Lee Ester News Fellowship. How audience habits should influence the development of radio station web sites: A case study of Wisconsin public radio

Abstract

Media outlets have faced a lot of change in the past decade: the increasing dominance of the Internet, the transition to digital formats and shrinking newsrooms, to name a few. But the root challenges taxing newsrooms are't new: Media outlets are still facing the same twin hurdles of figuring out what content consumers want, and how to get them to pay for it. Wisconsin Public Radio, one of the oldest and most respected radio stations in the country, has one of the news industry's most antiquated web sites. By analyzing survey data, this paper shines a light on WPR's listening audience through the lenses of both uses and gratifications and media habits, and shows not only what WP's listening audience wants to see online today, but also in the future.