Flexible content presentation from NewMediaDays 2010 showing how NPR philosophy of COPE has driven audience and improved efficiency.

1. The Power of Flexible Content
HOW and WHY NPR’s content goes everywhere
Zach Brand @zbrand
Sr. Director Technology & Strategy
NPR, Digital Media

2. “From NPR News in Washington..” –Jack Speer et al

3. “From NPR News in Washington..” –Jack Speer et al
X 35M / Week
X 784

4. “Please give generously” –Your local station
!=

5. NPR Digital Media
API

6. Various Terms…
 COPE (Create Once Publish Everywhere)
 Flexible Content
 CrossMedia
 TransMedia

7. So Why Should YOU Care about Flexible Content?
Three Reasons…

8. 1) It’s Worked Well For Us…
NPR News
iPhone app
NPR News
Android app
Relaunched NPR
mobile site
NPR
iPad app
NPR Music
iPhone app
API
launched
in 2008
NPR Music
Remix
NPR Blogs
Made API Friendly
Facebook Integration
Player 2.0
Homepage
ImprovementsStory Page
Improvements

9. 0 - 50
> 1,000,000,000
> 800,000
#2) Getting Found is Getting Harder..

10. … and Thousands More
#3) …and Everybody Else Is Doing It.

11. Our Principles…
 Don’t Attempt to Build the ‘One System’
 COPE (Create Once Publish Everywhere)
- COPE drives all other architectural decisions
- Realized at NPR with the NPR News API
 Content Management Tools & Presentation Layers
 Understand Your Atom
- Story is the Atom for NPR
- Stories contain ‘Assets’ (ie. text, audio, video, images, etc.)
- Stories belong to ‘Lists’
 It is better to be incomplete than inaccurate

12. Good Tools
Good People
…
Flexible Content

13. 1997
(No CMS)

15. 2003
(CMS)

17. 2005
(CMS)

19. 2008
(API)

20. NPR’s Target Audiences for the API
 Ourselves
- Supports the entire infrastructure of our new site
- Improvements to CMS to enable custom feeds by Editorial and Design
 Stations
- Enables us to serve content to our member stations more easily
- Enables our stations to serve their communities better
 Partners
- Creates new opportunities because - easy to implement with very little integration cost
- Makes existing opportunities easier to maintain and grow
 Public
- Engages the community – part of NPR’s Public Service Mission
- Lots of great widgets, tools, sites built using the API
Launch Expectations:
Improve development efficiencies for NPR.org
Some sophisticated stations will use the API
Partner integration will be easier
The public will do amazing things with the API

22. Good Tools
Good People
…
Flexible Content

24. NPR Addict iPhone App

25. The Life of a (FLEXIBLE) Story at NPR
CMS API Presentation
Layers
1 2
3 4

26. 1: NPR CMS

27. 2: NPR API

28. 3: API  Presentation Layers (or other Apps)

29. 4: Examples of Presentation Layers

30. The Life of a (FLEXIBLE) Story at NPR
CMS API Presentation
Layers
1 2
3 4

31. System Architecture Supporting COPE

32. System Architecture Supporting COPE

33. System Architecture Supporting COPE
Java
JSP
Struts

34. System Architecture Supporting COPE
R / W
MySQL

35. System Architecture Supporting COPE
R / O
MySQL
Cluster
NoSQL-like
XML
Repository

36. System Architecture Supporting COPE
PHP5
SimpleXML
PHP5

38. Good Tools
Good People
…
Flexible Content

39. Good Design Requires Flexibility Too…
 You Still Have to Make the Presentation Compelling

40. “From Washington DC… this is NPR”

44. HTML5 / Tablet Site

45. NPR.org Audio Player

46. iPhone App Android AppMobile Site

47. Google Chrome Extension

48. iGoogle Gadget

49. WBUR.org

50. Connecticut Public Broadcasting
Photos Courtesy Derik Elis, CBTV
NPR API
CPTV’s Drupal
Based CMS
Website

51. What We Learned

52. Launch Expectations:
Improvements to development efficiencies for NPR.org
Some sophisticated stations will use the API
Partner integration will be easier
The public will do amazing things with the API
Actual Results:
NPR dramatically improved development efficiencies
NPR’s mobile strategy took off
Some sophisticated stations have used the API
Partner integration has been easier
API has facilitated business development opportunities
The public has done some interesting things
We’ve been able to do amazing things with the public

53. Paid Dev Public Dev
$$$

54. Yeah, About That Chart….
Figuring it out…
US Election Related
Traffic Bumps

57. Bomb Found Downtown
Staff Writer
Aug 8th
2010
A Small pipebomb was found behind
the Safeway on 7th
and Adams. Police
believe it was the work of teenagers
and stated that the device did not
appear to be functional.
Bomb Found Downtown
Staff Writer
Aug 8th
2010
A Small pipebomb was found behind
the Safeway on 7th
and Adams. Police
believe it was the work of teenagers
and stated that the device did not
appear to be functional.
Somewhere in a Small Town
Bomb Found Downtown
Staff Writer
Aug 8th
2010
A Small pipebomb was found behind
the Safeway on 7th
and Adams. Police
believe it was the work of teenagers
and stated that the device did not
appear to be functional.
Bomb Found Downtown
Staff Writer
Aug 8th
2010
A Small pipebomb was found behind
the Safeway on 7th
and Adams. Police
believe it was the work of teenagers
and stated that the device did not
appear to be functional.
Meanwhile in New York
WTF?OMG

60. A thousand words of COPE

63. Make it ALL reusable

65. API Keys and Consumption by Audience

66. Page Views to NPR Tech Center

67. NPR Story API : Requests per Month
Oct 2010: 1.6 Billion Stories Served by API

68. Challenges Still Ahead
•Extending to Network Use
•Performance
•Rights Management
•Which Presentation Layers to Focus On
•Laser or Shotgun?

69. To Recap
 Content & Technology Are Inextricably Linked
 Team Structure and Process Should Recognize this
 To Be ‘Findable’ Your Content Should Be Flexible.
 Flexible Content (i.e. Embraces COPE):
 Requires An Investment x2
 Improves Editorial Efficiency
 Will Help Drive Growth / Relevancy
 Revolutionizes Your Biz Dev
 Creates Opportunities with Public
 Accelerates Your Tech Development

70. Questions?
 Twitter: @zbrand
 API : www.npr.org/api
 Blog http://www.npr.org/blogs/inside