Ad revenue, including podvertising — podcast advertising — plays an important role for the National Public Radio (NPR), reports Advertising Age. It accounts for almost one-third of NPR’s annual income.

For the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2005, sponsorship revenue was $37.7 million, up from $24 million two years earlier. They expect to see increase between 5 to 10 percent in 2007.

Revenue from new-media operations accounts for around 10 percent of the total but is likely to grow. New media operations include NPR’s most successful business model: podcasts, which was launched just nine months ago.

Cost-per-thousand rates for NPR’s popular podcasts, such as “Story of the Day,” range from $50 to $60, much higher than the industry average for podcasts, which is around $20 to $30. In addition to selling traditional on-air sponsorship messages and podcast sponsorships, NPR also sells sponsorships of the streaming audio on its website, which carries 10 years of archived programming. Mainstream marketers, such as beer brand Pabst Blue Ribbon, target music-lovers through both on-air and online sponsorships.

To close, it’s probably interesting to mention that when people say that NPR is getting too commercial, Blake Trutt of NPR answered firmly, “Unlike other media, sponsorship doesn’t drive programming decisions. Podcasting bore out that process. We found out how long the audience wanted podcasts and which topics.”

Source: Advertising Age.
See also: Podcast Advertising.

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