Comments Off on ADWEEK : NPR’s Apps Chief Moving to Netflix

By daniel_jacobson, September 15, 2010 6:13 pm

This article was originally published to ADWEEK on September 15, 2010.

NPR’s director of application development, who set the vision for the APIs that have fueled a significant part of the network’s online growth, is leaving the nation’s capital to move to Silicon Valley where he will join Netflix in mid-October.

Daniel Jacobson will lead development efforts around the video rental giant’s APIs, including those that enable the transfer of content to set-top boxes and game consoles. like the Xbox, and mobile devices, like the iPhone and iPad.

Jacobson joined NPR 11 years ago and initially oversaw the development of the network’s content management system, which was launched in 2002 and which formed the underpinnings of the API system. The API system, which went live in 2008, allows NPR to easily share its content with publishers both inside and outside the network. The existence of the API has been credited with vastly accelerating NPR’s move into the mobile space, including its iPhone and iPad apps, as well as making possible the creation of its new Argo Network and enabling NPR to enjoy 100% growth in pageviews over the past year.