NPR’s API and Mobile Development

Daniel Jacobson / Demian Perry

App Development and Mobile Ops, NPR
Who is NPR?

NPR (National Public Radio)

Leading producer and distributor of radio
programming in the US

More than 27 million listeners a week

Broadcasted on over 800 local radio stations
nationwide

NPR Digital Media

Develop NPR.org and supporting tools

Produce digital-only content including blogs,
slideshows, editorial columns

Produce over 200 podcasts (800+ in directory)

Develop mobile apps and sites

Develop API and other distribution channels
History of API

Features in Initial Launch in July, 2008

Full Story API with Query Generator

Contains almost everything on NPR.org

Over 250,000 stories and over 400,000 audio stories

Features Added in December, 2008

Mix Your Own Podcasts

Station Finder API

More content

Improved query-ability

Added “remap” functionality

Features Added in July, 2009

Full Transcripts API – over 80,000 transcripts

Added almost 200,000 new MP3 files
Philosophy of NPR Digital Media

Build Content Management tools, not Web
Publishing tools

COPE (Create Once Publish Everywhere)

Separate content/data from display/presentation

Content is modular/portable

Understand Your Atom

Story is the Atom of NPR

Stories contain ‘Types’ and ‘Assets’

Stories belong to ‘Lists’

Know When to Build and When to Integrate

Core systems built and/or managed internally

Other systems depend on cost/benefit

When possible, use Open Source solutions
MySQL

MySQL
& PHP
XML Files
JAVA
JSP
&
TOMCAT SimpleXML
NPR’s CMS *

* Data entry for stories for all presentation layers

NPR’s API *

* The foundation for NPR’s display and distribution of content

NPR.org Story
NPR.org Player
Mobile
Apps/Sites
NPR on MPR and WBUR
NPR on iGoogle
NPR’s API – Query Generator
 NPR API : Growth of Requests

40

35

30
Requests in Millions

25

20

15

10

0
Nov-08 Dec- Jan-09 Feb- Mar-09 Apr-09 May- Jun-09 Jul-09 Aug- Sep-
08 09 09 09 09
M onths

Spike in August due to launch of new NPR.org with new

Player, NPR News iPhone app, new WBUR.org and new
MPR.org (all launched in late July)
 NPR API : Distribution of Output Formats
Atom JavaScript

JSON HTML
PodcastRSS

MediaRSS

RSS NPRML

FORMAT % TOTAL
NPRML 83.1 77,695,041
RSS 7.4 7,015,685
HTML 3.1 2,992,407
JavaScript 2.8 2,684,500
Media RSS 1.8 1,733,203
Podcast 1.1 1,039,747
JSON .38 357,969
Atom .01 11,953
The Future of the API

Releasing over time

Video

Blogs

Improved image availability and sizing
capabilities

User comments and ratings

More station content

PBCore

NewsML
Questions?

Daniel Jacobson

djacobson@npr.org

To see the API: http://www.npr.org/api

To follow the API development:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/inside