NPR’s head of programming, Anya Grundmann, is leaving the community on the finish of the yr.

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Stephen Voss/Stephen Voss

NPR’s head of programming, Anya Grundmann, is leaving the community on the finish of the yr.

Stephen Voss/Stephen Voss

NPR’s prime programming govt, Anya Grundmann, introduced at this time she is going to step down on the finish of the yr after almost three a long time on the community. Her report has been marked by improvements, successes and, of late, sharp setbacks buffeting the trade broadly and the community particularly.

“I’ve especially loved it when the sparks are flying, when we’ve imagined new ways we can lean into our enormous potential while staying true to our public service mission,” Grundmann says in a remark texted for this story. “It’s been the best kind of roller coaster ride.”

Since turning into head of programming in 2015, Grundmann has overseen music, leisure and discuss exhibits comparable to Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me and Fresh Air (which originates at member station WHYY), and many of the community’s podcasts.

Among different accomplishments, Grundmann has been broadly hailed for serving to to domesticate Tiny Desk, the intimate, stripped-down performances which have propelled careers of unknown artists and allowed stars to disclose new truths about their music. The movies routinely draw tens of millions of viewers, a lot of them youthful than typical shoppers of the community’s fare, to NPR’s social media accounts.

Grundmann was integral to creating Up First, NPR’s each day podcast primarily based on the highest information tales in its flagship morning present, Morning Edition. It is routinely cited as one of many nation’s main information podcasts.

With Grundmann’s involvement, NPR launched many different podcasts that earned accolades and new audiences for the community. Podcasts on politics and widespread tradition grew to become each day properties; new exhibits together with Code Switch gained NPR new audiences; the podcast No Compromise gained a Pulitzer Prize; the Planet Money spinoff The Indicator has been a success.

NPR chief govt John Lansing praises Grundmann’s report and casts her departure completely as her personal choice. “She’s really legendary in the world of public media,” Lansing says. He says Grundmann “led the podcasting revolution in many ways, and has been just an invaluable partner for me in my four years here.”

Fast development of podcasts, adopted by layoffs and cancellations

Grundmann’s departure follows Lansing’s choice final yr to restructure the higher ranges of the community by unifying the network’s news and programming divisions beneath a single chief content material officer. Then-Senior Vice President for News Nancy Barnes, Grundmann’s counterpart over information, considered it as a demotion. Barnes left NPR final fall to lead the newsroom of the Boston Globe.

Tensions had surfaced between Grundmann and Barnes over the technique for news-related podcasts, together with the greenlighting of recent sequence, at a time when business rivals had entered the sector in power. The New York Times, The Atlantic, Vox Media and different retailers have carved notable roles in information podcasting, usually drawing upon the experience of former NPR staff. Up First was seen as a belated response to the hit podcast The Daily from the Times, which is now aired by many public radio stations.

Under Grundmann’s watch, NPR’s programming division greater than doubled in dimension, rising from 100 staff in 2019 to 231 in January. Yet over the previous yr, advertisers held again their sponsorship of podcasts, anticipating a recession that has, as of but, not arrived.

A big projected shortfall in revenues yawned to roughly $31 million for the fiscal yr that ends Sept. 30, in line with community officers.

Lansing felt compelled to scale back NPR’s workforce by about 10% this spring. NPR additionally canceled 4 podcasts and scaled again manufacturing of Short Wave, its science podcast. NPR now says that it’s on secure monetary footing after the cuts.

The drop in advert income has affected the media trade extra broadly. ABC, CNN, ESPN, the Los Angeles Times, Spotify, Vox Media, and the Washington Post underwent related job cuts. Yet NPR’s incapability to provide a bigger quantity of podcasts made it more durable to compensate for that drop in income.

Plans to unify newsroom and programming

Grundmann first arrived at NPR in 1994 as an intern after a stint on the member station KNAU in Flagstaff, Arizona. Before turning into senior vp for programming and viewers growth, she served because the founding govt director of NPR Music, the place she made her biggest mark.

With not solely Tiny Desk however different music initiatives comparable to Alt.Latino, she is credited with serving to to make sure that NPR’s music choices thrived even after the community gave away the classical music applications Performance Today and the now defunct World of Opera greater than a decade in the past. Billboard journal repeatedly listed her among the many most influential executives in music.

“After 30 years at NPR, I have decided it’s time for my next adventure,” Grundmann stated in an e mail to employees on Monday. She didn’t specify what that subsequent step can be.

NPR has not introduced a successor to Grundmann, whose departure will create the most recent emptiness in a string of high-level turnovers. In current months, the community named a brand new chief information govt–Edith Chapin, who had been serving in that position in an performing capability – and its new chief monetary officer, Daphne Kwon. Kwon additionally takes on the duties of former chief working officer Will Lee, who departed after lower than two years to become chief executive at Adweek.

NPR nonetheless plans to rent a chief content material officer after Lansing’s first decide for that position declined the supply to take a senior place on the Washington Post. He says the brand new construction will yield advantages for the community, its stations and its audiences.

“The way I think about it is that it’s all journalism,” Lansing says. “Inside NPR, sometimes we think that news is radio and podcasting is programming and that those are two separate things. But they’re not. It’s journalism on a platform that’s bespoke for the way that platform is being consumed.”

Disclosure: This story was reported by NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik and edited by Deputy Business Editor Emily Kopp. No senior information executives or company officers have been allowed to see this text earlier than it was posted publicly.