Copyright 2023. "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.". 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. It didnt begin in the summer it accelerated in the summer. Mohn will continue on as President Emeritus & Co-Chair of the 50th Anniversary Campaign. So sad to lose an American institution to propaganda. Lansing said in an interview with Current Thursday that one of his first observations upon joining NPR was that we needed to double down our efforts in diversity, equity and inclusion. 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Current: Do you have any examples of how digital operations would be integrated into divisions throughout the organization? administration regarding the now former managers of his former place of employment (USAGM) but claims the mantle of private citizen to do so. Mr. Lansing rejected that accusation, saying that the agency was independent by law. And now in our budgeting were shifting some revenue for Michael to use that to promote and support our podcasts as they compete, as you note, with other large commercial businesses. How does the economy react to all of that? The newsroom currently stands at just shy of 490 people, while programming has shot up to 230. And how's that being measured and accounted for? . He took over a troubled organization beset by infighting and bureaucratic inefficiency. Weve also seen very positive upticks in development. 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. 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. Built with the Largo WordPress Theme from the Institute for Nonprofit News. 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. So we were pleased to see SAG-AFTRA join our efforts. You'll find out about what they do and what they're inspired by on the daily. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. "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.". Pack then took a number of actions that raised fears about the independence of the agency, which includes Voice of America. 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. I established DEI as our top priority on Jan. 5 of 2020. 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. August 20, 2022 August 20th is National Radio Day. A number of executives will report directly to Lansing, including Nancy Barnes, senior vice president for news and editorial director, who joined NPR last November and oversees the network's newsroom. Anyone can read what you share. 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. My top goal is to support the women of color at NPR so that they feel like they have more upward mobility.. It is our work. And our work began then. Prior to that, Lansing was VP and GM of Scripps ABC affiliates. How cool is it to be at NPR? We had begun a lot of work under [Chief Diversity Officer] Keith Woods' leadership to really move us forward. Bellarmine alumnus and former trustee John Lansing, a veteran cable television and government broadcast executive, is the new CEO of NPR. NPR will cut 10% of its workforce, CEO John Lansing said Wednesday. John Lansing, the chief executive officer and director of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, will become NPR's CEO in mid-October. Scripps Networks September 5, 2019; Washington, D.C. - The NPR Board of Directors announced today that it. Oh wait. 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. 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. 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. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Current is an editorially independent, nonprofit service of the American University School of Communication. We discovered in our most recent climate survey that that was an area that we needed to put more effort into. It's not an extracurricular activity; it's fundamental to our business. The various challenges everybody's having from working at home, for example, you realize that everybody's situation is different when you're working. 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. That was due largely to reductions in corporate sponsorship and also additional expenses we were incurring in supporting our employees with paid time off, as we adjusted to the new working arrangements and the stresses that we were all under and also the additional expense of cleaning the headquarters multiple times a day on certain occasions. Michael was a senior marketing executive at Scripps for Food Network and HGTV and really brings a lot of media marketing expertise. This is an edited transcript of the conversation among Lansing, Current Reporter Tyler Falk and Digital Editor Mike Janssen. The layoffs are in keeping with an increasingly grim landscape for media companies over recent months. Current: When was the climate survey conducted? 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. In a memo to. Current: NPR and a group of stations started a pilot project around collaborative fundraising in 2019. 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 And as the year unfolded, we began to develop our three-year strategic plan. Podtrac, which measures the audiences of podcast publishers, has consistently placed NPR at the top of its monthly rankings. I'm sure that's true even today. 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. John Lansing will begin his term as President and CEO of NPR in October, 2019. You can't escape that. Follow Bloomberg reporters as they uncover some of the biggest financial crimes of the modern era. 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? 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. I am still morning the loss of an objective NPR. It is our work our North Star and our work are the same thing. Everybody at NPR knows exactly what you mean when you say, 'What's our North Star?' 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. Mr. Lansing, who began his career as a teenage cameraman at a television station in Kentucky, spent two decades at Scripps Networks. John Lansing is a former Obama appointee who was named president and CEO of NPR on Thursday. Talk about a force of nature. Its a real business with real market dynamics.. Lansing: You have to imagine a picture, if you will. 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. He served for four years as the SVP, Television for the E.W. Pat O'Donnell, the executive director of the union's Mid-Atlantic unit, could not be reached for comment for this story. 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. 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. 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. 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. Its pretty clear to me that the ratings decline in radio is driven by commuting patterns. At Colorado Public Radio, I think there was a $300,000 donation that came out of that. Here's what to do in a worst case scenario. Apple is reportedly building a podcast subscription service. ", "I am thrilled to work with NPR's exceptional management team, staff and journalists," said Lansing. 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. 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. 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. He defined NPR's mission as "serving the public with information and an excellence and quality about it that makes it 'must see' on a variety of platforms.". During the depths of the Covid-19 pandemic, NPR was at risk of laying off staff when sponsors canceled their spots on the network, said John Lansing, NPR's chief executive. How cool is it to be at. 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. Its something that we certainly support. 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. 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. Under NPR's protocol for reporting on itself, no corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted publicly. John Lansing, CEO, photographed for NPR, 22 January 2020, in Washington DC. Well, I like NPR Politics a lot. 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. And our number one goal is to improve our audience diversity. Just be tuned into our folks. But second, we're mission-driven, and I think everybody in the organization lives and breathes that mission. After becoming part of Warner Bros. 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. He is. For several years, it eliminated salary increases and suspended retirement contributions. Scripps Company, where he managed the company's portfolio of ten broadcast television stations across the country. 