john lansing npr political party john lansing npr political party

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. Ever since you started, you've been very vocal about it. I was very pleased to see Code Switch named as Apples top podcast of the year. 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. Its something that we certainly support. 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. NPR's search for a new CEO is finally over! Mr. Mohn was pressed about his leadership in a tense NPR interview and later apologized to employees for not taking action sooner. And the fourth one is to diversify and grow our revenue models so that were not overly reliant on one or two revenue streams to help strengthen our future financials. 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. Fear drives their path. As I said, its hiring, its emphasis on diversity in leadership, diversity in sources, diversity in voices, diversity in the stories we tell, training around our organization. He joined NPR after serving as CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media. Podtrac, which measures the audiences of podcast publishers, has consistently placed NPR at the top of its monthly rankings. NPR is funded by the CPB/PBS which are funded in part by the U.S. government. 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. 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. He made his mark in his current job with stirring defenses of journalism, free from government interference. Fearing a tepid economy, Lansing and his corporate team projected that revenue would stay flat for the fiscal year that began October 1. Podcasting in particular allows NPR to reach audiences that are not necessarily tied to a radio., Paul Haaga, the chairman of NPRs board, said in a statement that Mr. Lansing was 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.. Learn more at npr.org/about or by following NPR Extra on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And our work began then. John Lansing, a media executive with government broadcast and cable television experience, has been named by NPRs board to succeed its current chief, Jarl Mohn who announced the plan to step down after his 5-Year term ended. Lansing will begin his term at NPR in October and will succeed Jarl Mohn, who has been Chief Executive Officer and President since 2014. 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. In late November, the network announced $20 million in cuts, including a near-freeze on hiring, elimination of most travel, and suspension of internships. But also, what are the larger things that are happening? Lansing: Lets go back in time. So I brought in Michael Smith as our new chief marketing officer almost a year ago. 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? It all goes back to our mission: serving the American public, recognizing the American public is a diverse mosaic that makes America great and strong, and making sure that we're building systems and content that resonates with all Americans. Will there be another stimulus? 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. hide caption. In an email to the staff on Friday, John Lansing, who joined the nonprofit as chief executive in September, projected that NPR would fall $12 million to $15 million short of the amount it had . 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. 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. Did you know that one day you would become a CEO? Lansing: You have to imagine a picture, if you will. NPR Facebook Post with Comments. I hear that all the time. How are you working to shore up NPRs place in the podcasting landscape and compete with deep-pocketed tech companies? John Lansing , CEO of NPR NPR President John Lansing '09 is Bellarmine's 2021 commencement speaker, Honorary Degree recipient April 22, 2021 NPR P. An NPR spokeswoman said final decisions on which jobs will be eliminated should occur by the week of March 20. (Former long time member). We saw a lot of companies react to the [murder of] George Floyd and we did too. NPR undertook a strategic reorganization last fall, reinstating the position of a chief content officer overseeing both the newsroom and the programming division. Vegas PBS General Manager, Tom Axtell, announces his retirement. "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. Lansing says even that proved overly optimistic. Mohn fired head of news Michael Oreskes on Halloween 2017. There were three of them, each for $1 million. "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. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Current is an editorially independent, nonprofit service of the American University School of Communication. "The combination of his health issues plus the situation with Mike Oreskes did derail his plans.". 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. The work theyve done during the pandemic has been nothing short of miraculous in many cases, particularly given the summer of racial reckoning, the most unusual presidential election in memory and everything thats gone on since. 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. You go to college and all the sudden you're like 'wait a minute, I've got to do something when this is over.' Lansing: Back in May and June, it was an alarming decline in radio ratings. Last fall, when announcing the earlier cuts, Lansing said the network would have to make tough choices - and to "do less with less." Were working with them to do joint investigative reporting. "We're not seeing signs of a recovery in the advertising market," Lansing says in an interview. We still remain one of the top, if not the top, podcasters in America. 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. He guided the organization in becoming a leading developer of unique content across television, digital, mobile and radio platforms. It began to improve a little bit as we moved into August and September, as corporate sponsorships began to recover a little bit. So its an ongoing effort. And weve seen some significant success with that. Current: Companies like Spotify and Amazon have been pouring big money into podcasting. 