NPR, the public radio and podcasting giant, has a new leader after years of growth and internal turmoil. But after the pandemic hit in mid-March, we got together with our cohort and said, Why wait 18 months? NPR's programming division, which produces its industry-leading podcasts, has more than doubled since 2019. John Lansing, the chief executive officer and director of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, will become NPR's CEO in mid-October. Diversity is the North Star of a newly implemented strategic plan, Lansing said, because it filters through everything that we do with all of our work.. Others have waded into the podcast fray with a vengeance. Scripps Company, Held senior management positions at Scripps-owned affiliates, including WEWS TV in Cleveland, Ohio and WXYZ TV in Detroit, Michigan, Early in his career Award-winning Photojournalist and Field Producer, Assignment Manager, Managing Editor, and News Director at several television stations. 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. Its not a sidebar. Anyone can read what you share. And the pandemic hit six months later in March of '20. He promises NPR will build on its mission and values but adds, ""This will be a major loss." My story: npr.org NPR says it's cutting jobs by 10% as ad revenue drops That's something that perceptive journalists should be able to pick up pretty quickly. Scripps Networks September 5, 2019; Washington, D.C. - The NPR Board of Directors announced today that it. I think you have to be in front of your teams. And its where our focus needs to be right now. "Bloomberg Opinion" columnists offer their opinions on issues in the news. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Current is an editorially independent, nonprofit service of the American University School of Communication. NPR has also been the nation's leading producer of podcasts since Podtrac started measuring audiences. After becoming part of Warner Bros. 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. Theres no question about it. And I think we have to extend that lead. ", Lansing, formerly a top television executive for the E.W. In these comments, John Lansing slides by with a public swipe at the Trump 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. "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. President Joe Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speak to reporters as they depart the Senate Democrat policy luncheon at the Capitol on March 2. So that would be mine. He will now lead the nation's top audio producer and broadcaster. 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. When you first got to NPR, what did you think? Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft have announced more than 50,000 job cuts combined in just the past few months. Mr. Lansing will start in October, replacing Jarl Mohn, who has run NPR since 2014. Lansing: Everybodys at a different place with DEI depending on where they stand, whether thats a person who is white and doesnt understand how white privilege has improved their standing in their career in a way that persons of color may have not experienced. In recent remarks online, Johnson, who is Black, focused on a more competitive landscape for NPR journalists, including people of color. Mr. Lansing, who began his career as a teenage cameraman at a television station in Kentucky, spent two decades at Scripps Networks. But here, Lansing basically jumps over those disclaimers using the lame attribution of private citizen.. But we made a firm commitment, as you know, to freeze station dues and fees. 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. Courtesy of Allison Shelley for NPR. The ratings for our weekend magazine shows are actually slightly greater than they were a year ago pre-pandemic, so thats a bright spot. So its a constant commitment to communication, to training, to accountability. It's not just what happened this week on the Hill, although that's important. Lansing has also put significant stock into what he calls the NPR Network, which calls for greater unity of coverage and digital initiatives, such as newsletters, streaming, podcasts and more. This is an edited transcript of the conversation among Lansing, Current Reporter Tyler Falk and Digital Editor Mike Janssen. Lansing, 62, who is currently chief executive officer of the government agency that oversees Voice of America, Radio and Television Mart and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, among others . NPR, the public radio giant that employs hundreds of journalists, is about to get a new chief executive. Lansing: They were for general. New podcasts Up First, Consider This and State of Ukraine sit on both sides. 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. To be a part of creating the future of such an important institution is humbling, exciting, and a distinct honor.". The varied broadcasters also offered jazz and other music to appeal to people under communist regimes using a soft form of diplomacy. In May 2020, four NPR female hosts of color Garcia-Navarro, King, All Things Considered host Ailsa Chang and Weekend All Things Considered host Michel Martin sent a letter to Lansing . NPR faces financial pressures from two fronts. The first pillar is to expand the power of the national-local partnership into the on-demand future. And our work began then. Lansing says he does not yet know who within NPR will be affected, but said the job cuts would not fall evenly across the organization. Yet Lansing also takes over an institution riven by a scandal that hit its top reaches, with a chief news executive toppled over #MeToo complaints of inappropriate conduct toward female subordinates and colleagues. John Lansing - Quick Profile. The Washington Post, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, eliminated its Sunday magazine and a handful of other jobs. 