What do you think are some characteristics of good leadership? Its a real business with real market dynamics.. Well, what we're doing right now, I think communication. Then I moved on to manage TV stations and cable networks. 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. 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 undertook a strategic reorganization last fall, reinstating the position of a chief content officer overseeing both the newsroom and the programming division. John Lansing , CEO of NPR NPR President John Lansing '09 is Bellarmine's 2021 commencement speaker, Honorary Degree recipient April 22, 2021 NPR P. Tech companies that also rely heavily on advertising are undergoing layoffs too. But it was not from a standing start. 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. He will be the 11th permanent president or chief executive in the radio network's nearly 50-year history. NPR Names Veteran Media Executive John Lansing As Its New CEO The agency has an annual budget of $808 million. If you had to create a podcast, what would it be about? CEO John Lansing cited the erosion of advertising dollars, particularly for NPR podcasts, and the tough financial outlook for the media industry more generally. Lansing: Thats a great question. "I have been an avid fan of NPR for many years. NPR Facebook Post with Comments. 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. NPR has tapped longtime media executive John Lansing to become its next president and CEO. He guided the organization in becoming a leading developer of unique content across television, digital, mobile and radio platforms. Mohn led NPR through five consecutive years of audience growth and budget surplus. 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. NPR is funded by the CPB/PBS which are funded in part by the U.S. government. At a young age, my biggest goal at the time was to someday be a news director for a local TV station. hide caption. Family Status: Married with 4 Children (Jean Rausch Lansing) So I wouldn't create a politics podcast because there are too many, and we have the best one of many already. Mr. Lansing will start in October, replacing Jarl Mohn, who has run NPR since 2014. For the year that ended last September, NPR reported $241 million in expenses. Lansing: When we look at our strategic plan and our commitment to growing our audience of the future, its clear to us that every corner of NPR has a digital on-demand initiative thats critical to our success and that it makes more sense to have the digital assets closer to the work thats influencing our audiences and growing our audiences. 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. Its not something weve baked and were just going to hand it down. And probably the most important accountability is that, first of all, I hold myself accountable with my goals that I report to the board. "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.". NPR chief news executive Nancy Barnes to depart as network reshapes top John F. Lansing : NPR John Lansing, CEO, photographed for NPR, 22 January 2020, in Washington DC. 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. I think you have to be transparent and be able to explain what you're doing, even if it's unpopular. Current: When was the climate survey conducted? I'm sure that's true even today. 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. And I was very proud of the progress we were making. Did you know that one day you would become a CEO? 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. Lansing, who is 62, is. For several years, it eliminated salary increases and suspended retirement contributions. We established management commitments to the women of color so that we address specifically their concerns. 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. National Public Radio will reduce its workforce by 10 percent as it grapples with what CEO John Lansing says is a "sharp . 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. Will there be another stimulus? And I still think we have a long way to go. NPR, the public radio giant that employs hundreds of journalists, is about to get a new chief executive. We discovered in our most recent climate survey that that was an area that we needed to put more effort into. 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. NPR Selects Voice of America Boss as Its New Leader, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/06/business/media/npr-john-lansing.html. Under NPR's protocol for reporting on itself, no corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted publicly. The budget for the new fiscal year is set below last years actual based on our forecasts on continued downward pressure on corporate sponsorship. He is. What makes you so open and vocal about the need for diversity? NPR's total workforce has grown by about 50 percent since before that crisis. "Management is about committing to strategy, making tough decisions.". Michael was a senior marketing executive at Scripps for Food Network and HGTV and really brings a lot of media marketing expertise. As we moved through the summer, that deficit remained at about $25 million. 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. 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. NPR 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. 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. Scripps Networks September 5, 2019; Washington, D.C. - The NPR Board of Directors announced today that it. 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. So I think that it has caused me to be more tuned in to hearing and understanding our employees. "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. CEO John Lansing says ad revenue for podcasting shriveled even as general economy seems on mend. NPR faces financial pressures from two fronts. An NPR spokeswoman said final decisions on which jobs will be eliminated should occur by the week of March 20. There's always going to be things here and there that have to be worked out, because that's just the way a company is, but I've never been in a company before where it was so understood that we're here to serve the American people. Were working with them to create regional newsrooms in Texas and California and the Midwest and in the Gulf. 