The New York Times | Boston Herald
At SXSW Sunday, NPR kicked off "Generation Listen, a campaign to make public radio cool in the minds and ears of young people," Brian Stelter reports. NPR director of audience engagement Danielle Deabler tells Stelter the initiative aims to make people under 30 feel like they belong at the network, whose on-air listeners have a median age of 49.

She had noticed that when NPR hit “rough patches” — say, the firing of the news analyst Juan Williams and failed attempts by Republicans to bar federal funding to the organization — “there was no efficient way to activate our most loyal fans.” Nor was there a way to attract new fans. “We had not spent time studying the psychology of it all,” she said.

NPR's Generation Listen page nods toward psychology, telling young people, "we want to hang out — whether in cyberspace, over the air, or through events — and exchange ideas and smart conversation." (more...)