It has become enshrined in our three-year strategic plan as the centerpiece of all of our work. Anyone can read what you share. We saw a lot of companies react to the [murder of] George Floyd and we did too. Current: Do you have any examples of how digital operations would be integrated into divisions throughout the organization? Were working with them to do joint investigative reporting. The result, I believe, is a war on truth., He continued: Citizens in countries from Russia to China, from Iran to North Korea, have been victimized for decades. There were about 20, 25 different meetings in the course of about 45 days. Lansing is a media executive with a deep understanding of journalism, having spent two decades as an award-winning journalist, successful newsroom leader and major market local media executive before becoming a global chief executive officer. At the center of a graphic is our commitment to DEI, and all of our work in that circle is surrounded by four pillars. At the US Agency for Global Media, Lansing championed a free press even as leaders of many nations move against it. 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. NPR faces financial pressures from two fronts. He will be the 11th permanent president or chief executive in the radio networks nearly 50-year history. Lansing will start in his new position in mid-October. So we took that very, very seriously. I'm kind of a politics junkie. 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. 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. We can help you keep up. Why did you undertake this? June 1, 20203:52 PM ET. 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%. So its an ongoing effort. Lansing said he took pride in maintaining conventional broadcasts while appealing to new audiences, reaching about 25% more people each week. And were pleased to work with them. Its pretty clear to me that the ratings decline in radio is driven by commuting patterns. 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 . And theyre all expected to articulate a DEI goal thats measurable, actionable, and that they can be held accountable for and will be. hide caption. Lansing, who is 62, is. But after the pandemic hit in mid-March, we got together with our cohort and said, Why wait 18 months? "The challenges he will face at NPR are not dissimilar to challenges across the media landscape as a whole," said Sheikholeslami, who will soon take up the CEO job at New York Public Radio. Lansing blamed a slowdown in advertising dollars. And weve seen some significant success with that. Unlike some predecessors, Lansing doesnt face a particularly fraught political landscape. Put that pizza box in the trash. The ratings for our weekend magazine shows are actually slightly greater than they were a year ago pre-pandemic, so thats a bright spot.. He began his career in media at age 17 when he was hired as a studio technician and cameraman for WPSD TV in Kentucky. 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. 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. According to Nielsen data supplied by NPR, its programs and newscasts had an overall audience of 27.4 million in spring 2019. I just think that somebody's truth is the truth. Listen now. 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.. But were going to continue to follow up on that going into this year. 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. The roots of the VOA involved providing truthful reports to people under Nazi and Axis power rule during World War Two. At the U.S. Agency for Global Media, Lansing championed a free press even as leaders of many nations move against it. John Lansing will begin his term as President and CEO of NPR in October, 2019. My top goal is to support the women of color at NPR so that they feel like they have more upward mobility.. So Im pleased to see that that short era is over. A graduate of Bellarmine University, he was named to the Bellarmine University Gallery of Distinguished Graduates in 2010. And my top goal is to support, in particular, the women of color at NPR so that they feel like they have more upward mobility. 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. But it was not from a standing start. 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. For the year that ended last September, NPR reported $241 million in expenses. 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 agency has an annual budget of $808 million. 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. 2016 John Lansing leading a moderated a discussion with the members of the International Media Coordinating Council (ICC) about a unified strategy for the future. I have read and agree to the terms & conditions, Senior Vice President for Television in the broadcasting division of the E.W. hide caption. 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. 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. Mike Morgan/Mike Morgan This is an edited transcript of the conversation among Lansing, Current Reporter Tyler Falk and Digital Editor Mike Janssen. 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. Everybody at NPR knows exactly what you mean when you say, 'What's our North Star?' All Rights Reserved. "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.". Lansing has earned an advanced degree in political agility. Let's say, I was walking out of high school into college, I had no idea what I was going to do. I think you have to be willing to take hard questions. Mohn will continue on as President Emeritus & Co-Chair of the 50th Anniversary Campaign. We discovered in our most recent climate survey that that was an area that we needed to put more effort into. And I would do a board-level review for the donor or donors as to where the business was, the value of the work we were doing, the things we were adding in terms of covering the pandemic. Since then, sponsorship revenue has returned, Mr. Lansing said, and NPR was able to navigate the pandemic without cutting staff. 