NPR Public Editor by Poynter's Kelly McBride

It was a stunner to some public media consumers to hear that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is shutting its doors, starting Oct. 1. Many people have asked how the CPB’s demise would change what they hear on NPR.

The CPB is the nonprofit corporation created by Congress in 1967 for the sole purpose of funding the public media network. Congress voted in July to take back money already appropriated for CPB. With no funds available, CPB had no options for continuing its work.

Several NPR listeners are asking what that means for NPR. Specifically, does the disappearance of public funding free NPR to take commercial advertising? Will the sponsored messages sound different?

One listener hopes the end of the CPB doesn’t mean “an explosion of advertisements and sponsorships just to keep the lights on,” and we’ll answer that in depth below. But in short, the CPB’s demise will not immediately change NPR’s sponsorship practices, except that the familiar message — Brought to you by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — is going away.

Also this week, for those who worried that NPR would back away from accountability reporting on the current administration, we spotlight a new podcast that does just the opposite. Sources & Methods taps into NPR’s expertise in covering national security to document the dramatic changes occurring at the direction of the president. — Kelly McBride

Illustration by Carlos Carmonamedina

Here are a few quotes from the Public Editor's inbox that resonated with us. Letters are edited for length and clarity. You can share your questions and concerns with us through the NPR Contact page.

Will NPR run commercial advertisements?

Javier Anderson wrote on Aug. 21: In light of the fact that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting will cease to exist by the end of this year, I was curious about what this means for the future of both Public Radio and Public Television. … One thing I hope doesn’t happen is the explosion of advertisements and sponsorships just to keep the lights on. I already do not like that most NPR segments have sponsors and ads at the beginning and end. Does the end of CPB mean that listeners and viewers will be subject to even more of them? And what of the potential conflict of interests? Already I find it alarming that on many newscasts, the hosts and/or reporters have to go out of their way to say “And we should note that X is a subsidiary of Y, which is a sponsor of this broadcast.” I fear greatly that even this pretense for objective reporting will have to be pushed aside merely to keep things afloat.

It’s often easy to identify public radio by the sound of the reporting and the sponsorships, which some people call advertisements. It’s a calm tone that has been imitated by The New York Times’ podcast The Daily and lovingly mocked on Saturday Night Live.

While the CPB was responsible for providing the network with critical financial support, it had little to do with NPR’s tone, even for the sponsorships. Those messages are not likely to change.

Gina Garrubbo is the president and CEO of National Public Media, the company that sells sponsorships for NPR and PBS. It’s a business decision to make the sponsorships complement the tone of NPR’s news coverage, Garrubbo told me.

Internal research shows that “80% of NPR listeners consider NPR personally important to them. This is based on trust,” she said. “Part of that trust is because the sponsor messages we have on NPR are somewhat muted compared to commercials.”

The 15-second broadcast messages are tightly controlled, Garrubbo said, one of the several steps NPR takes to achieve its tone. While advertisements on commercial stations are prerecorded and supplied to the broadcaster by the companies buying the ads, NPR sponsorship messages are created in-house by voice talent who work for NPR.

And even though there is no more federal funding for public media in the U.S., public radio and TV stations still hold noncommercial licenses granted by the Federal Communications Commission. Among the requirements is a prohibition on commercial advertisements.

In fact, FCC chairman Brendan Carr has an open investigation exploring whether stations are complying with those rules. NPR’s CEO responded with a statement expressing confidence that public radio sponsorships fully comply with FCC guidelines.

All this to say, it’s not likely that NPR sponsorship messages will change. The FCC wouldn’t allow it. And even if regulators did, it wouldn’t make business sense.

“People care and want to know if NPR is going to become more commercial,” Garrubbo said. “I know there must be some people who think it would be okay. But NPR wouldn’t occupy the same place in the hearts and minds of the public if it were to become commercial.”

Likewise, NPR will continue to note conflicts of interest when its sponsors are the focus of a news story. Even with the end of CPB, those disclosures will remain a part of the broadcast, as they should. Transparency, combined with independent reporting, is the best way to manage a conflict of interest.

Podcast sponsorships are regulated by the Federal Trade Commission, not the FCC. The FTC is primarily concerned with transparency, that consumers know if someone was paid to endorse a product or received something for free in exchange for a recommendation. However, the sponsor messages that appear on NPR podcasts still sound tame when compared with their commercial counterparts. The messages are 30 seconds long and a bit more colorful than what listeners hear on the radio.

Podcasts also bring in more money than broadcast sponsorships. Even though there is no regulation requiring it, NPR’s podcast sponsor messages are still crafted and read by internal staff, not an ad agency. Only a few show hosts endorse the products or read the messages. The vast majority do not.

And then there’s the inherent question of whether sponsors are shying away, given the political pressure on NPR. Garrubbo told me there was a dip in sponsorship activity over the spring and summer, particularly as CPB announced its pending closure, which she attributed to confusion about the future of NPR.

Since then, most sponsors have returned. Many have voiced support. And none have explicitly stated that they are avoiding public media because of the political climate.

“We’ve heard from a lot of brands and agencies who say they’re here to stay and support NPR. It’s the ones we don’t hear from who we think may have those thoughts, but they don’t articulate them," Garrubbo said. "It's the ones we don't hear from who need to know NPR is here to stay."

NPR issues a report every January that includes a line item for corporate sponsorships for the past year, so it will be clear if the revenue from sponsorships drops. And NPR faces many other headwinds as a result of the CPB closure. Most significantly, it’s not clear how many local stations will reduce the amount of national programming they purchase.

But I don’t see those challenges prompting NPR to pivot to commercial advertising. The FCC won’t allow it. And disruptive ads would undermine the public media mission. — Kelly McBride

The Public Editor spends a lot of time examining moments where NPR fell short. Yet we also learn a lot about NPR by looking at work that we find to be compelling and excellent journalism. Here we share a line or two about the pieces where NPR shines.

A closer look at our nation’s intelligence agencies

NPR’s newest podcast, Sources & Methods, is hosted by Mary Louise Kelly and goes in depth on the nation’s most pressing national security issues. The first episode zeroed in on a few timely concerns. Kelly spoke with Moscow bureau chief Charles Maynes and national security correspondent Greg Myre about the current status of President Trump’s relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whether a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia is any closer, and what daily life is like in Ukraine amid the war — now in its third year. Kelly also explored key events happening on U.S. soil, including the April firing of the head of the National Security Agency, Gen. Timothy Haugh, and the raid by the FBI of the home of former national security adviser John Bolton. This deeply reported episode gives audience members the layers of information and context they need to understand some of the top issues facing homeland safety. Listen to the first episode here. — Nicole Slaughter Graham

The Office of the Public Editor is a team. Reporters Amaris Castillo and Nicole Slaughter Graham and copy editor Merrill Perlman make this newsletter possible. Illustrations are by Carlos Carmonamedina. We are still reading all of your messages on Facebook, Instagram, Threads and from our inbox. As always, keep them coming.

Kelly McBride
NPR Public Editor
Chair, Craig Newmark Center for Ethics & Leadership at the Poynter Institute

Kelly McBride
Public Editor

Amaris Castillo
Poynter Institute

Nicole Slaughter Graham
Poynter Institute

The Public Editor stands as a source of independent accountability. Created by NPR's board of directors, the Public Editor serves as a bridge between the newsroom and the audience, striving to both listen to the audience's concerns and explain the newsroom's work and ambitions. The office ensures NPR remains steadfast in its mission to present fair, accurate and comprehensive information in service of democracy.

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