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's rigorous reporting and unsurpassed storytelling connect with millions of Americans everydayon the air, online, and in person. How cool is it to be at. 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. Talk about a force of nature. Pozen Fellow At the Shorenstein Center. Born and raised in Albany, New York, Lansing was trained as a lawyer, and was long involved in politics and government.During the American Revolution he was military secretary to General Philip Schuyler. 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. 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. Were finishing up in the next two to three weeks the specific lists of actions and activities under these pillars. Pack then took a number of actions that raised fears about the independence of the agency, which includes Voice of America. I just think that somebody's truth is the truth. I established DEI as our top priority on Jan. 5 of 2020. Were working with them to do joint investigative reporting. There are over 1000 NPR Member Station signals broadcasting across the United States 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. And so that was the way I looked at the future for me. John Lansing will begin his term as President and CEO of NPR in October, 2019. 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. 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. Fearing a tepid economy, Lansing and his corporate team projected that revenue would stay flat for the fiscal year that began October 1. 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. The agency has an annual budget of $808 million. 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. 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. 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. I can't speak for other people, CEOs. And as a CEO, and also as a white man, I want to know, how did you handle it when all eyes were on you? Harvard Kennedy School. Were working with them to create regional newsrooms in Texas and California and the Midwest and in the Gulf. Last year, President Trump appointed Michael Pack as USAGMs CEO. But were going to continue to follow up on that going into this year. So those are the four pillars that rotate around the centerpiece, we call it the North Star, of our commitment to DEI. And as the year unfolded, we began to develop our three-year strategic plan. 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 . Leading the organization through it all is CEO John Lansing, a longtime media executive who has been on the job since October 2019. So I think that it has caused me to be more tuned in to hearing and understanding our employees. "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. Lansing says even that proved overly optimistic. Were consulting with digital media, were consulting with the division heads, and were doing it as an all-hands project so that we get it right. Lansing also elevated to chief strategy officer a former U.S. State Department staffer who recently pleaded guilty to having defrauded the U.S. Agency for Global Media out of more than $40,000 in government money in 2018, according to federal prosecutors. 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. We established the top priority [a.k.a. I'm from Minneapolis, and my parents are buried about six blocks from where George Floyd was killed. Because when you're all at work, you're all at work, and you go home to your individual situations. 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. Lansing blamed a slowdown in advertising dollars. And I still think we have a long way to go. Current (https://current.org/2021/02/ceo-john-lansing-discusses-nprs-diversity-efforts-budget-deficit-and-growing-podcast-competition/). 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. Today is a good day to remember the vital role public radio plays in providing the information we all need to fully exercise our rights in our democracy. "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. As President, he held strategic and operational oversight of Scripps Networks Digital division and Scripps Networks Interactive, which includes six cable networks: Food Network, HGTV, Travel Channel, DIY, Cooking Channel and Great American Country. Lansing: You have to imagine a picture, if you will. He took over a troubled organization beset by infighting and bureaucratic inefficiency. During the Donald Trump administration, he held roles in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and was acting Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for Community Planning and Development. And Im holding myself accountable with my board and Ive been and am holding my direct reports accountable to me. Four years ago, Lansing was named by President Barack Obama to be the first chief executive of the broadcasting outfit that was renamed the U.S. Agency for Global Media. hide caption. There were three of them, each for $1 million. 