And I want to look for areas that I can provide leadership to bring resources together as needed strategically to find the right priorities that make the most sense for growing NPR this year and then into the future.. The other is the fight for donors. Lansing was most recently the CEO of USAGM, a $800 million dollar independent federal agency that operates on multiple platforms reaching an average weekly audience of 345 million in 61 languages. John Lansing, the chief executive officer and director of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, will become NPR's CEO in mid-October. So sad to lose an American institution to propaganda. John Lansing, the chief executive officer and director of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, will become NPR's CEO in mid-October. Current: How have your priorities for NPR changed since you became CEO? Colorado Postcards are snapshots of our colorful state in sound. 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. In 2019, Joshua Johnson left 1A, a nationally syndicated public affairs show produced by WAMU in Washington, D.C., and distributed by NPR, for MSNBC. John Lansing is taking over for outgoing CEO. Mohn placed an emphasis on fostering a more collaborative dynamic with the public radio stations that NPR serves and was given credit for making progress on that score. Our third pillar is to optimize content and meet audiences where they are. 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 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. He held off a push by House Republicans to spin off Voice of America into a non-governmental broadcaster. It is our work our North Star and our work are the same thing. We saw a lot of companies react to the [murder of] George Floyd and we did too. 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. "Jarl would be the first to say that it is the area where he feels that his work was not complete," Sheikholeslami said. Its not something weve baked and were just going to hand it down. 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. Current: With broadcast listening declining during the pandemic, what is NPR doing to address and adjust to those trends? I'm from Minneapolis, and my parents are buried about six blocks from where George Floyd was killed. When you first got to NPR, what did you think? 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. Lansing: I guess my head turns first to the journalism of our member stations. The network had run deficits in six of the seven previous years; under Mohn, it has achieved a slight surplus for each year during his tenure, even as the annual budget grew by more than 40%. He made his mark in his current job with stirring defenses of journalism, free from government interference. Fear drives their path. Did you plan for this or did it kind of just happen? So I would tell my younger self to be confident, calm down, it's all gonna work out. Lansing started his news industry career at age 17 as a studio technician and cameraman at WPSD TV, Paducah, KY, where he was promoted to news photographer after two years. Four years ago, Lansing was named by President Obama to be the first chief executive of the broadcasting outfit that was renamed the U.S. Agency for Global Media. 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. August 20, 2022 August 20th is National Radio Day. While serving as chief operating officer, she took on a greater role during two of Mohn's medical leaves and in the aftermath of the sexual harassment scandal. 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. Mr. Mohn was pressed about his leadership in a tense NPR interview and later apologized to employees for not taking action sooner. hide caption. "I want to hear the ideas that are bubbling underneath right now and what people are excited about, what they're looking forward to developing," Lansing said Thursday. For the year that ended last September, NPR reported $241 million in expenses. How are you working to shore up NPRs place in the podcasting landscape and compete with deep-pocketed tech companies? Lansing will start in his new position in mid-October. NPR has also been the nation's leading producer of podcasts since Podtrac started measuring audiences. Selected by the NPR board of directors, Lansing will start in October, succeeding outgoing head Jarl Mohn, Then I moved on to manage TV stations and cable networks. NPR headquarters in Washington, D.C. I want to hear the ideas that are bubbling underneath right now and what people are excited about what theyre looking forward to developing, Lansing said Thursday. "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. You'll find out about what they do and what they're inspired by on the daily. That's something that perceptive journalists should be able to pick up pretty quickly. My top goal is to support the women of color at NPR so that they feel like they have more upward mobility.. John Lansing, NPR's President and CEO, defended Kelly last weekend during an interview on NPR's All Things Considered program, saying that Kelley "is one of the most respected, truthful,. So sad to me. Current: Do you have any examples of how digital operations would be integrated into divisions throughout the organization? America needs public radio more than ever. A review by the House Foreign Affairs Committee faulted the agency for insufficient oversight but noted that an internal task force was already having an impact. In an interview, Mr. Lansing called the ads a rogue incident and said it had been corrected. NPR So I brought in Michael Smith as our new chief marketing officer almost a year ago. Under standard procedures for reporting on NPR matters, NPR's corporate and news executives were not allowed to review the report until it was posted. 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. Courtesy of Allison Shelley for NPR. NPR strives to create a more informed publicone challenged and invigorated by a deeper understanding and appreciation of events, ideas, and cultures. Way back when, I was a news cameraman. I am still morning the loss of an objective NPR. Will there be another stimulus? Were working with them to do joint investigative reporting. NPR has a new CEO. No. He has previously announced he would be staying on as president emeritus to help the network raise major gifts, and along with his wife, Pamela Mohn, he personally committed $10 million to the network. Obviously, this job that you have as a CEO of NPR is a really huge responsibility. NPR's Michel Martin asks NPR's CEO, John Lansing, to respond to an All Things Considered interview with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. 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. The networks fight for listeners time has become more feverish. It's not an extracurricular activity; it's fundamental to our business. Current: NPRs budget also took a hit because of the pandemic. 