NPR Digital Services Blog

People have been talking about us. Here’s a quick run down of some recent coverage:

NPR Promotes Digital Initiative
The Wall Street Journal
MEDIA & MARKETING
NPR has kicked off a 10-week, 18-city “road show” to sell its affiliates on a new digital plan it hopes will help secure public radio’s long-term health at a time when some of its chief sources of revenue have come under threat.

The newsonomics of the next-gen NPR network
Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard
NPR Digital Services is trying, against some odds, to set a new model. …As we look at the newsonomics of NPR Digital Services, we can see big potential.

Today is the last session of the NPR Digital Services Road Show.  For those member stations that weren’t able to make it to one in person, there will be an NPR Digital Services Webinar 7/8/11 noon-3pm EDT. All types of station staff welcome.

Please join us,  it’s an opportunity to engage with us and hear what the NPR Digital Services vision and value proposition is really about. Sign up info found on AREPS list and Station Connect.

Here’s a glimpse of the Boston Road Show (thanks Mark!)  http://flic.kr/s/aHsjvaSseA

Non-member stations – never fear, we haven’t forgotten about you. We’ll have a call with you after PMDMC.

A friendly reminder about best practices for your online passwords. I know, we all have too many of them to remember, but it’s important that you set strong passwords for your own safety and security.

Ideally:

• At least 8 characters, and longer is better.
• They should include both letters and numbers.
• You can use special characters and punctuation.
• Our system is case sensitive, so use both upper and lowercase letters.
• Try to avoid repetition, dictionary words, letter or number sequences, usernames, your pet’s names, or biographical information (e.g., your birthday).
• Don’t reuse the same password (i.e. your Facebook password).
• You should change them periodically.
• No, you should not save them in your browser.

If the password you use to access your NPR Digital Services tools looks something like the following, it’s time to reset and strengthen it:

• password
• fido

Composer Pro Webinar June 28th

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/358453937

This webinar will be an overview of Composer Pro.  If you are new to this service or would like a refresher, then this webinar would be perfect for you! If you have specific questions, please share them with us ahead of time. And yes, it’s free to our clients.

• Date: Tuesday, June 28, 2011
• Time: 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM EDT

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.4.11 (Tiger®) or newer

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

Due to some staffing changes and summer vacations, turn around time for design and HTML update requests is going to be slower than usual for the next few weeks.

For best results, please give us 5 days notice when possible, and also include your ideal due dates as well. We’ll do our very best to minimize the impact on your schedules.

As always, contact us if you have more questions or anticipate high level needs over the next few weeks.

Our support policy is online at http://digitalservices.npr.org/support.html.  As you know, we provide support with a 24-48 hour turn around time. Often, we can respond and resolve your issues within a few hours, but issues that require research, design resources, etc. can take more time to resolve.

When you need help or have a question, the best thing to do is to either:

• Fill out this form: http://digitalservices.npr.org/support.html

This opens a help ticket with us. The following tips will help us respond to you more quickly.

• Please always include your contact info, and your station name. We try to know who you are, but there are lots of you out there, so we may not.
• Include the service that you’re using (e.g. Composer). Again, we offer a range of products and services to lots of stations, and we often don’t know what services you subscribe to off the top of our heads.

We (okay, I admit, others did the heavy lifting, not me) moved to fabulous new office space over the weekend, and we’re still unpacking and settling in. It’s bigger, brighter, better. We’re now located in Fort Point Channel, in the heart of Boston’s Innovation District. We’re thrilled to be here in the midst of like-minded technology companies.

We’ll have an office warming party soon.

You can now reach us at:

NPR Digital Services
25 Thomson Place, 5th Floor    (no ‘P’)
Boston, MA 02210
Same phone, fax, etc.

As promised in Kinsey’s note to A-Reps last month, we are holding a series of in-person consultations with representatives from Member Stations across the country to discuss the direction of NPR Digital Services and how we can best serve the digital needs of stations. We are currently halfway through a series of meetings at host stations in 16 different cities, to try to reach as many stations – in person – as possible. We hope each meeting will be a rich dialogue about how NPR can best serve stations’ digital needs and how we can innovate in partnership.

Each session will last from 10am-4pm, with breakfast and lunch provided, to make it possible for most attendees to travel in and out on the same day. Of course, stations are free to attend whichever meeting is easiest for them. We are hoping the GM, News lead and Digital lead from each station will be able to join us. Please submit one registration form per station. Upon registration, you will receive the full details for the meeting you choose, as well as a hotel recommendation if you need to stay over.

What entries are people reading? Thought you might find some of our most popular blog posts interesting:

Composer Pro Playlists: Ways to display your playlist data
http://blog.digitalservices.npr.org/2011/01/31/composer-pro-playlists-ways-to-display-your-playlist-data/

Fundraising Trends for 2011
http://blog.digitalservices.npr.org/2011/01/04/fundraising-trends-for-2011/

Quick Pledge and PCI Compliance
http://blog.digitalservices.npr.org/2010/11/09/quick-pledge-and-pci-compliance/

Stream Offline: First, Reboot the Encoder
http://blog.digitalservices.npr.org/2011/01/26/streaming-support-tip/

Here are some of our top posts on  live streaming gathered together for your convenience.

Live Streaming Reports
How many people are listening to your stream? How can you see what your peak listening is? We offer live streaming reports via our streaming provider (CDN). Contact us for your log in information. 

http://blog.digitalservices.npr.org/2010/12/01/live-streaming-reports/

Stream Offline: First, Reboot the Encoder
What to do if your stream is offline.

http://blog.digitalservices.npr.org/2011/01/26/streaming-support-tip/

Updating Streaming Links for Apps and Livio
Changed your streaming links? Here’s how to update your stream information for the various mobile apps out there, and also the Livio NPR radio.
http://blog.digitalservices.npr.org/2010/12/01/updating-streaming-links-for-apps/

Streaming: Select the Output Tab in WinAmp
Your stream is offline and you’ve rebooted the encoder, but it still isn’t streaming. There IS one more thing you can check on yourself, if you’re so inclined.
http://blog.digitalservices.npr.org/2011/02/02/streaming-select-the-output-tab-in-winamp/