It’s time to reconsider how we tell the story of public radio membership. This is going to get dark for a minute but ends in a constructive place. Hang with me.
Read The Room
Americans are… unsettled. And angry.
We haven’t seen a comparable constellation of economic, social, and political uncertainty in decades.
The University of Michigan index of consumer sentiment is the gold standard for tracking consumer attitudes and expectations. The index just reached its lowest level in the survey’s history.
There’s a 26-point spread in the right track-wrong track numbers with almost 61% of Americans saying the country is going in the wrong direction.
72% of Americans say COVID drove us apart and we now have the weakest public health infrastructure in the last 40 years.
The ambient anxiety over AI is palpable, and we are seeing the opposition to data centers becoming “the most bipartisan issue since beer.”
The belief that the three branches of government will provide a safety net of checks and balances is being ground into dust as the Supreme Court and state legislatures rush to implement Jim Crow 2.0.
The Edelman 2026 Trust Barometer shows trust in government and media is scraping the paint off the floor of the sub-basement, but it also has some encouragement about how the return to local could be the way through for public radio.
Ada Limon Is Right About Attention
It says a lot when both the journalists and poets are talking about attention.
“If you can’t be heard, it doesn’t matter what you say. And right now, it’s both easier than ever to shout and harder than ever to be heard.” – Chris Hayes, The Sirens’ Call: How Attention Became the World’s Most Endangered Resource
“We cannot rise to our full power if we are not paying attention to what we give our attention to.” – Ada Limon, former US Poet Laureate
The recission wave and rage giving is ending. Meanwhile, we are trying to make a case for support in a noisy, distracted room full of scared, angry people who don’t trust institutions.
In the post-recission, attention smashed, anxiety saturated world, we rise to our full power by paying attention to what we have in our control – our message and how we deliver it.
Taking nothing away from the smart, conscientious station teams, please consider looking each other in the eye and asking: “have we REALLY refined EVERY part of the operation – every message, tactic, and assumption – to be as effective as possible in the current environment?”
The pressure to present a case for support that cuts through is extreme because the listeners are paying more for gas and food – and the deepest economic impact is likely to be arriving very near the Fall fundraising cycle.
Listeners whose brains have been broken by COVID and social media.
Listeners who are sailing between Scylla and Charybdis when they’re choosing between staying informed or ignorance.
And for whom the last decade has wrecked their collective nervous system in the chaotic reality show we call our political system.
It’s a hell of a conundrum, but there are solutions.
If we want to compete for attention, relevance, and money, we must tell a bigger story.
A story with a relentless positive vision that creates a bridge between the station and listener.
A story of service and how the world is better because of the symbiosis of our work and community support.
A Comp & Takeaway
The Bulwark is a center-right media company grounded in the pro-democracy movement “supported by a community of good faith.” They launched in 2018 as an aggregation of newsletters, adding podcasts, live events and video along the way.
The Bulwark is a profitable company that is doing over $12M/ year in revenue, and just passed 1,000,000 newsletter subscribers, and 1.7M YouTube subscribers (for reference, NPR has 834,000.) They have 120,000 paid Bulwark+ customers.
Here’s how they describe themselves, the passion and big-hearted vision they present, and the unambiguous value proposition for the audience:
The Bulwark was founded to provide analysis and reporting in defense of America’s liberal democracy.
That’s it. That’s the mission.
On this page you will find news analysis, political hot takes, interviews with experts, and in-depth long-form discussions on the issues that matter from our team.
No both sidesism. No BS. Just giving you the unvarnished truth as we see it – right into your veins.
The Bulwark is presenting a clear, compelling, encouraging vision that is resonating with adult news and information consumers – many of them public radio listeners.
This is our competitive frame and is the ground to be taken as we tell a new story of public radio membership.
Refreshing Your Message in an Attention-Smashed World
I love coaching so much I went back to school to improve my coaching a few years ago. Great coaches really are the folks who help us see the back of our heads – as in, we all have a back of our head and none of us can see them on our own.
If you want fresh eyes on your messages, your tactics, and how they can be refreshed – give a shout.
I hope to hear from you soon.
Be well.
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