Alright, I think it's safe to say that #1 isn't going to catch up XD
So now I'll explain. I'm a regular reader of NPR, and I've always noticed those 'tails', if you will, on the letters (I know they aren't technically 'serifs'), and it eventually just started to bother me. I thought this new logo was
trying to be an icon but the letters were making it a
book. It was forcing you to read it when it should just register as very simple colors and shapes, not as having letters at all. I thought it would be more successful if the letters were reduced to an absolute minimum. I think the biggest reason why #1 fails is the letter 'r' is so weak. I actually just took the first half of the letter 'n' after shaving the tail off of for the letter 'r' XD (I did it in like 10 minutes on paint, so...)
These comments make sense to me:
At first glance 1 looks better but after staring at it for an amount of time i'd say 2 as well.
1 is hip but 2 is better for the npr demographic
1 just makes my eyes jump all over - lack of serifs must be triggering my gestaltin' sense.
I think the tails make your brain realize 'these are letters!' and it forces you to 'read' them, which is what I didn't like. But without the tails, you're still trying to 'read' them which is more difficult because they look less like letters now.
If it never occurred to your brain to 'read' them in the first place, maybe #1 wouldn't make your eyes jump around like that.