New Hampshire Public Radio (NHPR) has made an exclusive national marketing agreement with Stitcher, a subsidiary of Sirius XM, in which SXM Media will represent ad sales for NHPR’s original podcasts.
James Cridland at Podnews notes that Stitcher/SXM Media competes with National Public Media, NPM’s nationwide sponsor development organization, in the podcast ad-rep business.
NHPR’s owned-and-operated shows are just a handful, including Outside/In, Civics 101, Document, Bear Brook, and The Folk Show. The public radio organization is using this partnership to ramp up podcast production; Civics 101 will increase its feed frequency from twice a month to weekly. The station is also developing a new project reported and produced by the journalists who created Bear Brook.
NHPR’s entire podcast initiative has been supported and fueled by NHPR’s Innovation Campaign, which raised more than $5 million to build the station’s capacity to produce multi-platform journalism.
“I am incredibly proud of the work our reporters and producers have done to create these well-respected and highly rated shows,” said Jim Schachter, President and CEO of NHPR. “This agreement never would have been possible if it weren’t for their creativity and hard work. NHPR’s thoughtful, well-researched approach to journalism and storytelling has made it a top-ranking US podcast producer, as measured by audience size and downloads. This agreement now provides our best opportunity yet for greater monetization through underwriting sales that will allow us to continue investing in our podcasts.”
.