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. For two years, he served as the president and CEO of a cable trade group called the Cable and Telecommunications Association for Marketing. How are you working to shore up NPRs place in the podcasting landscape and compete with deep-pocketed tech companies? The streaming platform Spotify paid nearly a quarter-billion dollars to buy the podcast producer Gimlet, founded by former staffers of NPR and other public radio outlets. Lansing: Thats a great question. Under standard procedures for reporting on NPR matters, NPR's corporate and news executives were not allowed to review the report until it was posted. And I still think we have a long way to go. Were working with them to create regional newsrooms in Texas and California and the Midwest and in the Gulf. He took over a troubled organization beset by infighting and bureaucratic inefficiency. 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. I had no idea what was out there. NPRs search for a new CEO is finally over! 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 Foundation. It is our work. 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. What makes you so open and vocal about the need for diversity? 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. It's interesting. A later report commissioned by the NPR board found that questions had been raised about Oreskes' behavior even before his hiring and that concerns were raised throughout his tenure; the repeated and formal warnings by top executives (including Mohn) to Oreskes to stop the unwanted attention he paid to female colleagues proved ineffective. 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. It did not drive a lot of immediate donations, but there were some. I think you have to be in front of your teams. Twitter: https://twitter.com/johnlansing. Built with the Largo WordPress Theme from the Institute for Nonprofit News. In an interview, Lansing said he wants to build on NPRs successes in broadcast news and entertainment to become even more dominant in podcasting and more prevalent in streaming. Current: Companies like Spotify and Amazon have been pouring big money into podcasting. 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. He held off a push by House Republicans to spin off Voice of America into a non-governmental broadcaster. Applicants to this years fellowship see its cancellation as a setback for journalists of color who want to work in public radio. NPRs president of operations, Loren Mayor, was the leading internal candidate for the chief executive position. 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. Current: Did anything else stand out to you in that survey that you believe needed attention and needs attention? Mohn fired head of news Michael Oreskes on Halloween 2017. NPR Selects Voice of America Boss as Its New Leader, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/06/business/media/npr-john-lansing.html. And as the year unfolded, we began to develop our three-year strategic plan. 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. 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 soon made DEI the top priority at NPR. Sept. 6, 2019. That survey happened in the fall of 2020. Family Status: Married with 4 Children (Jean Rausch Lansing) Lansing says the agency referred Haroon Ullahs expenditures to auditors and investigators after travel assistants flagged them; according to the Justice Department statement, Ullah admitted submitting fraudulent receipts for hotel room reimbursements and fake medical claims to get government payments of upgrades in airline seat assignments, among other offenses. 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 . In May 2020, four NPR female hosts of color Garcia-Navarro, King, All Things Considered host Ailsa Chang and Weekend All Things Considered host Michel Martin sent a letter to Lansing . Scripps Networks 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. Today, we feature John Lansing, CEO of NPR. Hes credited with restoring morale, in part by naming a noted journalist as head of the Voice of America: Amanda Bennett is a former top news executive at the Philadelphia Inquirer, who previously held senior newsroom jobs at Bloomberg News and The Wall Street Journal. 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 first pillar is to expand the power of the national-local partnership into the on-demand future. And its tied to the same variables you would know yourselves, which is, how fast can the vaccines be deployed? It's not just what happened this week on the Hill, although that's important. NPR has also been the nation's leading producer of podcasts since Podtrac started measuring audiences. Obviously, this job that you have as a CEO of NPR is a really huge responsibility. hide caption. 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. In these comments, John Lansing slides by with a public swipe at the Trump You have stated that DEI is your top priority at NPR. He made his mark in his current job with stirring defenses of journalism, free from government interference. So I would tell my younger self to be confident, calm down, it's all gonna work out. Your email address will not be published. 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. Vegas PBS General Manager, Tom Axtell, announces his retirement. That's a big thing too: having a common understanding of what management's committed to, what the Board supports, the work that's in front of us to live up to it, and ultimately diversifying our audience which leads to the business purpose. And it really opened the funnel. 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. We still remain one of the top, if not the top, podcasters in America. We had begun a lot of work under [Chief Diversity Officer] Keith Woods' leadership to really move us forward. Age 17 when he was hired as a setback for journalists of color who want to work public... 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