Programs/Content
The most noteworthy pubmedia news of 2014
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We asked our reporters to reflect on a year’s worth of trends, events and change in public media. Here’s what stuck with us.
Margaret Low Smith
Margaret Low Smith, NPR’s senior news veep, will depart for The Atlantic
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Margaret Low Smith, NPR’s senior vice president for news, is leaving the network to take a position with The Atlantic as president of its live-event division, AtlanticLIVE. Smith has worked for NPR for 32 years, heading the news division since 2011. Before holding that job, she worked as VP of programming. She started at NPR in 1982 as an overnight production assistant for Morning Edition. “Her departure will be felt as profoundly as any in recent memory,” NPR Chief Content Officer Kinsey Wilson wrote in an email to station executives.
Programs/Content
NPR will cancel ‘Tell Me More’, eliminate 28 jobs to balance budget
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An updated version of this article was posted May 28. NPR announced today that it will cancel Tell Me More, its weekday midday show with an emphasis on news and issues relating to people of color, effective Aug. 1. The network will also eliminate 28 jobs in its newsroom and library, eight of which are currently unfilled. “Today we are announcing changes in the newsroom to ensure we remain a leader in a dynamic and intensely competitive news environment, while living within NPR’s budget,” said Margaret Low Smith, NPR’s senior v.p. for news, in a memo to staff.
Programs/Content
Ombud’s critique of NPR series prompts rebuke from top brass
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“My finding is that the series was deeply flawed and should not have been aired as it was,” the ombudsman wrote. Top NPR execs stood by the investigative reports.
People
NPR decides on hosts, Shuster leaves the network, Rapley gets WGBH McGhee Fellowship, and more . . .
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Audie Cornish, who guest-hosted ATC during Michele Norris’s 2012 leave of absence, becomes permanent co-host of the NPR newsmag, alongside Robert Siegel and Melissa Block. Cornish has been a reporter and host for NPR since 2006.
People
NPR promotes Wilson to chief content officer, Arnold departs PRI, and more…
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NPR President Gary Knell has restructured the news organization’s top ranks, elevating digital chief Kinsey Wilson to executive v.p. and chief content officer and appointing Margaret Low Smith senior v.p. of news, a job she took on an interim basis last year. When Wilson joined NPR as senior v.p. and general manager of digital media in 2008, the position was parallel to the senior news exec post then held by Ellen Weiss. Knell’s restructuring elevates Wilson in NPR’s organization chart to supervise all of NPR’s content areas — news, programming and digital media. “In Kinsey and Margaret, we have two journalists, strategists and leaders with a keen understanding of the craft that distinguishes NPR — and how we continue to innovate and evolve,” Knell said in a news release. The new structure allows for greater coordination of NPR’s news, digital and programming strategies, and a “more seamless integration” of its news operations, according to the release.