He was previously head of cable TV company Scripps Networks, where he sold $10 million in stock after the company became the target of an SEC probe that was not known to the public. How cool is it to be at NPR? 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. 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? Live from. "What you really want to do is be connected to people that are consuming content on something they're holding in their hand, and aren't necessarily tied to a TV set on a wall or a radio in a living room," Lansing said. The union represents 570 people at NPR. Did you know that one day you would become a CEO? Unlike some predecessors, Lansing doesn't face a particularly fraught political landscape. 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. Learn more at npr.org/about or by following NPR Extra on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. "The combination of his health issues plus the situation with Mike Oreskes did derail his plans.". 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. Current: Did anything else stand out to you in that survey that you believe needed attention and needs attention? Current: What challenges have you faced in implementing your DEI plans? This is just dishonest, especially since NPR became what amounted to a voice of the opposition in its coverage of this dysfunctional federal agency. 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. NPR 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. Current (https://current.org/2021/02/ceo-john-lansing-discusses-nprs-diversity-efforts-budget-deficit-and-growing-podcast-competition/). And The New York Times has won praise and new fans through its weekday podcast The Daily, with in-depth interviews of reporters and newsmakers. 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. 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. Ever since I've started, I've noticed that you've been very vocal about the need for diversity. People, given the opportunity, will do the right thing in a way that hopefully makes them want to be here for a long time. I think there's an awareness, like in the way you asked the question about 'our North Star.' In recent remarks online, Johnson, who is Black, focused on a more competitive landscape for NPR journalists, including people of color. I'm just passionate about how good leadership can lead to good outcomes, and that led me here. But it was not from a standing start. And our work began then. 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 This is an edited transcript of the conversation among Lansing, Current Reporter Tyler Falk and Digital Editor Mike Janssen. Board Memberships & Affiliations. Mohn placed an emphasis on fostering a more collaborative dynamic with the public radio stations that NPR serves and was given credit for making progress on that score. 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.. 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. It's interesting. 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. Were certainly not over, were not at a finish line. Current: Companies like Spotify and Amazon have been pouring big money into podcasting. 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. 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. The agency has an annual budget of $808 million. John Lansing, president and CEO Chair of the NPR Foundation John McGinn Public members of the board Carlos Alvarez, CEO, The Gambrinus Company Fred Dust, designer, speaker, and consultant Paul G. Haaga Jr., retired, Capital Research and Management Company - Chairman of the NPR Board of Directors 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. 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. You'll find out about what they do and what they're inspired by on the daily. He took over a troubled organization beset by infighting and bureaucratic inefficiency. 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. NPR headquarters in Washington, D.C. Family Status: Married with 4 Children (Jean Rausch Lansing) We are different from other federal agencies, said Grant K. Turner, the agencys chief financial officer. What is the outlook for the rest of the fiscal year? Current: NPR has helped stations during the pandemic by delaying planned changes to the dues they pay. John Lansing will begin his term as President and CEO of NPR in October, 2019. "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. Weve seen a gradual comeback. Your email address will not be published. NPR Press Release. Essentially, the success of the company falls in your hands. Well, what we're doing right now, I think communication. I think you have to be transparent and be able to explain what you're doing, even if it's unpopular. 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. 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. (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.). If you had to create a podcast, what would it be about? 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. Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft have announced more than 50,000 job cuts combined in just the past few months. Its something that we certainly support. 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. What was it like for you to watch that happen? Weve also seen very positive upticks in development. "The result, I believe, is a war on truth. The varied broadcasters also offered jazz and other music to appeal to people under communist regimes using a soft form of diplomacy. Were working with them to create regional newsrooms in Texas and California and the Midwest and in the Gulf. Selected by the NPR board of directors, Lansing will start in October, succeeding outgoing head Jarl Mohn, 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. Required fields are marked *. 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.". He served for four years as the SVP, Television for the E.W. 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. "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. Lansing: SAG-AFTRA came out with their letter around our September board meeting in 2020. Under NPR's protocol for reporting on itself, no corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted publicly. And I was very proud of the progress we were making. 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. 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. 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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. 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. Within a few weeks, Lansing became convinced that projection would be unreachable. "We were doing everything we could against the tide and couldn't keep clipping our costs as the revenue kept slipping," Lansing says. He is. "Nothing is nailed down yet except the principles and what we know we have to reach.". I can't speak for other people, CEOs. 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. Current: How much were those anonymous gifts? 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. National Public Radio (NPR) CEO John Lansing announced in a Wednesday memo that the network will lay off 10 percent of its staff and freeze vacant positions. Board Member. Mike Morgan/Mike Morgan Current: When was the climate survey conducted? The newsroom currently stands at just shy of 490 people, while programming has shot up to 230. ", He continued: "Citizens in countries from Russia to China, from Iran to North Korea, have been victimized for decades. Since then,. Harvard Kennedy School. 