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. The ratings have tanked because all they talk about is race. Lansing: Back in May and June, it was an alarming decline in radio ratings. Mr. Mohn was pressed about his leadership in a tense NPR interview and later apologized to employees for not taking action sooner. I thought, wow. Essentially, the success of the company falls in your hands. Why did you undertake this? What do you think are some characteristics of good leadership? Well, I'm fortunate that we have a terrific executive committee and leadership team, so we all share the daily ins and outs of managing a big organization. NPR plans to lay off about 10% of its current staff due to the soft ad market and a drop in revenue from corporate sponsors, as well as uncertainties in the global economy overall. There was one the year before I was here, then this was the follow-up. If you had to create a podcast, what would it be about? I thought, wow. And I would do a board-level review for the donor or donors as to where the business was, the value of the work we were doing, the things we were adding in terms of covering the pandemic. Let's say, I was walking out of high school into college, I had no idea what I was going to do. 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 is a member of the Quinnipiac University School of Communications Advisory Board and the National Board of Advisors of George Washington University's School of Media & Public Affairs. Lansing: I guess I would comment just as a citizen watching from outside. But we felt like it was an important investment to make in our member stations to support them during the pandemic. Since then,. How does the economy react to all of that? 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%. NPR's chief executive announced the network would lay off roughly 10% of its . 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. I am still morning the loss of an objective NPR. 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. 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. 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. Its pretty clear to me that the ratings decline in radio is driven by commuting patterns. NPR headquarters in Washington, D.C. The ratings for our weekend magazine shows are actually slightly greater than they were a year ago pre-pandemic, so thats a bright spot.. We had begun a lot of work under [Chief Diversity Officer] Keith Woods' leadership to really move us forward. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images And it gives the lie to NPRs claim, through disclaimers, that it is simply reporting on its own the implication of the disclaimer being that there is no editorial control or direction from the CEO. NPR has a new CEO. Their editorial independence is enshrined in federal law, though it sometimes came under attack. And its tied to the same variables you would know yourselves, which is, how fast can the vaccines be deployed? NPRs search for a new CEO is finally over! advanced degree - political agility. ", "I am thrilled to work with NPR's exceptional management team, staff and journalists," said Lansing. So Im pleased to see that that short era is over. This is simply disingenuous. And probably the most important accountability is that, first of all, I hold myself accountable with my goals that I report to the board. Age: 62, Born on July 31, 1957, in Minneapolis Lansing, who is 62, is currently the chief executive of the government agency that oversees Voice of America, Radio and Television Mart and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, among others. Well, I like NPR Politics a lot. Will there be another stimulus? Lansing: We hope to have that completed within about eight to 10 weeks. John Lansing, CEO, photographed for NPR, 22 January 2020, in Washington DC. People, given the opportunity, will do the right thing in a way that hopefully makes them want to be here for a long time. Disclosure: This story was reported by NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik under guidance from NPR chief business editor Pallavi Gogoi. Scripps Networks Were certainly not over, were not at a finish line. You hear me say fairly often it's not a thing that's going to end; it's really a new way of operating with an awareness of this weakness that we need to address and build upon and ensure that it lives on and continues to improve. hide caption. Not exactly. Well, what we're doing right now, I think communication. Or 'How are we doing on the North Star?' What is the outlook for the rest of the fiscal year? What we now call the North Star of our strategic plan is our DEI efforts as it filters through everything that we do with all of our work. As we got to April of last spring, we saw a massive deficit develop for NPR on the order of about $25 million. 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. Yet the tech and media industries' prospects stand at odds with a tight labor market and low unemployment more broadly. Lansing: Its on social media platforms or YouTube or through media partnerships. Lansing: We arent in a position to answer that until we know for sure when the pandemic is going to subside. Current: Do you have any examples of how digital operations would be integrated into divisions throughout the organization? We'd like to revisit a story that first broke yesterday and . Current: NPRs budget also took a hit because of the pandemic. At the U.S. Agency for Global Media, Lansing championed a free press even as leaders of many nations move against it. A graduate of Bellarmine University, he was named to the Bellarmine University Gallery of Distinguished Graduates in 2010. 