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Illustration by Carlos Carmonamedina
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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. |
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What's happening to the NPR climate desk? |
Brian O’Connor wrote on June 6: I’ve read elsewhere that NPR has eliminated its “entire climate desk” as part of a belt-tightening move. Given that climate change is such an enormous existential threat to the world, it’s hard for me to believe. Is this true? Thanks. |
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| On the NPR subreddit, several commenters questioned the staffing cutbacks: |
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LostAbbott wrote on May 27: Didn’t they get loads of donations? Last I heard they took in more in donations than they lost in public funding? |
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Sunberrygeri wrote on May 27: I thought some very wealthy woman just donated a butt-ton of $$ to them? |
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The need to reduce expenses in the newsroom is real. Although donations are up at NPR and across member stations, they do not replace the $500 million that the U.S. government was pumping into the public media system every year.
Two recent gifts to NPR (totaling $113 million) are very big donations. They have been designated for specific needs within NPR. While the member stations across the country fared well over the last year in their efforts to compensate for the withdrawal of federal dollars, the money that stations pay to license NPR content is expected to drop by $15 million as NPR implements a new fee system.
The current financial status of the entire public media system is still unstable. Fundraising experts predict that donations to both NPR and the member stations will drop off. Given all that, it would be irresponsible for public media executives to maintain the status quo. NPR needs to invest in the technology that gets the news to a wider audience beyond broadcast radio. That means strengthening the mobile app and other digital systems.
NPR Editor-in-Chief Thomas Evans said he had two goals in making the cuts and reorganizing the newsroom: Preserve the areas of news coverage and save as many jobs as possible. Folkenflik reported that NPR first offered buyouts and then laid off another group of journalists. In total, 28 people left the newsroom. In addition, eight open positions will not be filled.
“We had very real savings that we had to meet,” Evans said. “The way I did that was by consolidating desks, because then we could pool resources and pool talent.”
The stand-alone climate desk and the general assignment desk are being folded into the national desk. Two journalists working on the climate desk are gone, and eight will join the national desk, where they will continue to report on the climate.
Evans said that he doesn’t expect the mission of the climate team to change or the number of stories to diminish.
“In fact, we might actually do more because there are plenty of people on the national desk and the general assignment desk who want to do climate stories,” he said. “I really fundamentally do not think this is going to decrease our climate coverage at all.”
The climate desk was also responsible for coordinating story ideas and coverage across member stations. This has been a strength for the NPR network. Many local public radio newsrooms have a reporter dedicated to covering environmental issues. By combining those resources and coordinating the communication among all those journalists across the country, NPR has been able to spot trends and tell stories that no other newsroom could do.
Perhaps the best example of this is NPR’s coverage of FEMA. The federal agency has faced massive cuts and reorganization in Washington, D.C. That impacts communities across the country facing disasters.
The pinnacle of that coordination is Climate Solutions Week, when NPR and member stations double down on stories about places where people are addressing climate challenges. This series just ended May 28.
That special week of coverage, as well as the broader coordination of stories across the network, will continue, Patrick Wood told me. He’s about to step into the role of national editor, where he will oversee all the national correspondents, the general assignment reporters and the climate specialists.
Since the climate desk was created, the team has worked closely with the national desk on big stories, like hurricanes and wildfires. Wood and Evans both believe the merger of the teams is a natural evolution.
“The climate coverage that we’ve been doing for so long is actually about how climate intersects with people’s lives,” Wood said. “It’s accountability reporting, it’s disaster response, it’s insurance issues. It’s FEMA. It’s about how we live with climate and how it affects our lives.”
The former leader of the climate team, Neela Banerjee, shared on social media that she had been laid off. Wood confirmed that senior supervising editor Sadie Babits will lead the climate team going forward. Rachel Waldholz will continue coordinating the climate collaborative.
Climate Solutions Week “is one of the tentpoles of NPR,” Wood added. “We’d be crazy to give that up.”
Here’s an overview of the eight desks that will now make up the NPR newsroom:
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National desk: Includes all national correspondents, and adds general assignment reporters and climate journalists
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Politics & policy desk: Combines the Washington desk correspondents, the states team and the power and influence team
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Science desk: This desk is unchanged and includes science and the global health and discovery team
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Society & culture desk: This new desk combines the journalists who cover culture (who were outside the newsroom, reporting to the podcast division) with education, religion and sports correspondents
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Investigations desk: Remains unchanged and will work closely with the Embedded podcast
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International desk: Remains unchanged
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Business desk: Remains unchanged, but will pilot a morning business podcast
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Network desk: This new desk moves the regional bureau chiefs out of the national desk and into a separate team, tasked with creating deeper coordination and communication among NPR, the regional reporting hubs and the member stations
No coverage areas were eliminated. News consumers are unlikely to notice changes in the nature or quality of NPR content as a result of this restructuring. I'll be monitoring the work of this restructured newsroom and pursuing answers to audience questions. — Kelly McBride
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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. |
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Examining the implications of a San Francisco immigration court shutdown |
| San Francisco has lost its main immigration courthouse after the Justice Department, which oversees immigration courts, announced earlier this year that it would not renew the lease on the building. NPR’s Ximena Bustillo reported a deep dive into the implications of this decision, which affects over 100,000 pending immigration cases and leaves more immigrants in limbo about their status. The great bulk of the cases will now be moved to an immigration court about an hour away across the San Francisco Bay. Bustillo thoughtfully melds stakeholders’ voices with the historical background of a region long known for its immigration advocacy. This is a well-executed effort to explain the real-life consequences and stressors from one action of the current administration. — Amaris Castillo |
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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 |
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Amaris Castillo
Poynter Institute |
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Nicole Slaughter Graham
Poynter Institute |
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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.
Read more from the NPR Public Editor, contact us, or follow us on social media. |
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