The comments of the NPR article suggest that the reporting is misleading at best, wrong at worst, and isn't news (the facts were reported months ago).

Edit: to expand on the comments in the NPR piece- Macklemore and Ryan Lewis didn't sign with a label to get distribution, they stayed independent despite hiring ADA (a subsidiary of the Warner Music Group) to get them distribution.

The first comment on that article brings up a good point, that it was because the song was becoming so famous and popular on Youtube/iTunes that radio stations were forced to play it, it wasn't that this reality was arranged by some key players who're the ultimate deciders on what ends up getting radio airplay and what not:

For those of us deeply established in Seattle hiphop music; we know this post is not "the real story". In fact, it is completely unfactual and more than misleading. Macklemore is an independent artist who, along with Ryan Lewis, earned the Number 1 spot, first on iTunes and then confirmed on Billboard. Radio had no choice but to add the Thrift Shop single - or face being confirmed as an out dated form of music discovery. Major music Industry is no longer the sole means of entry into the fold. I find it amazing how large format Media tries to explain away how an upstart dared to do this while turning down Diddy, Jay Z and Interscope offers along the way.

Macklemore has worked very hard for years to achieve this feat, and he should be celebrated. Any analysis at this point should be from a place of admiration and not denegration, as the title of this post attempts to do.

Anyone who reads the article should easily see why it was lazy. The article is titled "The Real Story of How Mackelmore Got to Number 1". Maybe I'm spoiled by the New Yorker, Atlantic, Slate, Vice, etc..., but when I see something billed as the "real story" I expect more than a half dozen paragraphs. The only "story" in this report is one sentence saying that they hired Warner Music to get more radio play. There are no further details and that seems extremely lazy to me.