Sesame Workshop named Joseph Giraldi COO.
Giraldi is co-founder of CJBK Media Group, a consulting firm serving nonprofit, corporate and start-up organizations. In addition to roles driving new business growth at IMAX, Time Inc. and IBM, he spent 12 years at Smithsonian Channel in positions including EVP, Digital Media & Strategy, where he led global marketing, growth strategy and execution. Earlier in his career, he worked as director, digital distribution and strategic partnerships at HBO.
“Sesame Workshop has been using the power of media to bring quality early education to children around the globe for more than 55 years, and in this rapidly changing media environment, Joseph’s deep expertise in digital strategy and business development will be a huge asset going forward,” said Sesame Workshop CEO Sherrie Westin in a press release. “He has a proven track record in media and technology and is highly regarded as both an innovative and empathetic leader.”
“What I admire most about Sesame Workshop is the organization’s sense of purpose and long history of making a meaningful difference in the lives of children,” Giraldi said in the release. “Five decades ago, it used the cutting-edge medium of the time, television, to transform the way children learned and prepared for success in school and life. Today, the Workshop continues its legacy of innovation at a critical time when its mission has never been more needed. I look forward to working with the team to help carry on this incredible legacy.”
NPR announced changes to its Washington Desk.
Jason Breslow returns to the desk Monday as a congressional editor and will contribute to other news as warranted, according to a memo posted Wednesday on NPR’s website. He is currently a digital news editor, according to his LinkedIn page.
Danielle Kurtzleben became a White House correspondent. She joined NPR in 2015 and was previously a political correspondent for the Washington Desk. “I’m honored and excited to try something new,” she wrote in a Bluesky post. “26-year-old new-journalist Danielle is pinching herself.”
Ximena Bustillo is the new immigration policy reporter. Bustillo “will work closely with our colleagues on the National Desk who will continue to cover the impact of immigration laws and policies on the public,” the memo said.
NPR is also in the process of hiring a general assignment reporter for the Washhington Desk and an associate editor for the NPR Politics Podcast, according to the memo.
Two reporters have joined the New York Public News Network’s Capitol News Bureau.
With support from CPB, the bureau is expanding to provide statehouse coverage to 13 public media organizations across the state. The new reporters are Jeongyoon Han and Jimmy Vielkind.
Han will report from Albany as an employee of WXXI in Rochester. She previously worked for NPR as a field producer and researcher with a focus on the presidential election and national security. She also produced the NPR Politics Podcast. Before joining NPR, she worked at New Hampshire Public Radio and at WAMC Northeast Public Radio in Albany.
At the Capitol News Bureau, she fills the position vacated by former Bureau Chief Karen DeWitt, who retired after a career of more than 30 years in public radio.
Meanwhile, Vielkind is joining the newsroom of WNYC/Gothamist in New York City. He most recently worked as an Albany-based reporter for the Wall Street Journal and was previously Politico’s Albany bureau chief after working as a reporter for the Times Union.
Matt Speiser is retiring as VP of production operations for PBS News.
Speiser has worked for PBS News for nearly a decade. Before that, he worked for ABC and CNN for 30 years.
“You have seen his work in action every single day without ever knowing it,” said PBS News Hour anchor Amna Nawaz in a Friday segment. “He has spearheaded massive projects like presidential debates and major party conventions. He helped keep us on the air as we moved the show to our living rooms and basements in the pandemic. Most recently, he helped to lead the design, construction and our move into this new studio last year. And despite all that stress, Matt has always had a ready smile, a willing ear and a way to fix whatever needed fixing that day. To say that we are grateful is a colossal understatement. To say that we will miss him is as well.”
Content
WOSU in Columbus, Ohio, named Amy Juravich host and EP of All Sides, its weekday radio and podcast news show. Juravich joined the station in 2007 and has worked as a host, associate producer and director, and promotions producer, according to her LinkedIn page. At All Sides, she succeeds Anna Staver, who left the station to join The Plain Dealer in Cleveland. “We hope you’re looking forward to this new chapter of All Sides as much as we are,” the show said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Congratulations Amy!”
Alaska Public Media hired Avery Ellfeldt as a reporter for the Alaska Desk, a CPB-funded collaboration to boost reporting in the state. Ellfeldt will be based at KHNS in Haines. She previously spent five years reporting for Politico’s E&E News, which focuses on energy and the environment.
Lowell Robinson announced on LinkedIn that he left KQED in San Francisco, where he had worked as senior producer of voice and AI since 2019. “As we begin 2025, I’m announcing my departure from KQED and looking ahead to a new adventure (more on that soon)!” he wrote. “Working at the forefront of public media during such a pivotal time for journalism has been both a privilege and responsibility.”
Fellowships
Several public media journalists are among the 20 recipients of the National Press Foundation’s 2025 Widening the Pipeline Fellowship, which aims to diversify U.S. newsrooms. Fellows will travel to Washington, D.C., for two in-person trainings and participate in monthly virtual sessions. The pubmedia journalists are:
- Daniela Doncel, Latino communities reporter for Connecticut Public;
- Nicole Ki, a reporter for Minnesota Public Radio’s Reverb;
- Lionel Ramos, statehouse reporter for KOSU in Stillwater, Okla.; and
- Johnny Wilian Perez-Gonzalez, Delaware reporter for WHYY in Philadelphia.
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