NPR announces layoffs, cutting jobs by 10% as ad revenue drops : NPR 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. NPR faces financial pressures from two fronts. He is 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. 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. NPR will cut 10% of its workforce, CEO John Lansing said Wednesday. hide caption. We are not just putting out regulations or policies and paperwork. Last year, President Trump appointed Michael Pack as USAGMs CEO. Last fall, when announcing the earlier cuts, Lansing said the network would have to make tough choices - and to "do less with less." Current: NPR and a group of stations started a pilot project around collaborative fundraising in 2019. I'm kind of a politics junkie. 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. So its an ongoing effort. 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. hide caption. The layoffs are in keeping with an increasingly grim landscape for media companies over recent months. Your email address will not be published. Within a few weeks, Lansing became convinced that projection would be unreachable. I think you have to be in front of your teams. 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. NPR will cut 10% of its workforce, CEO John Lansing said Wednesday. John Lansing - Quick Profile. Its an inclusive process. It began to improve a little bit as we moved into August and September, as corporate sponsorships began to recover a little bit. Unlike some predecessors, Lansing doesn't face a particularly fraught political landscape. Mr. Lansing, who began his career as a teenage cameraman at a television station in Kentucky, spent two decades at Scripps Networks. NPR has tapped longtime media executive John Lansing to become its next president and CEO. 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. 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. Pozen Fellow At the Shorenstein Center. And the pandemic hit six months later in March of '20. Lansing: Lets go back in time. Were working with them to do joint investigative reporting. So those are the four pillars that rotate around the centerpiece, we call it the North Star, of our commitment to DEI. 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. He soon made DEI the top priority at NPR. 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. Scripps Company, where he managed the company's portfolio of ten broadcast television stations across the country. 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. John Lansing will begin his term as President and CEO of NPR in October, 2019. The ratings for our weekend magazine shows are actually slightly greater than they were a year ago pre-pandemic, so thats a bright spot. It was a reckoning for all of us together collectively at NPR. 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. There was one the year before I was here, then this was the follow-up. 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. CEO John Lansing says ad revenue for podcasting shriveled even as general economy seems on mend. He will be the 11th permanent president or chief executive in the radio network's nearly 50-year history. We can share resources and story ideas, and we can help organize and support those efforts. "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.". Mike Morgan/Mike Morgan When you first got to NPR, what did you think? John Gibbs (government official) - Wikipedia The only route to a successful engagement on this issue is to deal with it, to talk about it, and to take action. 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%. John Lansing is a former Obama appointee who was named president and CEO of NPR on Thursday. Oh wait. Harvard Kennedy School. 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. Certainly in the aftermath of the George Floyd murder on Memorial Day weekend, our efforts accelerated and we doubled down on communication, training and listening. "Nothing is nailed down yet except the principles and what we know we have to reach.". Lansing: That was conducted back in September. But we felt like it was an important investment to make in our member stations to support them during the pandemic. Arcbazar.com. John F Lansing, National Public Radio Inc: Profile and Biography And were pleased to work with them. He joined NPR after serving as CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media. A new chief content officer will oversee NPR's news and programming divisions, which have frequently collaborated and almost as frequently clashed over resources and . It has become enshrined in our three-year strategic plan as the centerpiece of all of our work. Its pretty clear to me that the ratings decline in radio is driven by commuting patterns. Lansing: They were for general. If you had to create a podcast, what would it be about? 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 . 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. The other is the fight for donors. 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. 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. He was promoted to news photographer after two years, then moved on to managing editor, news director, and leadership of commercial television affiliates around the country. Current: NPR has helped stations during the pandemic by delaying planned changes to the dues they pay. John Lansing Email & Phone Number - National Pu.. | ZoomInfo NPR hosts' departures fuel questions over race. The full story is 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. Michael was a senior marketing executive at Scripps for Food Network and HGTV and really brings a lot of media marketing expertise. Being a changemaker is awesome, but can have its own challenges as you're just trying to improve your career. 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. 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. 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. Were still looking at a deficit, but were hopeful that by the time we get into March, well have a pretty clear-eyed view of how the year is going to end up. 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. We'd like to revisit a story that first broke yesterday and . Your email address will not be published. Pat O'Donnell, the executive director of the union's Mid-Atlantic unit, could not be reached for comment for this story. Did you know that one day you would become a CEO? Lansing, who is 62, is. 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 . I think that's where we all wind up. 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 Names Juana Summers as Co-Host of 'All Things Considered' 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. 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. Lansing: Its on social media platforms or YouTube or through media partnerships. Scripps Company, Held senior management positions at Scripps-owned affiliates, including WEWS TV in Cleveland, Ohio and WXYZ TV in Detroit, Michigan, Early in his career Award-winning Photojournalist and Field Producer, Assignment Manager, Managing Editor, and News Director at several television stations. Disclosure: This story was reported and written by NPR Media Correspondent David Folkenflik and edited by Acting Chief Business Editor Emily Kopp. 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 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. "Jarl would be the first to say that it is the area where he feels that his work was not complete," Sheikholeslami said. CEO John Lansing cited the erosion. Doing that just requires that were putting more emphasis on the diversity of our decision makers, our leadership, our story selection, our source selection. Mr. Mohn was pressed about his leadership in a tense NPR interview and later apologized to employees for not taking action sooner. "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. 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? What was it like for you to watch that happen? NPR headquarters in Washington, D.C. Lansing will begin his term at NPR in October and will succeed Jarl Mohn, who has been Chief Executive Officer and President since 2014. CEO John Lansing cited the erosion of advertising dollars, particularly for NPR podcasts, and the tough financial outlook for the media industry more generally. So that would be mine. He is. NPR, the public radio and podcasting giant, has a new leader after years of growth and internal turmoil. That content executive position has not yet been filled; its creation led to the departure of then-NPR chief news executive Nancy Barnes. It's not just what happened this week on the Hill, although that's important. I remember we had several all-staff discussions about a variety of issues that branched off of that, including the Code of Conduct, for example, as it relates to NPR employees at public demonstrations. Being selective, having mentors both white and people of color mentors that you can have confidential conversations with and gain some thoughts to help you develop your strategy, standing up for yourself which essentially is what happened at NPR through the climate survey and holding leaders accountable for everything. But were going to continue to follow up on that going into this year. So I think that it has caused me to be more tuned in to hearing and understanding our employees. First of all, as a white man, my first reaction is that it's important for white people in general to understand the inherent biases that we have, even when we think we don't, unconsciously. John Lansing, the chief executive officer and director of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, will become NPR's CEO in mid-October. Last summer, we definitely had a racial reckoning. When you first got to NPR, what did you think? You'll find out about what they do and what they're inspired by on the daily. 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. And our work began then. Live from. 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. I'd say if there's anything that I focused on, and still am focused on during the pandemic, it is to make sure that whatever the situation is, we are supporting staff to do their best work, supporting them when they're having other challenges and making sure that we're attentive and tuned in to employees that need help, that need a break, that need to be heard, whatever that may be. Last year, the network booked $134 million in such corporate underwriting, a record built on strong growth in podcasting revenue in recent years. Mr. Lansing rejected that accusation, saying that the agency was independent by law.