Adopt A Station Is Growing, and We Need Your Help
We're changing how the rotating "adopt" section works to include more stations, plus our social media debut.
One month and one day ago, I released adoptastation.org into the wild. It’s been an incredible roller-coaster since then and it feels like a lifetime ago: I’ve met so many people passionate about public media who found a station to adopt (alongside their local station) through the site and I have been featured in outlets like The New York Times and Vogue.
Since July 20th, we’ve had nearly 40,000 visitors to the site and sent hundreds of donations to stations that have lost 50% or more of their yearly revenue, which is incredible. As we move further away from the shock of public media losing its federal funding and more into the new normal, I find myself thinking more about how to increase both the site’s reach and efficacy while public media is still a topic of popular discussion. How do I send more donors to more stations?
One way is by changing the logic of the rotating “adopt” carousel on the site: Now, the adoptable section of Adopt A Station will include stations that have lost 30% or more of their total revenue, adding dozens to the rotation.
In my original newsletter on which stations and how many would be at dire risk of closing following the end of federal funding, I estimated that public media would lose about 15% of all of its stations, including every single one that relied on federal funding for 50% or more of its yearly revenue. As any business owner will tell you, however, losing even 30% of your revenue every year forever would put any business at serious risk: Indeed, in my financial distress analysis, I found that a majority of stations losing 30% or more of their total revenue were in danger of closing. It only makes sense to include them in what is the most visible and visited section on the site.
The second way is by making our debut on Bluesky and Instagram. This is where Adopt A Station desperately needs your help: We need to increase our social media presence in order to get more donors to more stations, so after you’ve followed our two accounts, share them with friends, family, neighbors, anyone who cares about helping preserve public media.
When people visit Adopt A Station, a significant portion of them are taking the time to visit a station’s website and to learn more about how they serve their community. And another portion are actually giving. There are more people out there who want to give to a station in need; help them find their way to us.
If you were hoping to find some industry analysis in today’s newsletter, do not despair: I recently scraped the Senate’s lobbying disclosure archives and wrote about what I found in a piece for Current, the public media trade journal, that published on Tuesday. Spoiler alert: Public media has broken its own spending records in three of the last four fiscal quarters. It’s fascinating stuff, and I don’t think you’ll find reporting like this anywhere else.
Also, last week I published a very detailed piece on how much revenue I projected NPR and PBS would lose due to the federal funding cuts. It turns out that PBS CEO Paula Kerger had announced budget cuts at the network within $1 million of my projection just the day before, and national outlets began to report on it a few hours after I published my newsletter. I’m very proud that months of hard work and data-gathering could result in a projection that came that close.
I’ll be back next week with more data and analysis, but until then, be sure to follow Adopt A Station on social media if you get a moment. And maybe find a new station to adopt while you’re at it.
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