This documentary-style series follows investigative journalists as they uncover the truth. Current: You recently made some changes to NPRs digital strategy by moving to integrate digital operations into divisions throughout the organization.This also includes eliminating the role of chief digital officer held by Thomas Hjelm at the end of February. John Lansing, the chief executive officer and director of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, will become NPR's CEO in mid-October. We established management commitments to the women of color so that we address specifically their concerns. Applicants to this years fellowship see its cancellation as a setback for journalists of color who want to work in public radio. In 2017, Michael Oreskes, NPRs senior vice president for news, left after two women accused him of unwanted physical advances in the 1990s, when he was the Washington bureau chief of The New York Times. Share Your Design Ideas, New JerseysMurphy Defends $10 Billion Rainy Day Fund as States Economy Slows, What Led to Europes Deadliest Train Crash in a Decade, This Week in Crypto: Ukraine War, Marathon Digital, FTX. But were going to continue to follow up on that going into this year. hide caption. I was very pleased to see Code Switch named as Apples top podcast of the year. Were still looking at a deficit, but were hopeful that by the time we get into March, well have a pretty clear-eyed view of how the year is going to end up. (On NPR's radio side, advertising takes the form of underwriting, as corporate sponsors are not permitted to call for listeners to purchase goods or services.). Dear NPR President John Lansing, I want to express my heartfelt appreciation for the powerful letter you wrote to NPR staff and the public about the horrific extrajudicial killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. A number of executives will report directly to Lansing, including Nancy Barnes, senior vice president for news and editorial director, who joined NPR last November and oversees the network's newsroom. I think there's an awareness, like in the way you asked the question about 'our North Star.' That was due largely to reductions in corporate sponsorship and also additional expenses we were incurring in supporting our employees with paid time off, as we adjusted to the new working arrangements and the stresses that we were all under and also the additional expense of cleaning the headquarters multiple times a day on certain occasions. Talk about a force of nature. Oh wait. NPR has also been the nation's leading producer of podcasts since Podtrac started measuring audiences. America needs public radio more than ever. NPR takes only a few million dollars a year from federal sources for its programs. Well, what we're doing right now, I think communication. Theres no question about it. NPR I, and the management team, all of us, we determined that was going to be a priority for the year 2021. He took over a troubled organization beset by infighting and bureaucratic inefficiency. The agency has an annual budget of $808 million. NPR stands stronger than it did at the outset of Mohn's five-year term in 2014. What steps does NPR still need to take in this area? He made his mark in his current job with stirring defenses of journalism, free from government interference. What advice would you give to young journalists of color when navigating these white spaces, but attempting to make a change? That was revised as a result. He guided the organization in becoming a leading developer of unique content across television, digital, mobile and radio platforms. Current: Last year, the SAG-AFTRA union called out NPRs previous failures on issues of diversity, equity and inclusion and asked management to commit to accountability measures. Prior to joining USAGM, he served for two years as the President and CEO of the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM), an organization that facilitates collaborative marketing initiatives for its members. There's always going to be things here and there that have to be worked out, because that's just the way a company is, but I've never been in a company before where it was so understood that we're here to serve the American people. I think the work Keith has been doing long before I got here on diversity in tracking sources and the storytelling that we're doing around the company has really been effective in the area of DEI on radio, podcasting, and digital. "What we've shown with podcasting is that we can take some of our core journalistic assets and we can create new formats and new programs around them and actually reach new audiences. How are you working to shore up NPRs place in the podcasting landscape and compete with deep-pocketed tech companies? He soon made DEI the top priority at NPR. It's not just what happened this week on the Hill, although that's important. So I would tell my younger self to be confident, calm down, it's all gonna work out. In these comments, John Lansing slides by with a public swipe at the Trump And so that was the way I looked at the future for me. "However, when you think how we look out longer term, right, not just for 20 years, but several years out, it's really about building a sustainable financial future for NPR.". We established the top priority [a.k.a. Lansing has earned an advanced degree in political agility. Selected by the NPR board of directors, Lansing will start in October, succeeding outgoing head Jarl Mohn, This time, Lansing says he is not confident the money will return anytime soon, so the network and its board have to plan more strategically. Lansing blamed a slowdown in advertising dollars. John F. Lansing (he/him) oversees one of the country's most iconic news organizations, whose rigorous reporting and unsurpassed storytelling connects with millions of Americans every day on the air, online, and in person. Now Lansing says he wants to draw on the intellectual and creative impulses of his new staffers as he leads a domestic journalistic powerhouse with an international reputation and reach. Current: How else might NPR assist stations in the coming year? 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I think you have to be in front of your teams. Fearing a tepid economy, Lansing and his corporate team projected that revenue would stay flat for the fiscal year that began October 1. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Our third pillar is to optimize content and meet audiences where they are. Current: NPR has helped stations during the pandemic by delaying planned changes to the dues they pay. "The result, I believe, is a war on truth. Weve seen significant growth in Code Switch, in Louder Than a Riot, in Sam Sanders podcast [Its Been a Minute], in part because for the first time in a while, were really investing in marketing support for those podcasts. Discovery, CNN cut hundreds of jobs and killed off its brand-new streaming service, CNN+. Ever since you started, you've been very vocal about it. John Ten Eyck Lansing Jr. (January 30, 1754 - vanished December 12, 1829), a Founding Father of the United States, was an attorney, jurist, and politician. Lansing: SAG-AFTRA came out with their letter around our September board meeting in 2020. Certainly in the aftermath of the George Floyd murder on Memorial Day weekend, our efforts accelerated and we doubled down on communication, training and listening. He won praise for doing so and says he informed leaders of SAG-AFTRA on Tuesday about the impending job cuts. No. And its where our focus needs to be right now. I think we're moving forward. In setting NPR's earlier rounds of budget cuts a couple months ago, Lansing consulted ahead of time with leaders of the unions representing workers at NPR with an eye to avoiding any layoffs. hide caption. But second, we're mission-driven, and I think everybody in the organization lives and breathes that mission. Lansing says the agency referred Haroon Ullah's expenditures to auditors and investigators after travel assistants flagged them; according to the Justice Department statement, Ullah admitted submitting fraudulent receipts for hotel room reimbursements and fake medical claims to get government payments of upgrades in airline seat assignments, among other offenses. In a large part, the digital teams and the divisions will work together to reach a final model. He served on the Bellarmine University Board of Trustees from 2010-2016 and was vice-chair 2014-2016. Did you know that one day you would become a CEO? From 2015 to 2019, Lansing served as the CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), the independent federal agency whose programming reaches an average weekly audience of 345 million people in 62 languages. We collected a lot of data and we have a lot of good follow-up opportunities, and Ill continue to offer myself up as a direct resource in that pilot project. But after the pandemic hit in mid-March, we got together with our cohort and said, Why wait 18 months? Lansing previously held positions overseeing the Scripps Co.'s local television stations and then its national cable channels, which include the Food Network and HGTV, among others. Yet the tech and media industries' prospects stand at odds with a tight labor market and low unemployment more broadly. Networks like Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty are meant to counter disinformation from foreign governments by broadcasting objective reports, although they have always been dogged by an accusation that they are a form of American propaganda. After Lansing hopped over to NPR from USAGM in 2019, NPR had to be prompted by outside critics to include disclaimers on its USAGM/VOA stories to note Lansings past USAGM role. Lansing, who is 62, is. Arcbazar.com. "A really important strategic vector that we'll be talking about more within the company going forward is maximizing the value of the content wherever it can live and wherever the audience demands it," NPR Chief Operating Officer Will Lee says in an interview. advanced degree - political agility. So I brought in Michael Smith as our new chief marketing officer almost a year ago. Mohn had promised to attract major contributions to NPR before the end of his tenure; to date he has not landed the major eight- and nine-figure donations his stated aspirations suggested. That content executive position has not yet been filled; its creation led to the departure of then-NPR chief news executive Nancy Barnes. The roots of the VOA involved providing truthful reports to people under Nazi and Axis power rule during World War II. Mr. Lansing