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Why can't NPR get it together on it's website

M

MattParker

Some of you seem on the inside of public radio and NPR. This isn't the kind of over-riding public radio question we've discussed here lately but I wonder...

NPR seems really sloppy about posting online audio at NPR.org. Podcast episodes are sometimes posted late or not at all. Audio download links for Morning Edition and All Things Considered are often left out. Sometimes audio is not posted at all (even though the "full show" playlist is supposedly available). Sometimes, they catch the omissions later. More often, they don't catch them at all. This is very common. On any given day there is some audio missing.

What's the problem here? Sloppy workers who don't "proof" to see the website "rundown" is correct and complete? A deliberate choice to "back-out" some stories from the website to push people to listen OTA?

I complained to the station where I am a donor. They sent me to the ombudsman's office and they relayed my comment to somebody else. Nothing changed. Even though I pledge to a station, I seldom listen live. I've come to prefer selecting stories I want and listening to them on my mp3 player. But NPR doesn't make that easy. I am getting requests to renew my station membership but right now I'm not responding.

So, what's going on with the audio postings?
 
It could be that you're just seeing the effect of how NPR generally won't post stuff online until after a certain time window has passed for stations to get "first crack" at airing it on their AM/FM signals.
 
Aaron, thanks for replying to my question. And I know they do hold off on stuff until well after a program has aired (9am for Morning Edition, 7 pm for All Things Considered). No, this after the rundown and playlist are posted and the rundown says "listen to the full show," audio for some stories is missing. It's not once in a while. On any given day, two, three or four stories won't have audio for download available. Some won't even have audio for the playlist. Ironically, the ones where audio is missing tend often to be "story of the day" or "most emailed" - among the stories most prominently featured on the program page.

The podcasts, the daily podcasts in particular, are posted at a particular time each day or each week - except when they are not.

When I first ran into this, it seemed like whoever is supposed to be posting stuff is incredibly sloppy. Or mistakes happen but somebody is not checking and proofing the website (this does not reflect well on a news organization where checking and proofing are supposed to be paramount). Then it seemed to happen so consistently, I started wondering if it was deliberate.

When program rundowns are changed for the West coast, often audio will get posted late. I am talking here about audio that is missing, not there the next day, not there ever. Both for download or for "playlists." It's like they are trying to discourage time-shifting. Or they are really obtuse about this. Either way, it's annoying.
 
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