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. Such distinctions between news and programming are tricky, however, as programming oversees podcasts, including those that perform journalistic functions, such as Code Switch, It's Been A Minute, Planet Money, and Throughline. He will be the 11th permanent president or chief executive in the radio network's nearly 50-year history. We discovered in our most recent climate survey that that was an area that we needed to put more effort into. Today, we feature John Lansing, CEO of NPR. It really stretched me to understand that flexibility is a good thing. NPR Start Date: Mid October, 2020 Current: With broadcast listening declining during the pandemic, what is NPR doing to address and adjust to those trends? Your email address will not be published. Current: NPR and a group of stations started a pilot project around collaborative fundraising in 2019. 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. NPR Selects Voice of America Boss as Its New Leader, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/06/business/media/npr-john-lansing.html. Current: How much were those anonymous gifts? John Lansing, CEO, photographed for NPR, 22 January 2020, in Washington DC. America needs public radio more than ever. Ever since I've started, I've noticed that you've been very vocal about the need for diversity. ", Lansing, formerly a top television executive for the E.W. Disclosure: This story was reported and written by NPR Media Correspondent David Folkenflik and edited by Acting Chief Business Editor Emily Kopp. Lansing blamed a slowdown in advertising dollars. promoting Keith Woods to chief diversity officer, regional newsrooms in Texas and California and the Midwest and in the Gulf, I brought in Michael Smith as our new chief marketing officer, looking to sell the Pocket Casts podcast app, Suspension of NPRs Kroc fellowships disrupts talent development, career plans of student journalists. Lansing 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. Selected by the NPR board of directors, Lansing will start in October, succeeding outgoing head Jarl Mohn, 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. I will say in the last three or four weeks weve seen a little bit of an uptick in a positive way on corporate sponsorship. And how's that being measured and accounted for? The layoffs are in keeping with an increasingly grim landscape for media companies over recent months. Lansing: Thats a great question. Dear NPR President John Lansing, I want to express my heartfelt appreciation for the powerful letter you wrote to NPR staff and the public about the horrific extrajudicial killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. 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. 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. 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. How do you think that the North Star, the strategic initiative, is going? 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. The roots of the VOA involved providing truthful reports to people under Nazi and Axis power rule during World War II. I just think that somebody's truth is the truth. 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. At the same time, we have to think creatively. I got this part time job at a TV station to make a little money while I was going to college. That survey happened in the fall of 2020. 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. 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. Our third pillar is to optimize content and meet audiences where they are. What steps does NPR still need to take in this area? And the pandemic hit six months later in March of '20. John Lansing is a former Obama appointee who was named president and CEO of NPR on Thursday. I, and the management team, all of us, we determined that was going to be a priority for the year 2021. So those are the four pillars that rotate around the centerpiece, we call it the North Star, of our commitment to DEI. He served for four years as the SVP, Television for the E.W. 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. Copyright 2023. Lansing, who is 62, is. If you had to create a podcast, what would it be about? There was one the year before I was here, then this was the follow-up. Current: NPRs budget also took a hit because of the pandemic. He served on the Bellarmine University Board of Trustees from 2010-2016 and was vice-chair 2014-2016. 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. 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. Bellarmine alumnus and former trustee John Lansing, a veteran cable television and government broadcast executive, is the new CEO of NPR. You have stated that DEI is your top priority at NPR. 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. Current: What challenges have you faced in implementing your DEI plans? That content executive position has not yet been filled; its creation led to the departure of then-NPR chief news executive Nancy Barnes. First, we're a nonprofit. . 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. 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. Current: Do you have any examples of how digital operations would be integrated into divisions throughout the organization? 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. Weve also seen very positive upticks in development. Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft have announced more than 50,000 job cuts combined in just the past few months. 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. "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. Were they targeted to specific spending areas or just for general costs? hide caption. He took over a troubled organization beset by infighting and bureaucratic inefficiency. So mentally, how do you manage that? Were certainly not over, were not at a finish line. We established the top priority [a.k.a. Mohn will continue on as President Emeritus & Co-Chair of the 50th Anniversary Campaign. And it really opened the funnel. It was a reckoning for all of us together collectively at NPR. The ratings have tanked because all they talk about is race. As we moved through the summer, that deficit remained at about $25 million. Its a real business with real market dynamics.. At the U.S. Agency for Global Media, Lansing championed a free press even as leaders of many nations move against it. "I have been an avid fan of NPR for many years. We are different from other federal agencies, said Grant K. Turner, the agencys chief financial officer. We've made some good forward progress around hiring, with requiring that our hiring panels be diverse, requiring that our finalists have diverse representation at a minimum, but of course there's no maximum, in terms of a list of finalists. John Gibbs is an American far-right political commentator and politician. The other is the fight for donors. Oh wait. You can't escape that. My top goal is to support the women of color at NPR so that they feel like they have more upward mobility.. During the pandemic, NPR sidestepped layoffs through temporary cuts to pay and retirement contributions, distributed with an eye to shielding less well-paid employees, so they were most sharply felt by the most highly compensated staffers and executives. He held off a push by House Republicans to spin off Voice of America into a nongovernmental broadcaster. Mr. Lansing rejected that accusation, saying that the agency was independent by law. Every time I hear it, I think that's a success by itself because we all have that as our guiding light. I would enjoy being on a podcast talking about politics. 