will start in October, replacing Jarl Mohn, who has run NPR since 2014. Mike Morgan/Mike Morgan How cool is it to be at. Lansing also spoke to Current about the challenges of implementing his DEI plans, the organizations financial outlook and his thoughts about the recent controversies at USAGM. NPR Facebook Post with Comments. NPR's chief executive announced the network would lay off roughly 10% of its current workforce at least 100 people and eliminate most vacant positions. When you first got to NPR, what did you think? And I had a lot of interest in how my former team was being treated, but more importantly, just as an American citizen, how the work of USAGM through VOA [Voice of America] and RFE/RL [Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty] was threatening to undermine the interests of the United States government by politicizing journalism that was meant by law to be free of political interference. NPR, the public radio and podcasting giant, has a new leader after years of growth and internal turmoil. Pozen Fellow At the Shorenstein Center. He is. We went from about 900 people a day at headquarters down to about 80 and were virtually broadcasting from peoples homes and offices, in terms of the hosts, almost exclusively beginning in April. Current: Did anything else stand out to you in that survey that you believe needed attention and needs attention? And were happy to see SAG-AFTRA agree with us and to join up. We're funded by your subscriptions, your donations, advertising, and a generous grant from the Wyncote Foundation. I'd say if there's anything that I focused on, and still am focused on during the pandemic, it is to make sure that whatever the situation is, we are supporting staff to do their best work, supporting them when they're having other challenges and making sure that we're attentive and tuned in to employees that need help, that need a break, that need to be heard, whatever that may be. Trump has notably praised authoritarian figures, including the leaders of North Korea, the Philippines, Russia and Turkey and has waged his own fight against journalists. The only route to a successful engagement on this issue is to deal with it, to talk about it, and to take action. In a private meeting on Thursday President Biden informed Senate Democrats that he will not use his veto power to block a GOP-led effort to repeal D.C.'s new crime law. So we were pleased to see SAG-AFTRA join our efforts. Again, I think it's about getting it intertwined into everything we do. First, we're a nonprofit. Current: Companies like Spotify and Amazon have been pouring big money into podcasting. NPR has tapped longtime media executive John Lansing to become its next president and CEO. He will now lead the nation's top audio producer and broadcaster. It really stretched me to understand that flexibility is a good thing. This is an edited transcript of the conversation among Lansing, Current Reporter Tyler Falk and Digital Editor Mike Janssen. National Public Radio (NPR) CEO John Lansing announced in a Wednesday memo that the network will lay off 10 percent of its staff and freeze vacant positions. You'll find out about what they do and what they're inspired by on the daily. NPR Selects Voice of America Boss as Its New Leader, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/06/business/media/npr-john-lansing.html. We still remain one of the top, if not the top, podcasters in America. Our goal of developing our audience as a younger and more diverse audience requires that we invest in marketing, we invest in content, and we partner with platforms where those audiences can be found rather than expecting younger and more diverse audiences to come to our platforms, necessarily. The work theyve done during the pandemic has been nothing short of miraculous in many cases, particularly given the summer of racial reckoning, the most unusual presidential election in memory and everything thats gone on since. Well, I like NPR Politics a lot. Michael A. McCoy for NPR A federal inspector general's investigation has exonerated six government executives who were suspended last year after raising red flags about actions taken by. The network has won acclaim for its coverage of wars and disasters, yet suffered its own crisis and tragedy in 2016 when its David Gilkey and Zabihullah Tamanna were killed while on assignment in southern Afghanistan. John Lansing, a veteran government broadcast and cable television executive, has been selected by NPR's corporate board to succeed its current chief, Jarl Mohn. NPR's president of operations, Loren Mayor, was the leading internal candidate for the chief executive position. The network's fight for listeners' time has become more feverish. Anyone can read what you share. I thought, wow. John Lansing will begin his term as President and CEO of NPR in October, 2019. I think you have to be transparent and be able to explain what you're doing, even if it's unpopular. CEO John Lansing says ad revenue for podcasting shriveled even as general economy seems on mend. With a nationwide network of award-winning journalists and 17 international bureaus, NPR and its Member Stations are never far from where a story is unfolding. So its an ongoing effort. The streaming platform Spotify paid nearly a quarter-billion dollars to buy