NPR C.E.O. to Retire at Year’s End

NPR’s chief govt, John Lansing, stated on Tuesday that he would retire on the finish of the yr, ending a rocky 4 years atop the general public broadcaster.

In an e-mail to the employees on Tuesday, Mr. Lansing stated that he had knowledgeable the board of his choice in May, and that NPR was now within the early levels of a nationwide seek for his successor. He stated that he had made the choice to retire after discussions along with his spouse, Jean.

“Having begun my career as a studio technician in 1975, and having since had the privilege of working with some of the most iconic organizations in American media, the timing feels right to me, and we are looking forward to it as a family,” he wrote.

A veteran media govt, Mr. Lansing joined NPR as its chief govt in 2019 after working the U.S. Agency for Global Media. During his tenure, NPR confronted severe monetary difficulties, a few of them introduced on by the pandemic. In early 2020, executives together with Mr. Lansing took pay cuts to assist with funds gaps. In February this yr, NPR laid off 10 % of its employees, greater than 100 folks, to make up for a $30 million funds shortfall that Mr. Lansing attributed to slowing promoting income and fewer company sponsorships.

NPR was additionally on the middle of questions on the way it handled folks from numerous backgrounds after a variety of its high-profile hosts who had been ladies of colour, together with Lulu Garcia-Navarro, Noel King and Audie Cornish, left the broadcaster.

In a news launch on Tuesday, NPR stated that beneath Mr. Lansing’s management, greater than 40 % of NPR’s govt crew now are folks of colour, up from 9 % in 2019, whereas 42 % of the broadcaster’s work pressure recognized as folks of colour, up from 33 % in 2019. During Mr. Lansing’s tenure, NPR gained greater than 90 awards for its journalism, together with its first Pulitzer Prize award in 2021.