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. When that happened, it energized us to really double down on understanding where our weak spots were, what we needed to work on. That survey happened in the fall of 2020. 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. And our work began then. But were going to continue to follow up on that going into this year. Lansing will start in his new position in mid-October. Disclosure: This story was reported and written by NPR Media Correspondent David Folkenflik and edited by Acting Chief Business Editor Emily Kopp. 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. John Lansing is a former Obama appointee who was named president and CEO of NPR on Thursday. ", He continued: "Citizens in countries from Russia to China, from Iran to North Korea, have been victimized for decades. I'm just passionate about how good leadership can lead to good outcomes, and that led me here. 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. I just think we have a special and unique thing as a company. The ratings for our weekend magazine shows are actually slightly greater than they were a year ago pre-pandemic, so thats a bright spot. He served for four years as the SVP, Television for the E.W. 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. It might come from my journalistic roots, and I think other journalists would say the same thing, I deal [with] and honor the truth. National Public Radio will reduce its workforce by 10 percent as it grapples with what CEO John Lansing says is a "sharp . Lansing: They were for general. So were now into the new fiscal year. Lansing says even that proved overly optimistic. NPR's programming division, which produces its industry-leading podcasts, has more than doubled since 2019. 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's John Lansing Discusses the Importance of Integrity in Journalism By Nicole Jones - October 30, 2020 0 463 NPR National President and CEO John Lansing joined the Belmont community for a conversation about integrity in journalism, highlighting its importance especially during an election year. 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. 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. Coming into public media, which I love, I noticed something that would be unusual in commercial media, in that there really wasnt a great investment in marketing podcasting to outside audiences off of our platforms. If it's not being solved from the top down, it shouldn't be a burden for people just trying to build their career. How is it a priority? Again, I think it's about getting it intertwined into everything we do. Lansing: Generally, the numbers that we would like to see in terms of the diversity of our audience were still lagging. We saw a lot of companies react to the [murder of] George Floyd and we did too. He served on the Bellarmine University Board of Trustees from 2010-2016 and was vice-chair 2014-2016. It was about a $3 million cost to NPR for the fiscal year. We established management commitments to the women of color so that we address specifically their concerns. So at the end of the day, its a commitment, but this also has to be accountability. 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. 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. And be a good listener. What steps does NPR still need to take in this area? Current: With broadcast listening declining during the pandemic, what is NPR doing to address and adjust to those trends? NPR's total workforce has grown by about 50 percent since before that crisis. "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. Mohn will continue on as President Emeritus & Co-Chair of the 50th Anniversary Campaign. I am still morning the loss of an objective NPR. "I don't anticipate that it would be like a haircut across every division, because that's just not management," Lansing says. 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. But mostly its targeted at marketing investments on social media platforms that are specifically reaching out to younger and more diverse audiences to see if we can drive sampling. 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%. Lansing: About 11 months ago, in February, a pilot group of 15 stations got together and put together an 18-month plan to begin the process. I think you have to be in front of your teams. 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. 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. September 6, 2019. "Bloomberg Opinion" columnists offer their opinions on issues in the news. ", "I am thrilled to work with NPR's exceptional management team, staff and journalists," said Lansing. Fear drives their path. Current: NPRs budget also took a hit because of the pandemic. "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.". And the pandemic hit six months later in March of '20. I'm kind of a politics junkie. I was very pleased to see Code Switch named as Apples top podcast of the year. NPR, the public radio and podcasting giant, has a new leader after years of growth and internal turmoil. Lansing said he took pride in maintaining conventional broadcasts while appealing to new audiences, reaching about 25% more people each week. 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, and the management team, all of us, we determined that was going to be a priority for the year 2021. NPR takes only a few million dollars a year from federal sources for its programs. Lansing: Lets go back in time. 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? 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? Lansing blamed a slowdown in advertising dollars. Courtesy of Allison Shelley for 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 broadcasters like Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 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 Im holding myself accountable with my board and Ive been and am holding my direct reports accountable to me. John Lansing, CEO, photographed for NPR, 22 January 2020, in Washington DC. If we don't get this right, then our audience of the next 50 years will lack the diversity that would give it the ability to grow and thrive and prosper and even survive. Did you plan for this or did it kind of just happen? Because when you're all at work, you're all at work, and you go home to your individual situations. Unlike some predecessors, Lansing doesn't face a particularly fraught political landscape. I just started in May. John Lansing is taking over for outgoing CEO Jarl Mohn, who has led the organization for . 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. America needs public radio more than ever. Well, I like NPR Politics a lot. During that financial crisis, NPR shut down shows and laid off scores of people. Others have waded into the podcast fray with a vengeance. I think there are interesting trends to follow and try to understand. And the work goes on. There was one the year before I was here, then this was the follow-up. Current: How have your priorities for NPR changed since you became CEO? Were certainly not over, were not at a finish line. Mayor is said to be staying on at the network as a top executive and deputy to Lansing, retaining the enhanced portfolio she took on after Mohn's health crises. NPR headquarters in Washington, D.C. Its an inclusive process. 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. "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. 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'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. New podcasts Up First, Consider This and State of Ukraine sit on both sides. Lansing, who is 62, is. 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. 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. We're funded by your subscriptions, your donations, advertising, and a generous grant from the Wyncote Foundation. For two years, he served as the president and CEO of a cable trade group called the Cable and Telecommunications Association for Marketing. Under NPR's protocol for reporting on itself, no corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted publicly. Experts say the behavior could have constituted insider trading. 