the podcast producer Gimlet, founded by former staffers of NPR and other public radio outlets. NPR's programming division, which produces its industry-leading podcasts, has more than doubled since 2019. Today, those individual situations are happening in the background when everybody's working, whether it's kids that are school age, or kids that are toddlers, or elder care, or spouses working in the same room or in the same apartment. And what a breath of fresh air Whitney brings into the organization. NPR is funded by the CPB/PBS which are funded in part by the U.S. government. She really has helped us, and she's brought discipline to a process that in the past might have been people talking past each other a little bit and waiting for things to blow over. But now we're seeing authoritarian regimes expanding around the globe, with media repression in places like Turkey and Venezuela, Cambodia and Vietnam.". document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Public Media Now was created to be a centralized source of information and resources to help professional within Public Media be more successful. It all goes back to our mission: serving the American public, recognizing the American public is a diverse mosaic that makes America great and strong, and making sure that we're building systems and content that resonates with all Americans. But my goals also go to all of my direct reports. Lansing blamed a slowdown in advertising dollars. First of all, as a white man, my first reaction is that it's important for white people in general to understand the inherent biases that we have, even when we think we don't, unconsciously. Leading the organization through it all is CEO John Lansing, a longtime media executive who has been on the job since October 2019. Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft have announced more than 50,000 job cuts combined in just the past few months. Current (https://current.org/2021/02/ceo-john-lansing-discusses-nprs-diversity-efforts-budget-deficit-and-growing-podcast-competition/). Follow Bloomberg reporters as they uncover some of the biggest financial crimes of the modern era. He was previously head of cable TV company Scripps Networks, where he sold $10 million in stock after the company became the target of an SEC probe that was not known to the public. He was promoted to news photographer after two years, then moved on to managing editor, news director, and leadership of commercial television affiliates around the country. Mike Morgan/Mike Morgan When you first got to NPR, what did you think? But here, Lansing basically jumps over those disclaimers using the lame attribution of private citizen.. I'm kind of a politics junkie. CEO John Lansing cited the erosion of advertising dollars, particularly for NPR podcasts, and the tough financial outlook for the media industry more generally. For several years, it eliminated salary increases and suspended retirement contributions. He was responsible for strategic and operational oversight and P&L of the $2.5 billion division of Scripps Networks Interactive, including the company's portfolio of six cable networks Food Network, HGTV, Travel Channel, DIY, Cooking Channel and Great American Country and the $100 million Scripps Networks Digital division. And how's that being measured and accounted for? "When we say we are eliminating filled positions, we are talking about our colleagues - people whose skills, spirit and talents help make NPR what it is today," Lansing wrote in a memo to staff today. And its tied to the same variables you would know yourselves, which is, how fast can the vaccines be deployed? How do you think that the North Star, the strategic initiative, is going? hide caption. Board Member. Their editorial independence is enshrined in federal law, though it sometimes came under attack. Lansing has won plaudits from journalists for his rousing defense of a free press even while serving in the Trump administration, which has been notably hostile to traditional notions of the role of journalism in civic life. There was one the year before I was here, then this was the follow-up. Lansing also spent almost 20 years working at Scripps, including eight years as President of Scripps Networks. That said, Mohn set higher annual expectations for the network in fundraising and agreed to be co-chairman of its 50th-anniversary capital campaign. I hear that all the time. "We're not seeing signs of a recovery in the advertising market," Lansing says in an interview. Lansing: We hope to have that completed within about eight to 10 weeks. Others have waded into the podcast fray with a vengeance. That with a combination of expense cuts, including our employees and our management all taking voluntary pay cuts and benefit cuts, helped close that deficit gap. We'd like to revisit a story that first broke yesterday and . For the year that ended last September, NPR reported $241 million in expenses. Under NPR's protocol for reporting on itself, no corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted publicly. He is passionate about NPR's public service mission and the role of a free and independent media in a strong democracy. NPR was seen to align itself with federal workers at VOA who essentially conducted an internal uprising on government time, while NPR