Analysis Finds Flat Core Audience for Public Radio's Web Streams

Mook, B. (2014, June 2). Analysis finds flat core audience for public radio’s web streams. Current.org. Retrieved December 10, 2014, from http://www.current.org/2014/06/analysis-finds-flat-core-audience-for-public-radios-web-streams/

Steve Mulder, director of user experience and analytics at NPR Digital Services, analyzed recent numbers of web metrics and realized while the number of mobile users is increasing, a decline of the amount of time users spend on a website and of the audience in general is apparent. "'Visits from tablet and mobile users have grown explosively across stations’ online platforms, increasing 200 percent since the end of 2012,' Mulder said. These users now account for about 35 percent of visits to member websites." Mulder has a theory as to why the amount of time spent on a webpage has decreased. Users would like to quickly look up an article, wanting "bite-size content," and leave the page once their goal is met. Audio content, instead of text, is an option they are considering. According to Mulder, "The heaviest visitors listened to five times more audio while on station websites but read three times less text than the lightest users." Therefore, creation of more audio content is a big possibility to bring and keep larger audiences." 

I agree with the statistics that users spend little time on a webpage. With search engine websites and the Internet at our fingertips, it is simple to quickly search something and then leave the webpage. But it makes sense the users on the website more often listen to audio. Audio can seem more entertaining and a new way of learning about the news, while text can seem like "more work" to some. I agree more audio content needs to be addressed in order for more people to stick around the webpage.