The NPR One App, with its recent update, has moved another step closer to being a one-stop shop for all audio content. NPR One gives listeners a highly personalized stream on their phone. The stream is built from the listeners behavior and includes local and national newscasts and podcasts. All local stations are able to participate, feeding audio content into the stream. NPR’s Sara Sarasohn says, “One of the biggest indicators of people coming back to NPR more often is the presence of a local newscast. If you hear a local newscast, you come back more often. It’s not just us saying local is important — we follow our audience, their behaviors, and our audience is telling us that local is important: When people don’t hear local stuff, they say, ‘Where’s my local station?!’”
NPR launched NPR One 18 months ago. At the time, the focus was being a newsmagazine. However the app sits on mounds of listener behavior data and NPR has been using listener feedback to change the app. There’s even a dedicated Facebook group where users can register feedback. After the recent update, there’s now an “Explore” section where listeners can swipe into to discover other podcasts and single stories, with recommendations based on listening history, a list of upcoming stories in the stream, and a “featured” section with a curated list of local and national podcasts.
NPR says app usage has been growing at 9 percent month over month or 280 percent growth per year since launch, with the average listening session over half an hour long.
Read more about the NPR One App HERE