made quite clear in its coverage where it stood. "The challenges he will face at NPR are not dissimilar to challenges across the media landscape as a whole," said Sheikholeslami, who will soon take up the CEO job at New York Public Radio. Sometimes you have to hear other people's truth and accept it for what it is, not translate it into your truth, therefore it's no longer what it is. So Im pleased to see that that short era is over. Tech companies that also rely heavily on advertising are undergoing layoffs too. NPR's chief executive announced the network would lay off roughly 10% of its current workforce - at least 100 people - and eliminate most vacant positions. They lost their objectivity and are now just pushing leftist ideology. During the pandemic, NPR sidestepped layoffs through temporary cuts to pay and retirement contributions, distributed with an eye to shielding less well-paid employees, so they were most sharply felt by the most highly compensated staffers and executives. In a memo to. But also, what are the larger things that are happening? So were now into the new fiscal year. At Colorado Public Radio, I think there was a $300,000 donation that came out of that. But we made a firm commitment, as you know, to freeze station dues and fees. With a nationwide network of award-winning journalists and 17 international bureaus, NPR and its Member stations are never far from where a story is unfolding. September 5, 2019; Washington, D.C. The NPR Board of Directors announced today that it selected John Lansing to become its next President and Chief Executive Officer. In late November, the network announced $20 million in cuts, including a near-freeze on hiring, elimination of most travel, and suspension of internships. So I think thats being offset by some listening through smart speakers and even online, and thats helping to offset some of the reduction in listening within vehicles. Lansing: I guess my head turns first to the journalism of our member stations. Last fall, when announcing the earlier cuts, Lansing said the network would have to make tough choices - and to "do less with less." We saw a lot of companies react to the [murder of] George Floyd and we did too. For July, NPRs 60 active shows among them Planet Money, Fresh Air and Wait Wait Dont Tell Me! were downloaded 141 million times and had nearly 21 million listeners in the United States, according to Podtrac. Lansing: Back in May and June, it was an alarming decline in radio ratings. promoting Keith Woods to chief diversity officer, regional newsrooms in Texas and California and the Midwest and in the Gulf, I brought in Michael Smith as our new chief marketing officer, looking to sell the Pocket Casts podcast app, Suspension of NPRs Kroc fellowships disrupts talent development, career plans of student journalists. Current: With broadcast listening declining during the pandemic, what is NPR doing to address and adjust to those trends? In an interview on Friday, Mr. Lansing, 62, praised NPR as a home of high-quality journalism and audio production, and said that in addition to supporting traditional radio broadcasting he wanted to help NPR further its expansion into areas like podcasts, where the radio network has already been a leader. Bellarmine alumnus and former trustee John Lansing, a veteran cable television and government broadcast executive, is the new CEO of NPR. August 20, 2022 August 20th is National Radio Day. John Lansing will begin his term as President and CEO of NPR in October, 2019. NPR's chief executive announced the network would lay off roughly 10% of its . Now with the magazine shows on weekdays were about 20% behind last year, which is a significant improvement over where we were about eight months ago. And our number one goal is to improve our audience diversity. And the pandemic hit six months later in March of '20. John Gibbs is an American far-right political commentator and politician. "Bloomberg Opinion" columnists offer their opinions on issues in the news. If it's not being solved from the top down, it shouldn't be a burden for people just trying to build their career. When asked about his priorities, Lansing invoked what he has called the network's "North Star'' since his arrival in the fall of 2019: a push to ensure the network has a bigger and broader audience base, rooted in younger and more diverse listeners, readers and consumers. So sad to lose an American institution to propaganda. While member stations on average receive about 10% of their funding from the federal government, fees from the stations make up a significant part of the NPR budget. Lansing: Generally, the numbers that we would like to see in terms of the diversity of our audience were still lagging. And weve seen that really help them grow. "He is a listener and a collaborative leader with a passion for our public service journalistic mission who will help us continue to expand the audience for our storytelling. Last summer, we definitely had a racial reckoning. Current: You came to NPR after serving as CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media. Today, we feature John Lansing, CEO of NPR. Podtrac, which measures the audiences of podcast publishers, has consistently placed NPR at the top of its monthly rankings.
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