The Producer

We have a number of new blogs at NPR that show promise:

The Two-Way (news)
All Tech Considered (personal technology)
A Blog Supreme (jazz)

Take a look and let us know what you think!

Could we use a new source of news? I’m thinking we could.

I’m calling it “Maximum Planet,” a riff on the title of Suketu Mehta’s book “Maximum City.”

It’s my belief that the future is being written right now in places like Brazil, Nigeria, India, Malaysia and China. But we’re still looking at these places as outliers, suppliers and backwaters. We don’t see them for what they are.

They are the new leaders. They see the world from a different perspective. And they’re combining the tools of the information age and global commerce with a massive advantage in human capital to chart their own course into the future.

This isn’t a new idea. It has been widely observed that the last century was the “American Century” and that this century will be the “Pacific Century.” But this shift — assuming it is actually happening — has not been fully reflected in the media. And, anyway, I’d argue that this will be much more than the “Pacific” century. There are interesting ideas and developments on every continent.

(I do want to note that NPR — where I work — is an exception to this observation. The company has long displayed a commitment to chronicling the lives of people around the world. It is one of many stand-out features of America’s premier broadcast news organization.)

I think it’s finally time for a news organization with a holistic view of the world and an innovative approach to content creation and distribution.

I’m imagining something like The Economist for the new media age, with the addition of cultural coverage akin to that found in the NYT and the human tone of NPR.

Some people are moving in this direction, from biggies such as the NYT and NPR to upstarts such as GlobalPost and GroundReport. But they aren’t quite at the place I’m imagining, yet.

My colleague and friend Ketzel Levine said farewell to National Public Radio today after a career as one of the network’s most distinct and enjoyable voices. But not to worry, she is already building a new public profile beyond NPR with her blog Ketzel Uprooted.

I worked with Ketzel on her Talking Plants blog, and on the Web presentation of her Take Two radio series. It was a delight to get to know her after listening to her work for years on the radio.

I know she has the moxie to make the most of her unexpected circumstance.

We launched a new set of social media tools on NPR.org on Sunday night. I know it’s not groundbreaking stuff. But it’s a big moment for us and we hope to use it to connect with our audience in new journalistic ways. Go ahead and create a profile on the site if you’re a fan of NPR!

For a little while now NPR has had a small visual-journalism team in place. Now they have a podcast. You should subscribe. It’s worth watching. They’re leading the effort to translate NPR’s strength as audio storytellers into a world they call Radio Pictures. You can also find their work at NPR.org/multimedia.

John Poole, Coburn Dukehart, David Gilkey and Keith Jenkins are NPR’s multimedia department. They are producing the stories that take NPR into the realm of sight. Check it out. I think you’ll like it.

(In case it’s not obvious, I work for NPR. But, I think, that has very little to do with my admiration for the multimedia team. )