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. I think leaders are accountable for walking the walk, for doing what they say they're going to do. Current: What are some of the highlights of that strategic plan? (Former long time member). I can't speak for other people, CEOs. Lansing will begin his term at NPR in October and will succeed Jarl Mohn, who has been Chief Executive Officer and President since 2014. But second, we're mission-driven, and I think everybody in the organization lives and breathes that mission. Why did you undertake this? I think you have to be in front of your teams. He made his mark in his current job with stirring defenses of journalism, free from government interference. Its pretty clear to me that the ratings decline in radio is driven by commuting patterns. "North Star"] for NPR on my arrival as supporting the diversity, equity, and inclusion of our staff so that we could become more relevant to our audiences and grow the diversity of our audiences. The only route to a successful engagement on this issue is to deal with it, to talk about it, and to take action. Current: Companies like Spotify and Amazon have been pouring big money into podcasting. NPR has a new CEO. Under his leadership NPR has been reaching new audiences as the country's top podcast publisher and through platforms like smart-speakers and connected cars. Learn more at npr.org/about or by following NPR Extra on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. NPR CEO Jarl Mohn To Step Down After 5-Year Term Ends In June, Tensions Build In NPR Newsroom Over Handling Of Sexual Harassment Allegations, NPR Announces Newsroom Job Cuts Amid Restructuring. NPR takes only a few million dollars a year from federal sources for its programs. They lost their objectivity and are now just pushing leftist ideology. What advice would you give to young journalists of color when navigating these white spaces, but attempting to make a change? And the work goes on. The agency has an annual budget of $808 million. I'm just passionate about how good leadership can lead to good outcomes, and that led me here. Yet Mr. Mohns tenure was also marked by a sexual harassment scandal involving a senior news executive whom he had hired and a labor clash with hundreds of union workers. He began his career in media at age 17 when he was hired as a studio technician and cameraman for WPSD TV in Kentucky. 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. That was revised as a result. A graduate of Bellarmine University, he was named to the Bellarmine University Gallery of Distinguished Graduates in 2010. 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. Applicants to this years fellowship see its cancellation as a setback for journalists of color who want to work in public radio. An NPR spokeswoman said final decisions on which jobs will be eliminated should occur by the week of March 20. 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. Our third pillar is to optimize content and meet audiences where they are. So at the end of the day, its a commitment, but this also has to be accountability. You have shows like All Things Considered and Morning Edition, which will continue to be broadcasting tent poles, Mr. Lansing said. John Lansing, the chief executive officer and director of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, will become NPR's CEO in mid-October. Let's say, I was walking out of high school into college, I had no idea what I was going to do. That's something that perceptive journalists should be able to pick up pretty quickly. Essentially, the success of the company falls in your hands. John F Lansing, National Public Radio Inc: Profile and Biography - Bloomberg Markets Live Now Bloomberg TV+ Bloomberg Daybreak Middle East Bloomberg Daybreak Middle East. In an email to the staff on Friday, John Lansing, who joined the nonprofit as chief executive in September, projected that NPR would fall $12 million to $15 million short of the amount it had . "I have been an avid fan of NPR for many years. Well, what we're doing right now, I think communication. It goes on to say that Mr. Lansing, 62, is currently the chief executive of the government agency, The U.S. Agency for Global Media, that oversees Voice of America, Radio and Television Marti, and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, among others. And probably the most important accountability is that, first of all, I hold myself accountable with my goals that I report to the board. The ratings have tanked because all they talk about is race. Its new president and chief executive is John Lansing, a former cable executive who for the last five years has run the U.S. Agency for Global Media, the federally funded organization behind. The ratings for our weekend magazine shows are actually slightly greater than they were a year ago pre-pandemic, so thats a bright spot.. This documentary-style series follows investigative journalists as they uncover the truth. Last year, the network booked $134 million in such corporate underwriting, a record built on strong growth in podcasting revenue in recent years. As we moved through the summer, that deficit remained at about $25 million. John Gibbs is an American far-right political commentator and politician. This is just dishonest, especially since NPR became what amounted to a voice of the opposition in its coverage of this dysfunctional federal agency. Last year, President Trump appointed Michael Pack as USAGMs CEO. Were finishing up in the next two to three weeks the specific lists of actions and activities under these pillars. NPR Selects Voice of America Boss as Its New Leader, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/06/business/media/npr-john-lansing.html. I am still morning the loss of an objective NPR. 5 takeaways from the massive layoffs hitting Big Tech right now, the network announced $20 million in cuts, NPR to impose near-freeze on hiring but avoids layoffs as budget cuts loom, NPR chief news executive Nancy Barnes to depart as network reshapes top ranks, January is often a big month for layoffs. Lansing: Thats a great question. Leading the organization through it all is CEO John Lansing, a longtime media executive who has been on the job since October 2019. The emphasis, he says, must be on drawing in "the future audience to make NPR sustainable for the next 50 years. Doing that just requires that were putting more emphasis on the diversity of our decision makers, our leadership, our story selection, our source selection. I established DEI as our top priority on Jan. 5 of 2020. It shouldn't be on any journalists of color, or anybody of color, to have to go and 'solve this problem' in somebody's company. "We are delighted to welcome John, whose deep experience as a media industry executive and practicing journalist make him ideally suited to lead NPR into its next chapter," said Paul Haaga, Chair of the NPR board. In what ways do you think NPR has forced you to grow, and in what areas are you growing that you weren't before NPR? Were they targeted to specific spending areas or just for general costs? I just think we have a special and unique thing as a company. And our number one goal is to improve our audience diversity. 