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. hide caption. Their editorial independence is enshrined in federal law, though it sometimes came under attack. 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. Mr. Lansing rejected that accusation, saying that the agency was independent by law. As we moved through the summer, that deficit remained at about $25 million. It was a reckoning for all of us together collectively at NPR. Obviously, this job that you have as a CEO of NPR is a really huge responsibility. 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.. Not exactly. He served for four years as the SVP, Television for the E.W. NPR's rigorous reporting and unsurpassed storytelling connect with millions of Americans everydayon the air, online, and in person. NPR, the public radio and podcasting giant, has a new leader after years of growth and internal turmoil. Lansing says the agency referred Haroon Ullahs 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. He made his mark in his current job with stirring defenses of journalism, free from government interference. 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 becomes CEO of NPR NPR, the public radio giant that employs hundreds of journalists, is about to get a new chief executive. [1] [2] Born and raised in Albany, New York, Lansing was trained as a lawyer, and was long involved in politics and government. In Mr. Mohns first full year on the job, NPR operated in the black after having run a deficit for five of the six preceding years. I would enjoy being on a podcast talking about politics. They give brief insights into our people and places, our flora and fauna, and our past and present, from every corner of Colorado. We had begun a lot of work under [Chief Diversity Officer] Keith Woods' leadership to really move us forward. So at the end of the day, its a commitment, but this also has to be accountability. 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 only route to a successful engagement on this issue is to deal with it, to talk about it, and to take action. 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. 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. Lansing will start in his new position in mid-October. Leading the organization through it all is CEO John Lansing, a longtime media executive who has been on the job since October 2019. 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. All of those underlying effects generally lead to whatever effects were going to have in corporate sponsorship. NPR headquarters in Washington, D.C. MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: We'd like to revisit a story. A member of the Republican Party, Gibbs was a software engineer and missionary before entering politics. NPR Press Release. 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 cut short the unwanted attention he paid to female colleagues proved ineffective. In a large part, the digital teams and the divisions will work together to reach a final model. 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. So that would be mine. So sad to me. There were about 20, 25 different meetings in the course of about 45 days. Mohn will continue on as President Emeritus & Co-Chair of the 50th Anniversary Campaign. This is an edited transcript of the conversation among Lansing, Current Reporter Tyler Falk and Digital Editor Mike Janssen. 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 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. Scripps Networks September 5, 2019; Washington, D.C. - The NPR Board of Directors announced today that it. But my goals also go to all of my direct reports. NPR joins a number of top media companies, including The Washington Post as well as CNN, that have been slashing their workforces amid economic woes and financial uncertainty. John Lansing, the chief executive officer and director of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, will become NPR's CEO in mid-October. He took over a troubled organization beset by infighting and bureaucratic inefficiency. The agency has an annual budget of $808 million. "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. We couldnt be more proud of the quality and the depth of the journalism thats coming from the member stations, and it really has strengthened the entire system enormously. While serving as chief operating officer, she took on a greater role during two of Mohns medical leaves and in the aftermath of the sexual harassment scandal. Live from New York and London, analyzing the major market moving stories across the day in Europe, hear from the biggest newsmakers and showcase the unrivaled expertise of Bloomberg News. What is the outlook for the rest of the fiscal year? So its a constant commitment to communication, to training, to accountability. The network's fight for listeners' time has become more feverish. NPR Facebook Post with Comments. Mohn fired head of news Michael Oreskes on Halloween 2017. Your email address will not be published. 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. I got this part time job at a TV station to make a little money while I was going to college. "The combination of his health issues plus the situation with Mike Oreskes did derail his plans.". "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.". 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. America needs public radio more than ever. "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. So I brought in Michael Smith as our new chief marketing officer almost a year ago. Under standard procedures for reporting on NPR matters, NPRs corporate and news executives were not allowed to review what they reported until it was posted. 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 . 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. hide caption. Unlike some predecessors, Lansing doesnt face a particularly fraught political landscape. Today, we feature John Lansing, CEO of NPR. Lansing: Its on social media platforms or YouTube or through media partnerships. National Public Radio will reduce its workforce by 10 percent as it grapples with what CEO John Lansing says is a "sharp . Podtrac, which measures the audiences of podcast publishers, has consistently placed NPR at the top of its monthly rankings. Apple is reportedly building a podcast subscription service. We can share resources and story ideas, and we can help organize and support those efforts. 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%. And the work goes on. We are different from other federal agencies, said Grant K. Turner, the agencys chief financial officer. Lansing blamed a slowdown in advertising dollars. 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. Mr. Mohn led the push into podcasting and helped stabilize the organization after years of management turnover and budget deficits. At a young age, my biggest goal at the time was to someday be a news director for a local TV station. NPR maintains 17 national bureaus and 17 bureaus abroad. 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. Every time I hear it, I think that's a success by itself because we all have that as our guiding light. Disclosure: This story was reported by NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik under guidance from NPR chief business editor Pallavi Gogoi. 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. In recent remarks online, Johnson, who is Black, focused on a more competitive landscape for NPR journalists, including people of color. Our newsletters bring you a closer look at the stories that affect you and the music that inspires you. According to Nielsen data supplied by NPR, its programs and newscasts had an overall audience of 27.4 million in spring 2019. 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. Age: 62, Born on July 31, 1957, in Minneapolis So it's kind of inseparable, that coming in as CEO of NPR, and then six months in having the coronavirus, followed by a major economic downturn in the country and for NPR, and then the reckoning that summer. I thought, wow. Again, I think it's about getting it intertwined into everything we do. Its a real business with real market dynamics.. Pack then took a number of actions that raised fears about the independence of the agency, which includes Voice of America. 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: When I came in in 2019, my earliest observation was that our biggest issue was the lack of diversity in our audience, and I felt that we needed to double down our efforts in DEI throughout our organization in order to fulfill the promise to reflect the entire American public in terms of what America looks like. But second, we're mission-driven, and I think everybody in the organization lives and breathes that mission. Its new president and chief executive is John Lansing, a former cable . It began to improve a little bit as we moved into August and September, as corporate sponsorships began to recover a little bit. Its not something weve baked and were just going to hand it down. It was hard for everyone. John Lansing will begin his term as President and CEO of NPR in October, 2019. A graduate of Bellarmine University, he was named to the Bellarmine University Gallery of Distinguished Graduates in 2010. 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. Applicants to this years fellowship see its cancellation as a setback for journalists of color who want to work in public radio. 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. 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. You have stated that DEI is your top priority at NPR. 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. How is it a priority? 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. Ever since I've started, I've noticed that you've been very vocal about the need for diversity. NPR 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. Bloomberg Markets European Close. Current: When was the climate survey conducted? 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. Lansing said he took pride in maintaining conventional broadcasts while appealing to new audiences, reaching about 25% more people each week. 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. Mr. Lansing will start in October, replacing Jarl Mohn, who has run NPR since 2014. Since then, sponsorship revenue has returned, Mr. Lansing said, and NPR was able to navigate the pandemic without cutting staff. It is our work. NPR has also been the nation's leading producer of podcasts since Podtrac started measuring audiences. 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