Budgets Reflect Priorities

According to Current, NPR's on-line budget is going up 43% this year to more than $13,000,000.

That's probably a wise investment. It takes significant money to cultivate new audiences. It's entirely possible that $13 million a year isn't enough to do the job.

Which brings us to the main point of this post. Budgets reflect priorities.

NPR is leading the way by showing how to make growth a priority. From here on out, any national entity -- NPR, CPB, PRI, or APM -- that doesn't back its talk of diversifying the audience with an ongoing, annual budget in the tens of millions of dollars is just blowing smoke.