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. 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. I had no idea what was out there. Apple is reportedly building a podcast subscription service. Your email address will not be published. So if you have leaders talking about DEI as a priority, well, then, show me. Lansing's tenure at the agency has not been without controversy. The ratings for our weekend magazine shows are actually slightly greater than they were a year ago pre-pandemic, so thats a bright spot. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Public Media Now was created to be a centralized source of information and resources to help professional within Public Media be more successful. NPR will cut 10% of its workforce, CEO John Lansing said Wednesday. What makes you so open and vocal about the need for diversity? Last summer, we definitely had a racial reckoning. 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. At a young age, my biggest goal at the time was to someday be a news director for a local TV station. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Current is an editorially independent, nonprofit service of the American University School of Communication. And the pandemic hit six months later in March of '20. 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. 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. In late November, the network announced $20 million in cuts, including a near-freeze on hiring, elimination of most travel, and suspension of internships. "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. And be a good listener. It's not an extracurricular activity; it's fundamental to our business. New podcasts Up First, Consider This and State of Ukraine sit on both sides. It puts a filter on that helps us explain even unpopular decisions, how they link to our mission. Lansing said he took pride in maintaining conventional broadcasts while appealing to new audiences, reaching about 25% more people each week. But here, Lansing basically jumps over those disclaimers using the lame attribution of private citizen.. At the center of a graphic is our commitment to DEI, and all of our work in that circle is surrounded by four pillars. It didnt begin in the summer it accelerated in the summer. 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. And so that was the way I looked at the future for me. 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. "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.". I'm from Minneapolis, and my parents are buried about six blocks from where George Floyd was killed. I got this part time job at a TV station to make a little money while I was going to college. That was revised as a result. During that financial crisis, NPR shut down shows and laid off scores of people. Chief Executive Officer and Director of the, Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing, Florangela Davila to Become KNKX News Director, NPR Hires Noelle LaCharite As VP Digital Technology. I just think that somebody's truth is the truth. 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. I hear that all the time. 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. 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. And the work goes on. ", "I am thrilled to work with NPR's exceptional management team, staff and journalists," said Lansing. He will be the 11th permanent president or chief executive in the radio network's nearly 50-year history. John Lansing, CEO, photographed for NPR, 22 January 2020, in Washington DC. The emphasis, he says, must be on drawing in "the future audience to make NPR sustainable for the next 50 years. 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. Lansing will begin his term at NPR in October and will succeed Jarl Mohn, who has been Chief Executive Officer and President since 2014. 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. NPR has tapped longtime media executive John Lansing to become its next president and CEO. John Lansing, the chief executive officer and director of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, will become NPR's CEO in mid-October. So its an ongoing effort. 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. A member of the Republican Party, Gibbs was a software engineer and missionary before entering politics. 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. And it really opened the funnel. Mr. Mohn was pressed about his leadership in a tense NPR interview and later apologized to employees for not taking action sooner. So Im pleased to see that that short era is over. 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. 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 not a sidebar. But we felt like it was an important investment to make in our member stations to support them during the pandemic. Lansing: Back in May and June, it was an alarming decline in radio ratings. So I wouldn't create a politics podcast because there are too many, and we have the best one of many already. Follow Bloomberg reporters as they uncover some of the biggest financial crimes of the modern era. So those are the four pillars that rotate around the centerpiece, we call it the North Star, of our commitment to DEI. Disclosure: This story was reported and written by NPR Media Correspondent David Folkenflik and edited by Acting Chief Business Editor Emily Kopp. Lansing: Its on social media platforms or YouTube or through media partnerships. 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. Courtesy of Allison Shelley for NPR. 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. August 20, 2022 August 20th is National Radio Day. Lansing, who is 62, is. "When I think of NPR and I think of the member stations collectively, I think really of journalism as a public service, not tied to a profit motive," Lansing told NPR News. If it's not being solved from the top down, it shouldn't be a burden for people just trying to build their career. In these comments, John Lansing slides by with a public swipe at the Trump 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 an interview, Lansing said he wants to build on NPR's successes in broadcast news and entertainment to become even more dominant in podcasting and more prevalent in streaming. 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.. Lansing blamed a slowdown in advertising dollars. "Bloomberg Opinion" columnists offer their opinions on issues in the news. For two years, he served as the president and CEO of a cable trade group called the Cable and Telecommunications Association for Marketing. At the U.S. Agency for Global Media, Lansing championed a free press even as leaders of many nations move against it. . 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. According to Nielsen data supplied by NPR, its programs and newscasts had an overall audience of 27.4 million in spring 2019. He guided the organization in becoming a leading developer of unique content across television, digital, mobile and radio platforms. National Public Radio will reduce its workforce by 10 percent as it grapples with what CEO John Lansing says is a "sharp . But my goals also go to all of my direct reports. Lansing describes himself as a citizen watching from the outside A private citizen? When will that freeze be lifted? NPR strives to create a more informed publicone challenged and invigorated by a deeper understanding and appreciation of events, ideas, and cultures. I joined in October of '19.