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 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. CEO John Lansing discusses NPRs diversity efforts, budget deficit and growing podcast competition. This is an edited transcript of the conversation among Lansing, Current Reporter Tyler Falk and Digital Editor Mike Janssen. "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. 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. Vox Media cut jobs by 7%; Gannett and Spotify by 6%. It's interesting. During 2021, we worked on that with Keith and with Diversity and Inclusion Manager Whitney Maddox. 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 have many miles to go. This is just dishonest, especially since NPR became what amounted to a voice of the opposition in its coverage of this dysfunctional federal agency. John Gibbs (government official) - Wikipedia And be a good listener. Lansing: Were still working on it right now. 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. The Washington Post, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, eliminated its Sunday magazine and a handful of other jobs. Within a few weeks, Lansing became convinced that projection would be unreachable. A member of the Republican Party, Gibbs was a software engineer and missionary before entering politics. NPR's Incoming Chief Dumped $10M In Stock Amid SEC Probe While At Prior That content executive position has not yet been filled; its creation led to the departure of then-NPR chief news executive Nancy Barnes. Pack then took a number of actions that raised fears about the independence of the agency, which includes Voice of America. Four years ago, Lansing was named by President Barack Obama to be the first chief executive of the broadcasting outfit that was renamed the U.S. Agency for Global Media. The emphasis, he says, must be on drawing in "the future audience to make NPR sustainable for the next 50 years. The varied broadcasters also offered jazz and other music to appeal to people under communist regimes using a soft form of diplomacy. So Im pleased to see that that short era is over. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Current is an editorially independent, nonprofit service of the American University School of Communication. Faces of NPR: John Lansing : NPR Extra : NPR - NPR.org NPR Press Release. Current: Is there a timeline for that process? NPR's programming division, which produces its industry-leading podcasts, has more than doubled since 2019. Unlike some predecessors, Lansing doesn't face a particularly fraught political landscape. 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. But an example of that one that weve already created is the Consider This podcast, which is just a terrific example of taking the national-local partnership into the on-demand future. Scripps Networks The ratings have tanked because all they talk about is race. Theres no question about it. Essentially, the success of the company falls in your hands. Disclosure: This story was reported by NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik under guidance from NPR chief business editor Pallavi Gogoi. "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. But also, what are the larger things that are happening? Ever since I've started, I've noticed that you've been very vocal about the need for diversity. 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? 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. Weve seen significant growth in Code Switch, in Louder Than a Riot, in Sam Sanders podcast [Its Been a Minute], in part because for the first time in a while, were really investing in marketing support for those podcasts. Lansing will start in his new position in mid-October. It is intended to align the strategy of its often fractious member stations with one another and NPR itself and to allow NPR, for the first time, to raise money digitally from its audience in concert with those 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. Mohn will continue on as President Emeritus & Co-Chair of the 50th Anniversary Campaign. I think the work Keith has been doing long before I got here on diversity in tracking sources and the storytelling that we're doing around the company has really been effective in the area of DEI on radio, podcasting, and digital. Follow Bloomberg reporters as they uncover some of the biggest financial crimes of the modern era. I'm just passionate about how good leadership can lead to good outcomes, and that led me here. You can't escape that. I think that's where we all wind up. The newsroom currently stands at just shy of 490 people, while programming has shot up to 230. Instead, Whitney really helped us to buckle down with discipline, understand what's going on, and meet with women of color [in the organization], as we're doing tonight in our executive committee meeting, which we do regularly now. 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 am still morning the loss of an objective NPR. 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. That's the way I think about leadership here. 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 Were finishing up in the next two to three weeks the specific lists of actions and activities under these pillars. He held off a push by House Republicans to spin off Voice of America into a nongovernmental broadcaster. Pat O'Donnell, the executive director of the union's Mid-Atlantic unit, could not be reached for comment for this story. Current: NPR and a group of stations started a pilot project around collaborative fundraising in 2019. Lansing: I guess I would comment just as a citizen watching from outside. Fear drives their path. "When we say we are eliminating filled positions, we are talking about our colleagues - people whose skills, spirit and talents help make NPR what it is today," Lansing wrote in a memo to staff today.