• The New York Times, Monday, July 27, 2009 1:33 PM

Part of a larger digital expansion, NPR is set to relaunch its Web site this week. Astonishingly, however -- in the video-obsessed world we live in -- the site will emphasize written reporting over video, or even audio. Under the new tagline "Always On," the expansion will include also several mobile applications set to launch later this summer, and is geared to raise NPR's journalism and journalistic output, and to make public radio more widely available.

"We are a news content organization, not just a radio organization," Vivian Schiller, NPR's president and chief executive, tells The Times.

Schiller said that while Web and mobile changes would make it easier than ever to find programming from local stations, they will also make it much more convenient for listeners to bypass local stations, if they choose. The changes to NPR's Web site are intended to make it easier for users to find NPR news reports on a less cluttered home page, or to jump to two other areas of emphasis, Arts and Life, and Music.

But, why will the new site be so video-light? Last year, an experiment adding more video to the site apparently irked local member stations, who did not want competition from video. To boot, video is expensive, Schiller says.

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