Strategic Plan FY2025-2027

Pillars for Growth

New Audience Development & Engagement

Grow and engage the next generation of STLPR’s audience (ages 25-34 years) by investing in products and programming relevant to them while delighting and serving our core audience with innovative and existing programming.

Goals

• Create design-thinking workflows across content, programming, fundraising and marketing teams to attract and retain audience.
• Continue to serve our broadcast audience listeners and engage them with an invigorated sound that better reflects the local community.
• Deliver content and programming that appeals to both existing core audience and the next generation.
• Increase audience among next generation.
• Focus and prioritize external partnerships and sponsors that extend our brand/reach into the younger demographic.

Content Excellence

STLPR produces rigorous, public service journalism that provides context, champions curiosity, prizes accuracy and reflects the diversity of voices and experiences in our region.

Goals

• Define the value proposition of the newsroom and the editorial vision. What are we known for today and what do we want to be known for tomorrow?
• Spotlight the conversation of St. Louis through our role as a community convener.
• Increase collaboration opportunities across departments for editorial projects. Advance our news partnerships beyond cross-publishing.
• Grow corporate and foundation support to expand local coverage where there are content gaps.
• Strengthen our culture of critique and feedback to enable us to produce the best content possible.

Talent Cultivation & Culture

STLPR has a culture that fosters respect, trust and collaboration to attract and retain staff. Our workplace culture demonstrates STLPR’s values and allows us to excel at serving our community.

Goals

• Shift from departmental culture to creating a universal STLPR team culture.
• Improve internal communications.
• Establish two-way feedback channels between staff and leadership.
• Put STLPR’s organizational values into practice in how we engage with and treat one another.
• Create and implement best practices for equitable talent acquisition and management.

Community Engagement & UMSL Partnership

To enhance our news and human-interest coverage, and further enrich the vibrancy of the region, we will expand engagement opportunities with both our current and potential audience, as well as identify new partnership opportunities with UMSL.

Goals

• Bring STLPR voices out into the community.
• Build trust with communities that have historically been underserved by STLPR.
• STLPR is recognized as a vital civic asset by St. Louis leadership.
• Improve visibility of UMSL-STLPR partnership and find new opportunities for collaboration.

Growth Enablers

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

The DEI Action Plan foregrounds accountability and transparency by laying out the strategies and key actions that STLPR will employ to advance DEI over the next three years and beyond. Using the Global DEIB Benchmarks framework, the plan moves the organization from reactive to proactive.

Role Clarity & Communication:

• DEI Action Plan strategies are led by managers with formal decision-making authority.
• Staff who are accountable for each strategy are identified, known to other staff and supported.
• A staff-led advisory and accountability group is consulted and asked to weigh in on the development and deployment of all DEI strategies. UMSL ODEI is consulted when DEI strategies intersect with University policy, procedure or shared goals.
• All staff stay informed via quarterly updates that are folded into strategic plan updates.

Outcomes:

• The staff-led advisory and accountability group is active and representative of departments.
• All staff can explain STLPR’s vision for its culture and know where to go to find this information.
• DEI progress and roadblocks are consistently identified and communicated to staff and stakeholders.
• STLPR has a current, comprehensive DEI value proposition.
• Metrics on DEI progress are built into workflows.

Finance & Development

Redefines the way the organization approaches fundraising through an emphasis on major gifts, community support, work with foundations and expanding reach within the corporate community.