Yeah, it's a lot different.

NPR used to be publicly funded, much like the BBC in the UK. The idea was to offer objective journalism for the strength of democracy. It has helped a lot in the UK may have helped prevent the current disaster we now experience in the US. When that public funding started being removed, NPR had to start acting more like a private company, satisfying target demographics and seeking seeking donor support.

So, NPR pledge drives are in large part them trying to maintain an objective perspective. A feeble attempt, sure, but they are trying. Youtube is merely maximizing profit.

Yeah, uh Brexit is held up as the second-most-terrible thing driven by the same provincialism as Trump-election. BBC is indeed great, and the NPR comparison to YouTube is nonsense. But UK didn't quite avoid disasters (caused largely by Facebook, just as here).

I'm no fan of YouTube, but to be fair to them, it's probably not so much about maximizing profit as it is an effort to avoid the wrath of the RIAA.

Not to be pedantic, but even if that's true, the RIAA is advocating for the profit seeking motives of the labels it represents.

It's fundamentally different because NPR is actually non-profit. It's also different in that donating to NPR doesn't stop the NPR ads (which are growing, all the sponsorship announcements…) for you, as NPR isn't personalized. There are some economic similarities though.

Donating to NPR doesn't reduce the number of NPR pledge drive announcements you hear.

It can. They sometimes have drives with a goal and actually stop pushing the fundraising as hard as soon as the goal is met.

I think the 'P' in NPR is the biggest difference.

In all honesty, I don't see why npr being public changes the story. You neither have to pay for YouTube or npr.

I understand the emotional asentiment that because npr is non-profit, it's somehow more worthy to endure hours of pledges.

Fwiw, I'm near the point where I stop using YouTube as ads get more and more agressive and less relevant. But I have no problems with YouTube trying to maximize their profits.