The Northwestern Mutual Foundation is pleased to continue our sponsorship of National Public Radio (NPR), a private, nonprofit membership organization delivering news, information and music programming to public radio stations across the country. NPR has become one of the most trusted media outlets in America with a listening audience that exceeds the combined circulation of the top 45 newspapers.
A Three-Pronged Sponsorship
The Northwestern Mutual Foundation provides support to NPR programming in each of the following three formats:
ON-AIR:
Morning Edition and Weekend Edition
Every week, more than 12.7 million people rise to greet another day with Morning Edition, making it the nation's #1 morning drive program. It's the modern community's equivalent of breakfast at the local diner. Monday through Friday, the program reaches hundreds of NPR stations across the nation and around the globe on NPR Worldwide. Winner of the George Foster Peabody Award, the Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Award and the George Polk Award, Morning Edition includes special interest features on business, Climate Connections, politics with Cokie Roberts and sports with Frank Deford.
But life does not stop when the work week ends, and that's why 5.5 million fans have become regular listeners to NPR's Weekend Edition. Two distinct news programs with consistent sound and feel, Weekend Edition Saturday and Sunday each deliver news and current events in all 20 of the top 20 markets.
ON-LINE:
NPR.org
A winner of 6 Webby Awards in 2006 and 3 Webby Awards in 2007, NPR.org continues to become a growing online destination for more than 3.3 million monthly users. As a matter of fact, TIME magazine recently recognized NPR.org as one of the "25 Sites We Can't Live Without." The website is loaded with NPR's original and rich content and includes a free, ten-year archive of past programs. The Northwestern Mutual Foundation specifically sponsors "The Color of Money," found on the "Your Money" page of NPR.org. Host Michelle Singletary helps readers navigate through the daunting maze of personal finance and includes investment guidance and financial tips that listeners can discuss with their Northwestern Mutual financial representative.
ON-DEMAND:
Podcasts
Winner of "Best Podcasts" and "People's Voice" Webby Awards in 2006 and 2007, NPR's podcasts have become some of the most-listened-to offerings of any provider. From September of 2005 to March of 2007, NPR witnessed a 500% growth in the number of monthly podcasts, which now exceeds well over 10 million downloads per month. Created from leading NPR programs, topics and partners, these podcasts are consistently ranked among iTunes' "Top Ten."
Podcast topics include:
- African-American roundtable
- Motley Fool Profiles
- The Best of Morning Edition
- WILL: The Afternoon Magazine
- Economy
- Business Story of the Day
- The Color of Money
- NPR: The Diane Rehm show
- The most E-mailed Stories
- APM: American Radio Works