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. 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. Mr. Mohn led the push into podcasting and helped stabilize the organization after years of management turnover and budget deficits. 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. And some stations who had a schedule to go down actually were allowed to go down. He is credited with restoring morale, in part by naming a noted journalist as head of the Voice of America: Amanda Bennett is a former top news executive at the Philadelphia Inquirer who previously held senior newsroom jobs at Bloomberg News and The Wall Street Journal. What do you think are some characteristics of good leadership? As we got to April of last spring, we saw a massive deficit develop for NPR on the order of about $25 million. It began to improve a little bit as we moved into August and September, as corporate sponsorships began to recover a little bit. Pozen Fellow At the Shorenstein Center. That was revised as a result. 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. "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. NPR undertook a strategic reorganization last fall, reinstating the position of a chief content officer overseeing both the newsroom and the programming division. Your email address will not be published. "Jarl would be the first to say that it is the area where he feels that his work was not complete," Sheikholeslami said. You'll find out about what they do and what they're inspired by on the daily. Discovery, CNN cut hundreds of jobs and killed off its brand-new streaming service, CNN+. advanced degree - political agility. First, we're a nonprofit. A member of the Republican Party, Gibbs was a software engineer and missionary before entering politics. "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. Harvard Kennedy School. He took over a troubled organization beset by infighting and bureaucratic inefficiency. John Lansing will begin his term as President and CEO of NPR in October, 2019. And were pleased to work with them. The title of your piece, "Now Is A Time For Truth Telling, For Listening, And For Action," takes a bold stand in defending the urgent work of journalists during this . So sad to me. Lansing, who is 62, is. Video Snippet What makes you so open and vocal about the need for diversity? 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: 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? That said, Mohn set higher annual expectations for the network in fundraising and agreed to be co-chairman of its 50th-anniversary capital campaign. Or persons of color who are in our organization that are hearing [about] a lot of activity but arent experiencing what they believe they should be experiencing in terms of a workplace where they feel like they can grow and improve their work and improve their careers. Lansing: We arent in a position to answer that until we know for sure when the pandemic is going to subside. Vegas PBS General Manager, Tom Axtell, announces his retirement. 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. Scripps Networks September 5, 2019; Washington, D.C. - The NPR Board of Directors announced today that it. John Lansing will begin his term as President and CEO of NPR in October, 2019. 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. Theres no question about it. Michael was a senior marketing executive at Scripps for Food Network and HGTV and really brings a lot of media marketing expertise. hide caption. Board Memberships & Affiliations. NPR will cut 10% of its workforce, CEO John Lansing said Wednesday. The staffing cut, which will cost at least 100 people their jobs, comes in response to the "erosion" of advertising revenue, particularly for the network's podcasts, NPR reported. But thats our commitment. It was hard for everyone. 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. Its pretty clear to me that the ratings decline in radio is driven by commuting patterns. 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. NPR will cut 10% of its workforce, CEO John Lansing said Wednesday. ", Lansing, formerly a top television executive for the E.W. Our third pillar is to optimize content and meet audiences where they are. NPR has a new CEO. We have many miles to go. And so I had a very visceral reaction to that happening in my hometown, and that it was so egregious the murder of an innocent person captured on video, on a phone. Every time I hear it, I think that's a success by itself because we all have that as our guiding light. You go to college and all the sudden you're like 'wait a minute, I've got to do something when this is over.' NPR Built with the Largo WordPress Theme from the Institute for Nonprofit News. Within a few weeks, Lansing became convinced that projection would be unreachable. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Current: Why are NPR and its partners looking to sell the Pocket Casts podcast app? 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. Just be tuned into our folks. Way back when, I was a news cameraman. I have read and agree to the terms & conditions, Senior Vice President for Television in the broadcasting division of the E.W. 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. We can share resources and story ideas, and we can help organize and support those efforts. To be a part of creating the future of such an important institution is humbling, exciting, and a distinct honor.". Lansing has earned an advanced degree in political agility. NPR's chief executive announced the network would lay off roughly 10% of its . The budget for the new fiscal year is set below last years actual based on our forecasts on continued downward pressure on corporate sponsorship. But an example of that one that weve already created is the Consider This podcast, which is just a terrific example of taking the national-local partnership into the on-demand future. At the U.S. Agency for Global Media known until last year as the Broadcasting Board of Governors he presided over 53 percent growth in the weekly audience for the agencys networks over the last three years, to 345 million. "In terms of mission, understanding of media, the depth of experience, his strategic leadership, his commitment to people and culture, I would say those were really the key things that we were looking for," said Goli Sheikholeslami, vice chairwoman of the NPR board of directors and CEO of Chicago Public Media. My top goal is to support the women of color at NPR so that they feel like they have more upward mobility.. I would enjoy being on a podcast talking about politics. It has become enshrined in our three-year strategic plan as the centerpiece of all of our work. Apple is reportedly building a podcast subscription service. So mentally, how do you manage that? 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. Everybody at NPR knows exactly what you mean when you say, 'What's our North Star?' Government support for the public radio system isn't in any immediate jeopardy. The layoffs are in keeping with an increasingly grim landscape for media companies over recent months. This documentary-style series follows investigative journalists as they uncover the truth. We are not just putting out regulations or policies and paperwork. 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. When you first got to NPR, what did you think? CEO John Lansing says ad revenue for podcasting shriveled even as general economy seems on mend. So we took that very, very seriously. 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. Lansing: We hope to have that completed within about eight to 10 weeks. 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.
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