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. He will be the 11th permanent president or chief executive in the radio networks nearly 50-year history. You want to know what is really going on these days, especially in Colorado. Were finishing up in the next two to three weeks the specific lists of actions and activities under these pillars. I dont know if youve been on the highway recently, but theres a lot more traffic on the highway today than there would have been last May and June. But my goals also go to all of my direct reports. Your email address will not be published. Unlike some predecessors, Lansing doesn't face a particularly fraught political landscape. Lansing blamed a slowdown in advertising dollars. "The result, I believe, is a war on truth. Lansing served for ten years as a visiting faculty member at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies. I remember we had several all-staff discussions about a variety of issues that branched off of that, including the Code of Conduct, for example, as it relates to NPR employees at public demonstrations. 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. "And I want to look for areas that I can provide leadership to bring resources together as needed strategically to find the right priorities that make the most sense for growing NPR this year and then into the future.". While they do not broadcast within the U.S., the Voice of America and the other media outfits Lansing has overseen typically adhere to traditional concepts of factual, non-ideological journalism, with the frequent exception of Radio Marti historically an anti-Castro and anti-Cuban communist outlet. "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.". A graduate of Bellarmine University, he was named to the Bellarmine University Gallery of Distinguished Graduates in 2010. 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. You have stated that DEI is your top priority at NPR. Its new president and chief executive is John Lansing, a former cable . How do you think that the North Star, the strategic initiative, is going? Age: 62, Born on July 31, 1957, in Minneapolis 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. 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. It's not just what happened this week on the Hill, although that's important. We need help now. So we began an intensive set of Zoom meetings that I attended, each one with a member station and a qualified potential donor. "During this period when rigorous, fact-based and context-rich . Its a real business with real market dynamics.. We had begun a lot of work under [Chief Diversity Officer] Keith Woods' leadership to really move us forward. And its tied to the same variables you would know yourselves, which is, how fast can the vaccines be deployed? It's interesting. And the New York Times has won praise and new fans through its weekday podcast The Daily, with in-depth interviews of reporters and newsmakers. For two years, he served as the president and CEO of a cable trade group called the Cable and Telecommunications Association for Marketing. Current: Can you be more specific about what that looks like in terms of how you reach people who may not already know about NPRs podcasts? 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. 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 . At the US Agency for Global Media, Lansing championed a free press even as leaders of many nations move against it. 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. I hear that all the time. Follow Bloomberg reporters as they uncover some of the biggest financial crimes of the modern era. So mentally, how do you manage that? hide caption. It was about a $3 million cost to NPR for the fiscal year. NPR's president of operations, Loren Mayor, was the leading internal candidate for the chief executive position. Vegas PBS General Manager, Tom Axtell, announces his retirement. Instead, Whitney really helped us to buckle down with discipline, understand what's going on, and meet with women of color [in the organization], as we're doing tonight in our executive committee meeting, which we do regularly now. What is the outlook for the rest of the fiscal year? 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. Both Lansing and Sheikholeslami say he is adamant about pressing forward with reforms to the workplace culture at NPR that Mayor has already started to put in place. "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. We did a climate survey of our employees, and we learned about a particular weak spot for us with women of color at NPR who didn't feel it was a place to grow their career, a place to be their whole selves, a place where they are seen and respected. administration regarding the now former managers of his former place of employment (USAGM) but claims the mantle of private citizen to do so. The Lookout is a free, daily email newsletter with news and happenings from all over Colorado. We discovered in our most recent climate survey that that was an area that we needed to put more effort into. NPR's chief news executive, Nancy Barnes, said Friday she would be leaving the network, prompted by NPR CEO John Lansing's decision to create a new executive role above her. Podtrac, which measures the audiences of podcast publishers, has consistently placed NPR at the top of its monthly rankings. He defined NPRs mission as serving the public with information and an excellence and quality about it that makes it must see on a variety of platforms.. What advice would you give to young journalists of color when navigating these white spaces, but attempting to make a change? The ratings have tanked because all they talk about is race. 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. John Lansing, CEO, photographed for NPR, 22 January 2020, in Washington DC. We established management commitments to the women of color so that we address specifically their concerns. And The New York Times has won praise and new fans through its weekday podcast The Daily, with in-depth interviews of reporters and newsmakers. I joined in October of '19. Lansing: We arent in a position to answer that until we know for sure when the pandemic is going to subside. I think as a white man, I know and have experienced that feeling of trepidation on discussions on issues of race, because there's an inherent fear that somebody is going to have a negative point of view about you. So I think that it has caused me to be more tuned in to hearing and understanding our employees. And were pleased to work with them. NPR's rigorous reporting and unsurpassed storytelling connect with millions of Americans everydayon the air, online, and in person. Why did you undertake this? But it was not from a standing start. Scripps Networks And how's that being measured and accounted for? I can't speak for other people, CEOs. How does the economy react to all of that? 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. John F. Lansing joined USAGM as CEO and Director in September 2015. He will now lead the nations top audio producer and broadcaster. Listeners consider public radio an enriching and enlightening companion; they trust NPR as a daily source of unbiased independent news, and inspiring insights on life and the arts. I think you have to be in front of your teams. Well, what we're doing right now, I think communication. Job cuts throughout. He held off a push by House Republicans to spin off Voice of America into a nongovernmental broadcaster. If you had to create a podcast, what would it be about? 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 broadcasters like Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. And the work goes on. Others have waded into the podcast fray with a vengeance. Anyone can read what you share. He served on the Bellarmine University Board of Trustees from 2010-2016 and was vice-chair 2014-2016. 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. 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