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. "When I think of NPR and I think of the member stations collectively, I think really of journalism as a public service, not tied to a profit motive," Lansing told NPR News. This is essentially the DEI work writ large, but also our culture of respect, safety, upward mobility, training and making NPR a world-class organization for which to work. I have a negative reaction to what is fundamentally unfair in life, whether it be pay equity, promotions and advancement, training and hiring, or making sure leadership represents people of color and our staff. We've made some good forward progress around hiring, with requiring that our hiring panels be diverse, requiring that our finalists have diverse representation at a minimum, but of course there's no maximum, in terms of a list of finalists. All of that is to say that coming out of the reckoning of Memorial Day 2020 was for us and for me, in particular, a call to action internally at NPR to hear and reckon with our own issues internally. 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. Last summer, we definitely had a racial reckoning. Current: Did anything else stand out to you in that survey that you believe needed attention and needs attention? The second pillar is to transform our workplace culture. 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. NPR Facebook Post with Comments. People, given the opportunity, will do the right thing in a way that hopefully makes them want to be here for a long time. 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. Such distinctions between news and programming are tricky, however, as programming oversees podcasts, including those that perform journalistic functions, such as Code Switch, It's Been A Minute, Planet Money, and Throughline. ", "I am thrilled to work with NPR's exceptional management team, staff and journalists," said Lansing. Lansing said he took pride in maintaining conventional broadcasts while appealing to new audiences, reaching about 25% more people each week. Lansing, who is 62, is. It is intended to align the strategy of its often fractious member stations with one another and NPR itself and to allow NPR, for the first time, to raise money digitally from its audience in concert with those stations. Current: How much were those anonymous gifts? I thought, wow. Disclosure: This story was reported by NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik under guidance from NPR chief business editor Pallavi Gogoi. 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. A later report commissioned by the NPR board found that questions had been raised about Oreskes' behavior even before his hiring and that concerns were raised throughout his tenure; the repeated and formal warnings by top executives (including Mohn) to Oreskes to stop the unwanted attention he paid to female colleagues proved ineffective. But we felt like it was an important investment to make in our member stations to support them during the pandemic. NPR's rigorous reporting and unsurpassed storytelling connect with millions of Americans everydayon the air, online, and in person. "Your mobility becomes extremely important to be involved and connected to audiences that are mobile and that tend to be, frankly, younger and, as we think of it at USAGM, future leaders, who can influence the rise of free and open societies.". Lansing Last year brought a host of challenges to NPR: a multimillion-dollar deficit, calls for changes in its workplace culture and a hit to broadcast listening. Its a real business with real market dynamics.. 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. Considering the demise of local newspapers around the country and the growth of our member stations newsrooms around the country, were really working hard to support their local journalism, because its so important to us. So its a constant commitment to communication, to training, to accountability. 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. Others have waded into the podcast fray with a vengeance. NPR faces financial pressures from two fronts. Board Memberships & Affiliations. "And we finally got to the point where there was nothing really that we could cut big enough to fill a hole like that.". And my top goal is to support, in particular, the women of color at NPR so that they feel like they have more upward mobility. Chief Executive Officer and Director of the, Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing, Florangela Davila to Become KNKX News Director, NPR Hires Noelle LaCharite As VP Digital Technology. 2016 John Lansing leading a moderated a discussion with the members of the International Media Coordinating Council (ICC) about a unified strategy for the future. When will that freeze be lifted? Experts say the behavior could have constituted insider trading. In recent remarks online, Johnson, who is Black, focused on a more competitive landscape for NPR journalists, including people of color. Copyright 2023. 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. Current: Why are NPR and its partners looking to sell the Pocket Casts podcast app? What is the outlook for the rest of the fiscal year? When you first got to NPR, what did you think? hide caption. We discovered in our most recent climate survey that that was an area that we needed to put more effort into. Lansing: We hope to have that completed within about eight to 10 weeks. The last time NPR faced such stark choices, it was 2008. 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. Harvard Kennedy School. Our DEI efforts at the beginning of 2020 were not a project or an extracurricular activity; it really became our work. Weve seen a gradual comeback. Were working with them to create regional newsrooms in Texas and California and the Midwest and in the Gulf. "This will be a major loss.". 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.

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