NPR - Wikipedia There were about 20, 25 different meetings in the course of about 45 days. 2017-2022. In 2017, Michael Oreskes, NPRs senior vice president for news, left after two women accused him of unwanted physical advances in the 1990s, when he was the Washington bureau chief of The New York Times. Last fall, when announcing the earlier cuts, Lansing said the network would have to make tough choices - and to "do less with less." Lansing, who is . Mr. Lansing rejected that accusation, saying that the agency was independent by law. On an annual budget of roughly $300 million, Lansing says, revenues are likely to fall short by close to $30 million, although that gap could reach $32 million. Fear drives their path. But were going to continue to follow up on that going into this year. What do you think are some characteristics of good leadership? NPR's total workforce has grown by about 50 percent since before that crisis. NPR Layoffs: Radio and Podcaster Will Cut 10% of Workforce - The Lansing: Its on social media platforms or YouTube or through media partnerships. 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. The network's fight for listeners' time has become more feverish. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Courtesy of Allison Shelley for NPR. President Biden will allow Congress to overturn new D.C. crime law Lansing: SAG-AFTRA came out with their letter around our September board meeting in 2020. Lansing has also put significant stock into what he calls the NPR Network, which calls for greater unity of coverage and digital initiatives, such as newsletters, streaming, podcasts and more. Or 'How are we doing on the North Star?' Its pretty clear to me that the ratings decline in radio is driven by commuting patterns. It puts a filter on that helps us explain even unpopular decisions, how they link to our mission. NPR is funded by the CPB/PBS which are funded in part by the U.S. government. Mike Morgan/Mike Morgan hide caption. 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. 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. 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. 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. In late November, the network announced $20 million in cuts, including a near-freeze on hiring, elimination of most travel, and suspension of internships. NPR Press Release. John Lansing will begin his term as President and CEO of NPR in October, 2019. Weve also seen very positive upticks in development. For the year that ended last September, NPR reported $241 million in expenses. 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. The only route to a successful engagement on this issue is to deal with it, to talk about it, and to take action. NPR During 2021, we worked on that with Keith and with Diversity and Inclusion Manager Whitney Maddox. So if you have leaders talking about DEI as a priority, well, then, show me. While they do not broadcast within the U.S., the Voice of America and the other media outfits Lansing has overseen typically adhere to traditional concepts of factual, nonideological journalism, with the frequent exception of Radio Mart historically an anti-Castro and anti-Cuban communist outlet. We need help now. So we began an intensive set of Zoom meetings that I attended, each one with a member station and a qualified potential donor. Lansing, who is 62, is. Today, we feature John Lansing, CEO of NPR. The agency has an annual budget of $808 million. He joined NPR after serving as CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media. I subscribe to the notion of leadership as a servant leader, that the role of leaders is to support the team to do their best work. Mr. Lansings colleagues attribute the growth to his embrace of digital formats and the understanding of audiences that he gleaned from the private sector. At the center of a graphic is our commitment to DEI, and all of our work in that circle is surrounded by four pillars. 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 . And I think we have to extend that lead. 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. In recent remarks online, Johnson, who is Black, focused on a more competitive landscape for NPR journalists, including people of color. 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. Just be tuned into our folks. NPR's New CEO Is Veteran Media Executive John Lansing : NPR - NPR.org Now, he says, it must drum up more creative income sources, like the licensing of the popular show How I Built This to Amazon's streaming services, which he says generates $8 million annually. John Lansing '09, former Scripps executive, is new CEO of NPR 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. hide caption. What we now call the North Star of our strategic plan is our DEI efforts as it filters through everything that we do with all of our work. 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 just think we have a special and unique thing as a company. Essentially, the success of the company falls in your hands. Doing that just requires that were putting more emphasis on the diversity of our decision makers, our leadership, our story selection, our source selection. 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. It is our work. Did you plan for this or did it kind of just happen? administration regarding the now former managers of his former place of employment (USAGM) but claims the mantle of private citizen to do so. hide caption. He also vowed to make sure job cuts do not fall disproportionately on employees of color. NPR Selects Voice of America Boss as Its New Leader "We're not seeing signs of a recovery in the advertising market," Lansing says in an interview. Because when you're all at work, you're all at work, and you go home to your individual situations. 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. Who is the NPR CEO? John Lansing Profile - Public Media Now What makes you so open and vocal about the need for diversity? Lansing also spent almost 20 years working at Scripps, including eight years as President of Scripps Networks. I dont know if youve been on the highway recently, but theres a lot more traffic on the highway today than there would have been last May and June. Again, I think it's about getting it intertwined into everything we do. "The result, I believe, is a war on truth. It has become enshrined in our three-year strategic plan as the centerpiece of all of our work. America needs public radio more than ever. And our number one goal is to improve our audience diversity. 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. 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. "I don't anticipate that it would be like a haircut across every division, because that's just not management," Lansing says. No. 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 . We had begun a lot of work under [Chief Diversity Officer] Keith Woods' leadership to really move us forward. Lansing: Thats a great question. But we felt like it was an important investment to make in our member stations to support them during the pandemic. "Management is about committing to strategy, making tough decisions.". 