when profit seems less, um, profitable

So, the major news organizations are failing. Radio, TV and newspapers are imitating deer in the headlights of an onrushing Mack truck called the Internet, when they're not slavishly copying Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck. Old school media doesn't know how to deal with digital, let alone Twitter and Facebook.

Um, yeah. That's what I thought, too.

I was pretty astonished to read tonight, by way of Kevin Drum, this Fast Company article about NPR's success in the U.S. Amazingly, National Public Radio has actually grown its audience significantly over the past ten years. It has massively expanded its news operations, domestically and overseas, even as every other news organization has cut staff and bureaus. And it has intelligently found ways to make its content available through new digital channels.

Even in the U.S., it seems, there's a real appetite for a public broadcaster. The BBC is the model everyone looks to, but even the CBC, despite its sometimes bizarre decisions, manages to hold a large audience in radio at least. It used to drive some of my more conservative friends nuts that Andy Barrie had the number one rated morning show in this city for such a long time, because it showed that private broadcasters aren't always able to meet the demands of the market, i.e., consumers, i.e., the public.

Now, as the article makes clear, it's not all fun and games there at NPR. They've taken some financial hits, and there are some complex business issues to be decoded around delivering NPR content over the web.

But by thinking about who their audience is, what they want, and how NPR can meet those needs, they've positioned themselves for actual success at a time when every comparable private, for-profit media organization is hemorrhaging audience, revenue and staff, unable to follow their example.