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. But second, we're mission-driven, and I think everybody in the organization lives and breathes that mission. I think you have to be in front of your teams. 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NPR will cut 10% of its workforce, CEO John Lansing said Wednesday. The first pillar is to expand the power of the national-local partnership into the on-demand future. I am still morning the loss of an objective NPR. He soon made DEI the top priority at NPR. He will now lead the nation's top audio producer and broadcaster. 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. 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 . We established management commitments to the women of color so that we address specifically their concerns. Since then,. 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. "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. "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. Current: Why are NPR and its partners looking to sell the Pocket Casts podcast app? "We were doing everything we could against the tide and couldn't keep clipping our costs as the revenue kept slipping," Lansing says. Current: How else might NPR assist stations in the coming year? ", "I am thrilled to work with NPR's exceptional management team, staff and journalists," said Lansing. 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. Family Status: Married with 4 Children (Jean Rausch 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. 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. 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. David Westin speaks with top names in finance about the week's biggest issues on Wall Street. 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. The Washington Post, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, eliminated its Sunday magazine and a handful of other jobs. In a large part, the digital teams and the divisions will work together to reach a final model. The newsroom currently stands at just shy of 490 people, while programming has shot up to 230. Lansing also spent almost 20 years working at Scripps, including eight years as President of Scripps Networks. This is an edited transcript of the conversation among Lansing, Current Reporter Tyler Falk and Digital Editor Mike Janssen. 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. Lansing will start in his new position in mid-October. And probably the most important accountability is that, first of all, I hold myself accountable with my goals that I report to the board. "Jarl would be the first to say that it is the area where he feels that his work was not complete," Sheikholeslami said. Theres no question about it. 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 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. Experts say the behavior could have constituted insider trading. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images NPR's total workforce has grown by about 50 percent since before that crisis. ", He continued: "Citizens in countries from Russia to China, from Iran to North Korea, have been victimized for decades. Lansing said he took pride in maintaining conventional broadcasts while appealing to new audiences, reaching about 25% more people each week. I thought, wow. John Lansing will begin his term as President and CEO of NPR in October, 2019. 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. But we felt like it was an important investment to make in our member stations to support them during the pandemic. So I would tell my younger self to be confident, calm down, it's all gonna work out. What would you go back and tell your younger self? 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. 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. But here, Lansing basically jumps over those disclaimers using the lame attribution of private citizen.. He also vowed to make sure job cuts do not fall disproportionately on employees of color. I think there are interesting trends to follow and try to understand. For several years, it eliminated salary increases and suspended retirement contributions. 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. So Im pleased to see that that short era is over. "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. That said, Mohn set higher annual expectations for the network in fundraising and agreed to be co-chairman of its 50th-anniversary capital campaign. It is our work. NPR Press Release. I established DEI as our top priority on Jan. 5 of 2020. 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. NPR strives to create a more informed publicone challenged and invigorated by a deeper understanding and appreciation of events, ideas, and cultures. Current (https://current.org/2021/02/ceo-john-lansing-discusses-nprs-diversity-efforts-budget-deficit-and-growing-podcast-competition/). I just think we have a special and unique thing as a company. The budget for the new fiscal year is set below last years actual based on our forecasts on continued downward pressure on corporate sponsorship. Age: 62, Born on July 31, 1957, in Minneapolis 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. Lansing says he remains committed to podcasting "1,000 percent," as well as the network's hallmark news magazines, such as Morning Edition and All Things Considered. Current: What are some of the highlights of that strategic plan? And the work goes on. Weve had a couple of significant anonymous gifts that have helped shore up our forecast for the coming fiscal year. 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. 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.