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. NPR faces financial pressures from two fronts. It really stretched me to understand that flexibility is a good thing. 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. 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 . Lansing served for ten years as a visiting faculty member at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies. Current: How have your priorities for NPR changed since you became CEO? 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. 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. NPR Start Date: Mid October, 2020 And so in late 2019 we began working on a set of priorities for the calendar year 2020 that included promoting Keith Woods to chief diversity officer; putting more energy behind our effort to have 100% sourcing and notating the diversity of our sources; and hiring, leadership, unconscious bias training, et cetera. So I think thats being offset by some listening through smart speakers and even online, and thats helping to offset some of the reduction in listening within vehicles. Last fall, when announcing the earlier cuts, Lansing said the network would have to make tough choices - and to "do less with less." NPR will cut 10% of its workforce, CEO John Lansing said Wednesday. There were three of them, each for $1 million. You go to college and all the sudden you're like 'wait a minute, I've got to do something when this is over.' And its where our focus needs to be right now. 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 describes himself as a citizen watching from the outside A private citizen? CEO John Lansing cited the erosion. National Public Radio will reduce its workforce by 10 percent as it grapples with what CEO John Lansing says is a "sharp . Lansing says even that proved overly optimistic. Disclosure: This story was reported and written by NPR Media Correspondent David Folkenflik and edited by Acting Chief Business Editor Emily Kopp. 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. Current: Did anything else stand out to you in that survey that you believe needed attention and needs attention? NPR undertook a strategic reorganization last fall, reinstating the position of a chief content officer overseeing both the newsroom and the programming division. Doing that just requires that were putting more emphasis on the diversity of our decision makers, our leadership, our story selection, our source selection. The varied broadcasters also offered jazz and other music to appeal to people under communist regimes using a soft form of diplomacy. Current: Why are NPR and its partners looking to sell the Pocket Casts podcast app? Weve had a couple of significant anonymous gifts that have helped shore up our forecast for the coming fiscal year. It's interesting. 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. Lansing, who is 62, is. NPR strives to create a more informed publicone challenged and invigorated by a deeper understanding and appreciation of events, ideas, and cultures. CEO John Lansing says ad revenue for podcasting shriveled even as general economy seems on mend. 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. Being selective, having mentors both white and people of color mentors that you can have confidential conversations with and gain some thoughts to help you develop your strategy, standing up for yourself which essentially is what happened at NPR through the climate survey and holding leaders accountable for everything. hide caption. 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. Or 'How are we doing on the North Star?' If it's not being solved from the top down, it shouldn't be a burden for people just trying to build their career. And for those stations that were scheduled to have a reduction, we allowed those reductions to go forward with a floor of 3% so that nobodys dues went up. Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft have announced more than 50,000 job cuts combined in just the past few months. I think you have to be willing to take hard questions. So were now into the new fiscal year. Let's say, I was walking out of high school into college, I had no idea what I was going to do. Well, what we're doing right now, I think communication. How are you working to shore up NPRs place in the podcasting landscape and compete with deep-pocketed tech companies? "Governments around the world are increasingly cracking down on the free flow of information; silencing dialogue and dissent; and distorting reality," Lansing said in a speech he delivered in May to the Media for Democracy Forum. Board Member. ", "It's always difficult in these situations, and I don't want to minimize the impact that it will have on our colleagues and in some cases, you know, our ability to do what we do," Lee says. 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'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. But we made a firm commitment, as you know, to freeze station dues and fees. And weve seen that really help them grow. It was a reckoning for all of us together collectively at NPR. I think you have to be in front of your teams. 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%. No. 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. The only route to a successful engagement on this issue is to deal with it, to talk about it, and to take action. Lansing: Its on social media platforms or YouTube or through media partnerships. John Lansing - Quick Profile. When you first got to NPR, what did you think? Were certainly not over, were not at a finish line. Its my expectation that that will expand throughout the organization, so that everybody understands its everybodys job, and the accountability is going to be something that we measure and transparently report back out. The last time NPR faced such stark choices, it was 2008. "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. Ever since you started, you've been very vocal about it. hide caption. We went from about 900 people a day at headquarters down to about 80 and were virtually broadcasting from peoples homes and offices, in terms of the hosts, almost exclusively beginning in April. Mike Morgan/Mike Morgan When you first got to NPR, what did you think? 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. That's the way I think about leadership here. The roots of the VOA involved providing truthful reports to people under Nazi and Axis power rule during World War II. 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. It puts a filter on that helps us explain even unpopular decisions, how they link to our mission. 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. The ratings have tanked because all they talk about is race. Not exactly. Were working with them to create regional newsrooms in Texas and California and the Midwest and in the Gulf. Current: You came to NPR after serving as CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media. A new chief content officer will oversee NPR's news and programming divisions, which have frequently collaborated and almost as frequently clashed over resources and . 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. (On NPR's radio side, advertising takes the form of underwriting, as corporate sponsors are not permitted to call for listeners to purchase goods or services.). Lansing blamed a slowdown in advertising dollars. 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. NPR has a new CEO. Did you know that one day you would become a CEO? Current: What are some of the highlights of that strategic plan? 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. 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. I just think we have a special and unique thing as a company. As we moved through the summer, that deficit remained at about $25 million. Lansing: SAG-AFTRA came out with their letter around our September board meeting in 2020. For two years, he served as the president and CEO of a cable trade group called the Cable and Telecommunications Association for Marketing. Yet the tech and media industries' prospects stand at odds with a tight labor market and low unemployment more broadly. 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 . I, and the management team, all of us, we determined that was going to be a priority for the year 2021. Current: NPRs budget also took a hit because of the pandemic. That said, Mohn set higher annual expectations for the network in fundraising and agreed to be co-chairman of its 50th-anniversary capital campaign.