Here we assess the reach and impact of two national Localore productions in 2014 and Finding America in 2017 across three platforms of engagement with which each production team experimented — broadcast, digital/social, and live events.
[pulldata align=right stat=”76.5″ context=”million gross impressions for the two Localore projects”]These represent both local and national reach, as well as activity on the Finding America metasite where AIR’s documentaries are presented together with local stories, a collection of short-form video documentaries, a series of audio dispatches, and more than 50 digital streams. While the number of local productions has increased by 50 percent, from 10 in 2014 to 15 in 2017, the overall reach across the field has grown by 71 percent, or by more than 20 million gross impressions.[ref Gross impressions represent the number of instances of engagement with content, including, for example, headcount at an event, likes on a Facebook or Twitter post, listening to a radio story, or watching a television promo.]
Cost per impression breaks out how much was spent for each single impression for each platform.
| Total impressions | |
|---|---|
| 2014 | 28,200,000 |
| 2017 | 48,300,000 |
Data Source: Scott Williams (data analyst); NPR Research, Fall 2015 and 2016; NPR Digital (data combined with monthly reporting data from station incubators); Nielsen Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Summer 2016, Fall 2016
AIR
| Broadcast | |
|---|---|
| 2014 | 24,500,000 |
| 2017 | 43,300,000 |
Data Source: Scott Williams (data analyst); NPR Research, Fall 2015 and 2016; Nielsen Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Summer 2016, Fall 2016
AIR
| Digital impressions | |
|---|---|
| 2014 | 1,300,000 |
| 2017 | 5,000,000 |
Data Source: Scott Williams (data analyst); NPR Digital (data combined with monthly data reporting from station incubators)
AIR
| Live impressions | |
|---|---|
| 2014 | 19,420 |
| 2017 | 47,949 |
Data Source: Scott Williams (data analyst)
Note: Impressions means number of people at the Localore live events
AIR
In terms of reach, local radio broadcast delivers, and with best value. The Finding America teams produced hundreds of local news features, talk shows, promos, and documentaries presented via broadcast airwaves and at a cost of one-third of one cent for the Finding America production. There was just one local television station incubator accounting for a relatively minor impact in the broadcast category.
| Total impressions | |
|---|---|
| Broadcast | 43,253,025 |
| Digital | 5,041,295 |
Data Source: Scott Williams (data analyst); NPR Research, Fall 2015 and 2016; Nielsen Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Summer 2016, Fall 2016; NPR Digital (data combined with monthly data reporting from station incubators)
AIR
| Broadcast impressions | |
|---|---|
| Local radio | 31,994,340 |
| National radio | 10,912,200 |
| Local television | 346,485 |
Data Source: Scott Williams (data analyst); NPR Research, Fall 2015 and 2016; Nielsen Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Summer 2016, Fall 2016
Note: There was only one television station among the 15 incubators.
AIR
Digital impact grows, cost decreases. Broadcasting remains the dominant platform, though its relative impact has diminished slightly with the increasing variety of digital platforms. In 2014, digital accounted for 5 percent of total gross impressions, costing 38¢ per impression. In 2017, digital impact doubles to 10 percent of the overall impact and the cost drops 25¢.
Cost per impression
| 2014 | 2017 | |
|---|---|---|
| Broadcast | 1/3 cent | 1/2 cent |
| Digital | 25 cents | 38 cents |
| Live | $26 | $10 |
Data Source: Scott Williams (data analyst)
AIR
Branded sites are a plus. Nine stations posted project information on websites named after their project, as well as the station home site. Of these, seven were substantially more effective in attracting page views than the rest of the productions.
Local events have a growing but relatively small reach, yet have a quantitatively different impact than that of broadcast or digital distribution. Edison’s Tom Webster says this: “Live community events are important not only to raise awareness and support for public media, but also to hear crucial voices that may be missing. These free events brought out a highly different group of people, and serve to humanize public media at a time when the media (in general) are having some perception problems. The relatively high cost — $26 per impression — likely has many factors, including the need to create a new platform with each event.
Share with your network
- Download a PDF copy of ‘Break Form: Making Stories With and For the People’
- Contributors and acknowledgements for ‘Break Form: Making stories with and for the people’
- Quantifying the reach and impact of ‘Localore’ (2014) and ‘Localore: Finding America’ (2017) productions
- Best practices for doing community-driven storytelling
- 10 key steps to making community-driven stories
- At a glance: The Finding America projects, producers & lead collaborators
- A reflection on the power of creative storytelling to unite communities
- Break Form: Making stories with and for the people
You also might be interested in:
When community members are no longer voters, their needs become diffuse once again and there is no clear, focusing mandate. So many newsrooms slip back into the usual: politics coverage driven by politicians and press releases. How do we avoid that backslide?
How can we avoid that backslide this time?
We see in research how trusted messengers matter for news that’s shared. We know Millennials and Gen Z pay for or donate to support email newsletters or video or audio from independent creators at higher rates than newspapers.
Election-focused flyers, postcards and print voter guides will add to the knowledge of how news organizations can deploy print to reach new audiences and deepen community ties.
