NPR CEO Katherine Maher Discusses Recent Restructuring and Adapting to Federal Defunding

Sure. I’d love to talk more about that. Public radio, I’ve long thought, could be a solution to this local news crisis that we’re in, the growing number of news deserts, the loss of local journalism. There are now more than 200 news desert counties across the country. What role you’ve talked a little bit about this new fund that’s being proposed, but do you see a pathway still despite the federal funding cuts for public radio to help plug this local news crisis that’s occurring in the US today?

Katherine MaherL

Absolutely. We have more than 200 newsrooms in our network. Now, some of those newsrooms are really small. You’re talking about one person who hosts Morning Edition and then leaves their desk and goes out and reports all day long. They also probably turn off the lights at the end of the day in their station, but they are a vital piece of the infrastructure of what supports their community, they’re a trusted voice. I’ve been on the road out at lunch with one of these individuals and the waitress who was serving us was like, “I know who you are. You’re so- and-so from my local station.” And that’s the kind of relationship folks have just by voice and trust alone. My view is that the public radio is an antidote in part. It’s not the only piece of the puzzle. I believe that this is actually a huge opportunity for us to work more closely with other nonprofit news organizations, perhaps for- profit news organizations, that serve local communities.

The whole conversation about what public radio or public media is in a post-federal funding environment, I think can really be converted to public interest as opposed to public funding and that’s an enormous space for us to explore. But, the way that I see this playing out is if we are able to address some of the infrastructure questions on our level at NPR, that means that stations can spend more of their time focusing on the local reporting, cultural programming, community affairs work that is actually so essential to what roots them in their communities. It’s a mentality shift of my primary responsibility is operating a series of towers, still really important, to my primary responsibility is serving my community. And that actually goes back to the text of the local Public Broadcasting Act to address issues of national interests and local concerns. So, I think there’s a huge space for us to play here.

We’re already doing this work. We already, as I said, 97% of the country has access to a broadcast signal from public radio. In my mind, this is an opportunity for us to deepen this and to really serve a need that exists in the country today and think about how we reinterpret our mission for the future, not just a more informed America, but a more connected America at the community level.

Right, absolutely. And in addition to that investment, you’ve also been investing in recent years in these networks across the country. There’s one here in the Midwest––.

Tim Franklin