only to the radio or TV station they're contributing to...
Much appreciated. But it is relatively static content compared with LAist, and while there are "new" old publications added nearly every day, none of the content is current news and topical like the LAist.
Sorry, I misunderstood your post.
They started the branding on air today and changed the website. The website is missing the NPR and looks bland. The name sounds weird and awkward.
If I’m not mistaken, most NPR fans refer to KPCC as the NPR station. LA-ist says nothing.
If I’m not mistaken, most NPR fans refer to KPCC as the NPR station. LA-ist says nothing.
Thanks for pointing this out. The thing about the site is they went to great lengths to explain what they're doing and why:
A Letter From Larry Mantle About KPCC's Name Changing To LAist 89.3
Most important thing for you to know: All of your favorite shows from KPCC and NPR aren’t going anywhere.
www.kpcc.org
They want to establish more of a local image or identity without changing the radio programming. That's going to be a real trick. But the way they seem to be doing it is with online content.
So that addresses the issue of "LAist." It's just a brand name, not meant to alienate anyone. Maybe the name isn't as catchy as it could be, but it's just a name, not the content.
And, as always, it's less of a shock to those actually listening to the station than it is to those of us who aren't and are reading about it. From the article BigA links to:Thanks for pointing this out. The thing about the site is they went to great lengths to explain what they're doing and why:
A Letter From Larry Mantle About KPCC's Name Changing To LAist 89.3
Most important thing for you to know: All of your favorite shows from KPCC and NPR aren’t going anywhere.
They want to establish more of a local image or identity without changing the radio programming. That's going to be a real trick. But the way they seem to be doing it is with online content.
So that addresses the issue of "LAist." It's just a brand name, not meant to alienate anyone. Maybe the name isn't as catchy as it could be, but it's just a name, not the content.
"For the last five years, you’ve heard us refer you to LAist.com, and our reporters refer to themselves as being part of the KPCC and LAist newsroom."
Five years. To the listeners, it's familiar.
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