The Expansion of NPR News

While other news organizations downsized over the past several years, NPR News added reporters, correspondents, and offices worldwide, and now gathers and produces content from some 36 locations around the world.

Audiences hear the results of NPR's dynamic expansion when correspondents stationed across the nation and around the world are able to bring them growing numbers of voices and unique perspectives from people around the world. In letters, e-mail, and focus groups around the country, listeners applaud the power of this programming, consistently describing NPR as "essential," "vital," and "indispensable."

Listeners prove their support for NPR programs and NPR stations by tuning-in in rising numbers. Today more than 27.5 million people listen to public radio stations every week, up from about 2 million in the early 1980s. This upward listener trend in the last two decades is in large part attributable to the astounding growth of NPR News, a national service anchored by hourly newscasts and two signature, award-winning newsmagazines Morning Edition and All Things Considered. These programs are currently the second and fourth most listened-to radio programs in America. NPR News saw significant audience growth and retention after each major news event from the 1991 Gulf War to the Sept. 11 attacks to recent events in Iraq.

Keeping pace with listener demand, NPR News has expanded its domestic and foreign news operations. In November 2002, NPR launched NPR West, a major new production studio located in Los Angeles. This state-of-the-art newsgathering and production facility captures news, trends, and ideas from California to Colorado, and Seattle to Santa Fe. In 2004, thanks to a generous endowment by Joan B. Kroc, NPR News announced plans to invest $15 million over three years to expand news resources and add staff. NPR's internal expansion and external audience growth came at a time when other news media were cutting back to remain profitable and newspapers across the U.S. are reporting circulation declines. In the last year, NPR has seen tremendous growth both on-air, where audience totals reached new highs and grew a staggering 7%, and online.

With NPR's Washington headquarters and NPR West production center as its tent poles, NPR maintains a substantial national and international presence with correspondents and reporters based in some 36 U.S. and foreign cities. In the U.S., NPR reporters and correspondents work and file from 18 news bureaus and offices. Internationally, NPR supports 18 news bureaus and offices.

Today, international news comprises more than one-third of NPR News. NPR has maintained and continually added correspondents around the world to cover issues, events, and cultures that received little, if any, exposure in other U.S. media. When news breaks, NPR calls upon reporters on location, who are familiar with the area and have established contacts, to bring listeners the story.