Current:Home > MyNPR veteran Edith Chapin tapped to lead newsroom-DB Wealth Institute B2 Expert Reviews
NPR veteran Edith Chapin tapped to lead newsroom
View Date:2025-01-11 08:27:01
NPR has moved to shore up its leadership at a time of significant transition, naming veteran news leader Edith Chapin as its senior vice president for news and editor in chief. She has been serving in the position on an acting basis since fall 2022.
"NPR has extraordinary journalists who tell stories and getting to participate in the leadership of that journalism is a tremendous privilege," Chapin said in a brief interview Monday morning. "We all aim every day to serve our audience with information and moments of joy that are useful and relevant."
Chapin has helped lead NPR for more than a decade, joining in 2012 as foreign editor and then rising to become executive editor, the effective top deputy for the news division. Previously, she had been a journalist for CNN for a quarter century, working her way up from intern to vice president. As a producer and assignment editor she covered Nelson Mandela's election to the presidency of South Africa, the first Gulf War, genocide in Rwanda and Bosnia, and then helped lead her network's coverage of Hurricane Katrina and a deadly tsunami in south Asia.
"During a turbulent time, she has been a steady hand and wise counsel to me," NPR chief executive John Lansing said in an interview. "Her editorial leadership has helped NPR produce some of the most excellent journalism that we've ever had."
Lansing also cited Chapin's qualities as "her experience in terms of leading our international coverage, her experience in leading NPR's collaborative journalism with our member stations, her day-to-day leadership as executive editor, and her outstanding work as stepping in as head of news after Nancy [Barnes] left."
Financial troubles and leadership departures have rocked NPR's newsroom
Barnes left last fall as senior vice president for news — becoming editor in chief of the Boston Globe -- after Lansing announced he would hire a chief content officer above her. That new executive is to set NPR's strategy in an age of streaming, when podcasts have become nearly as important to the public broadcaster's bottom line as traditional radio shows. The content chief will also oversee NPR's programming and music divisions, which encompasses most, although not all, of its podcasts.
Lansing's predecessor, Jarl Mohn eliminated a similar content chief position shortly after he arrived in 2014, seeking to ease tensions between the radio and digital sides of the network. In recent years, however, NPR's news and programming divisions clashed frequently over their priorities, resources and need to innovate.
Barnes' departure was followed in ensuing months by the announcement NPR would freeze much of its spending due to a sharp drop in podcast revenues; the subsequent need to lay off and buy out about 10 percent of the network's staff; the departure of the network's chief financial officer, Deborah Cowan; the departure of Chapin's top deputy, Terence Samuel, to become editor in chief of USA Today this month; and, most recently, the announcement on July 14 that NPR's chief operating officer, Will Lee, will leave the network after less than two years for a new corporate position as yet unannounced.
Not all of those developments are related; taken together they spell a steep challenge for Lansing and the network. According to three people with direct knowledge, NPR had fixed on Alex MacCallum, a former senior executive at CNN and The New York Times, to be its chief content officer. Earlier this month, however, she accepted a position as chief revenue officer for The Washington Post.
Lansing said Monday that NPR had other finalists but has decided to reopen its search. He said the network has taken the painful steps necessary to ensure its financial stability given difficult realities of the industry.
"We're starting to click on all cylinders again," he said.
Chapin pointed to NPR's work covering the upcoming presidential election, its past coverage of the pandemic drawing on teams covering international affairs, public health and politics, as part of the efforts to bolster its reporting through collaboration with local stations.
"The distinct proposition that public radio has is knitting together local, regional, national and international," Chapin said. "We've shown success with the work so far. And now we need to scale that up."
Disclosure: This story was reported by NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik and edited by Deputy Business Editor Emily Kopp. No senior news executives or corporate officials were allowed to review this article before it was posted publicly.
veryGood! (742)
Related
- Watch: Military dad's emotional return after a year away
- Chicago White Sox tie MLB record with 120th loss
- Sister Wives' Janelle Brown Says Kody Brown and Robyn Brown Owe Her Money, Threatens Legal Action
- Man found shot at volleyball courts on University of Arizona campus, police say
- Auburn surges, while Kansas remains No. 1 in the USA TODAY Sports men's basketball poll
- Proof Gisele Bündchen's Boyfriend Joaquim Valente Is Bonding With Her and Tom Brady's Kids
- Proof Gisele Bündchen's Boyfriend Joaquim Valente Is Bonding With Her and Tom Brady's Kids
- Olivia Munn, John Mulaney reveal surprise birth of second child: 'Love my little girl'
- Certifying this year’s presidential results begins quietly, in contrast to the 2020 election
- Why Kristen Bell's Marriage to Polar Opposite Dax Shepard Works Despite Arguing Over Everything
Ranking
- Relive Pregnant Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly's Achingly Beautiful Romance
- Boxing training suspended at Massachusetts police academy after recruit’s death
- Can Mississippi Advocates Use a Turtle To Fight a Huge Pearl River Engineering Project?
- You'll Flip Over Learning What Shawn Johnson's Kids Want to Be When They Grow Up
- Jennifer Lopez Gets Loud in Her First Onstage Appearance Amid Ben Affleck Divorce
- New Federal Housing Grants Are a Win for Climate Change and Environmental Justice
- Flash Back and Forward to See the Lost Cast Then and Now
- Perry Farrell getting help after Dave Navarro fight at Jane's Addiction concert, wife says
Recommendation
-
Mike Tyson impresses crowd during workout ahead of Jake Paul fight
-
RFK Jr.’s ‘Sad’ Slide From Environmental Hero to Outcast
-
Running back Mercury Morris, member of 'perfect' 1972 Dolphins, dies at 77
-
New York's sidewalk fish pond is still going strong. Never heard of it? What to know.
-
Democrat Janelle Bynum flips Oregon’s 5th District, will be state’s first Black member of Congress
-
FBI boards ship in Baltimore managed by same company as the Dali, which toppled bridge
-
Mother of Georgia school shooting suspect indicted on elder abuse charges, report says
-
Milton Reese: Stock options notes 1