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. Discovery, CNN cut hundreds of jobs and killed off its brand-new streaming service, CNN+. She also has led initiatives to reform hiring practices and to sweep far more temporary positions into permanent slots, often working closely with the network's chief unions to do so. So I think that it has caused me to be more tuned in to hearing and understanding our employees. So I would tell my younger self to be confident, calm down, it's all gonna work out. In these comments, John Lansing slides by with a public swipe at the Trump John Lansing is taking over for outgoing CEO Jarl Mohn, who has led the organization for . hide caption. August 20, 2022 August 20th is National Radio Day. When asked about his priorities, Lansing invoked what he has called the network's "North Star'' since his arrival in the fall of 2019: a push to ensure the network has a bigger and broader audience base, rooted in younger and more diverse listeners, readers and consumers. CEO John Lansing discusses NPR's diversity efforts, budget - Current Listeners consider public radio an enriching and enlightening companion; they trust NPR as a daily source of unbiased independent news, and inspiring insights on life and the arts. Media Exec John Lansing to Become New CEO of NPR - Variety The Washington Post, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, eliminated its Sunday magazine and a handful of other jobs. Twitter: https://twitter.com/johnlansing. He held off a push by House Republicans to spin off Voice of America into a nongovernmental broadcaster. The ratings for our weekend magazine shows are actually slightly greater than they were a year ago pre-pandemic, so thats a bright spot.. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images I was very pleased to see Code Switch named as Apples top podcast of the year. Faces of NPR: John Lansing : NPR Extra : NPR - NPR.org Lansing will begin his term at NPR in October and will succeed Jarl Mohn, who has been Chief Executive Officer and President since 2014. So Im pleased to see that that short era is over. But second, we're mission-driven, and I think everybody in the organization lives and breathes that mission. "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. Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft have announced more than 50,000 job cuts combined in just the past few months. 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. Arcbazar.com. 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. 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. Its an inclusive process. "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.". Bellarmine alumnus and former trustee John Lansing, a veteran cable television and government broadcast executive, is the new CEO of NPR. 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. "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. What is the outlook for the rest of the fiscal year? While serving as chief operating officer, she took on a greater role during two of Mohn's medical leaves and in the aftermath of the sexual harassment scandal. 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. Harvard Kennedy School. Lansing, who is 62, is. Built with the Largo WordPress Theme from the Institute for Nonprofit News. It's interesting. Lansing says even that proved overly optimistic. And what a breath of fresh air Whitney brings into the organization. Lansing also elevated to chief strategy officer a former U.S. State Department staffer who recently pleaded guilty to having defrauded the U.S. Agency for Global Media out of more than $40,000 in government money in 2018, according to federal prosecutors. So I brought in Michael Smith as our new chief marketing officer almost a year ago. I got this part time job at a TV station to make a little money while I was going to college. So its a constant commitment to communication, to training, to accountability. September 6, 2019. He served on the Bellarmine University Board of Trustees from 2010-2016 and was vice-chair 2014-2016. NPR faces financial pressures from two fronts. Current. 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. Lansing said he took pride in maintaining conventional broadcasts while appealing to new audiences, reaching about 25% more people each week. And its tied to the same variables you would know yourselves, which is, how fast can the vaccines be deployed? 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 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. Lansing: We hope to have that completed within about eight to 10 weeks. That survey happened in the fall of 2020. Current: Do you have any examples of how digital operations would be integrated into divisions throughout the organization? I think you have to be in front of your teams. I think you have to be transparent and be able to explain what you're doing, even if it's unpopular. But my goals also go to all of my direct reports. 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. John Lansing, a media executive with government broadcast and cable television experience, has been named by NPR's board to succeed its current chief, Jarl Mohn who announced the plan to step down after his 5-Year term ended. John Lansing, CEO, photographed for NPR, 22 January 2020, in Washington DC. Under NPR's protocol for reporting on itself, no corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted publicly. Mohn fired head of news Michael Oreskes on Halloween 2017. NPR has a new CEO. 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. And weve seen some significant success with that. He took over a troubled organization beset by infighting and bureaucratic inefficiency. During that financial crisis, NPR shut down shows and laid off scores of people. Faces Of NPR showcases the people behind NPR--from the voices you hear every day on the radio to the ones who work outside of the recording studio. Lansing: Were still working on it right now. U.S. Agency for Global Media And some stations who had a schedule to go down actually were allowed to go down. An open letter to NPR President John Lansing: Racial justice - Current At the U.S. Agency for Global Media, Lansing championed a free press even as leaders of many nations move against it. Prior to that, Lansing was VP and GM of Scripps ABC affiliates. Lansing: I guess I would comment just as a citizen watching from outside. I think that's where we all wind up. 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.". Talk about a force of nature. (Former long time member). When you first got to NPR, what did you think? What advice would you give to young journalists of color when navigating these white spaces, but attempting to make a change? Our DEI efforts at the beginning of 2020 were not a project or an extracurricular activity; it really became our work. "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.".