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. 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, nonideological journalism, with the frequent exception of Radio Mart historically an anti-Castro and anti-Cuban communist outlet. 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. And weve seen some significant success with that. I'm just passionate about how good leadership can lead to good outcomes, and that led me here. John Lansing, president and CEO Chair of the NPR Foundation John McGinn Public members of the board Carlos Alvarez, CEO, The Gambrinus Company Fred Dust, designer, speaker, and consultant Paul G. Haaga Jr., retired, Capital Research and Management Company - Chairman of the NPR Board of Directors He won praise for doing so and says he informed leaders of SAG-AFTRA on Tuesday about the impending job cuts. 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. So hes doubling down on lack of diversity, does that mean he wants his audience to reflect the other half of the country, the conservatives in flyover country? NPR draws more than 28 million listeners each week and 40 million unique monthly visitors to its website both represent a rise of several million over those five years. John Lansing is taking over for outgoing CEO Jarl Mohn, who has led the organization for . Its an inclusive process. Today, we feature John Lansing, CEO of NPR. It's not an extracurricular activity; it's fundamental to our business. And it really opened the funnel. And how's that being measured and accounted for? So mentally, how do you manage that? 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. During 2021, we worked on that with Keith and with Diversity and Inclusion Manager Whitney Maddox. Lansing is a veteran executive and journalist who has spent decades leading complex media companies in growing their relevance and reach, while strengthening their business operations. What was it like for you to watch that happen? Last fall, when announcing the earlier cuts, Lansing said the network would have to make tough choices - and to "do less with less." September 6, 2019. The last time NPR faced such stark choices, it was 2008. 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. My top goal is to support the women of color at NPR so that they feel like they have more upward mobility.. Were working with member stations on topic teams for, say, political reporting or criminal justice reporting across the system. Lansing will begin his term at NPR in October and will succeed Jarl Mohn, who has been Chief Executive Officer and President since 2014. Lansing clearly had an ongoing interest in the USAGM story and the notion that that at some point along the line he did not provide his take, at minimum, to NPR reporting staff, on the story beggars belief. "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.". And its something that I think will strengthen the ability for news programming, marketing and member services to be more responsive and to offer greater service to audiences in a more agile way. Lansing is a media executive with a deep understanding of journalism, having spent two decades as an award-winning journalist, successful newsroom leader and major market local media executive before becoming a global chief executive officer. Lansing: Thats a great question. Its something that we certainly support. John Lansing, a media executive with government broadcast and cable television experience, has been named by NPR's board to succeed its current chief, Jarl Mohn who announced the plan to step down after his 5-Year term ended. National Public Radio will reduce its workforce by 10 percent as it grapples with what CEO John Lansing says is a "sharp . He served on the Bellarmine University Board of Trustees from 2010-2016 and was vice-chair 2014-2016. Doing that just requires that were putting more emphasis on the diversity of our decision makers, our leadership, our story selection, our source selection. "Management is about committing to strategy, making tough decisions.". I would enjoy being on a podcast talking about politics. Required fields are marked *. 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. Lansing blamed a slowdown in advertising dollars. "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. Were they targeted to specific spending areas or just for general costs? We still remain one of the top, if not the top, podcasters in America. I was very pleased to see Code Switch named as Apples top podcast of the year. John Lansing will begin his term as President and CEO of NPR in October, 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. How do you think that the North Star, the strategic initiative, is going? "I have been an avid fan of NPR for many years. Obviously, this job that you have as a CEO of NPR is a really huge responsibility. I think there are interesting trends to follow and try to understand. 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. And weve seen that really help them grow. Then I moved on to manage TV stations and cable networks. He began his career in media at age 17 when he was hired as a studio technician and cameraman for WPSD TV in Kentucky.