John Lansing, former CBS Chicago and Minnesota news director and NPR CEO, dies at 67
CHICAGO (CBS) -- John Lansing, a onetime CBS Minnesota and CBS Chicago and news director who went on to become the chief executive officer of National Public Radio, has died.
NPR reported Lansing died Wednesday at his home in Wisconsin, at the age of 67. He retired from his position as the head of the public broadcasting organization only months ago.
As noted in a biography published by the U.S. Center on Communication Leadership and Policy, Lansing—a Minneapolis native—got his start in the media business as a studio technician and photographer at WPSD-TV in Paducah, Kentucky, when he was only 17. He went on as a young man to work as a photographer for WAVE-TV in Louisville.
Lansing attended Bellarmine University, but left before completing his degree when he was hired as news director at WWMT-TV, Grand Rapids. According to published biographies, Lansing then returned to his hometown of Minneapolis, where he was named assistant news director at KARE NBC 11 in 1988—and then news director at CBS Minnesota, WCCO-TV 4, in 1990.
Published reports note that at WCCO, Lansing developed a "family-sensitive" approach to the news in an environment where a focus on crime and a sensational approach to local news was the norm in much of the country.
In a 2016 blog post, former WCCO meteorologist Paul Huttner also noted Lansing's commitment to weather coverage at the station during the Halloween Blizzard of 1991. As snow came down at a rate of 1 to 2 inches per hour early on a Friday morning with no anchors, reporters, or other meteorologists at the station's offices at the time, Huttner wrote that Lansing rushed in and told him: "Paul, I want you to turn this into the Weather Channel. I want you to go on the air, and stay on the air for as long as you can."
Lansing then took it upon himself to set up live phone interviews for police officials, as well as reporters and staffers who were stuck at home at the time, Huttner wrote. The storm ended up dumping 28.4 inches of snow on the Twin Cities.
In the fall of 1994, Lansing moved to CBS Chicago, WBBM-TV, Channel 2 as news director—joining general manager and fellow WCCO alum Bob McGann. As noted in published reports, McGann, Lansing, and other CBS Chicago news staffers launched community meetings to gather feedback and criticism about local TV news as they revamped the station's local newscasts with a community-focused approach in mind—calling Channel 2 News "Chicago's News."
Lansing was also at the helm as longtime afternoon anchor Lester Holt took over alongside Linda MacLennan as the anchor of Channel 2's 10 p.m. news, while the renowned Bill Kurtis scaled back his duties to anchoring the 6 p.m. newscast alongside Mary Ann Childers.
During Lansing's tenure—which ended right around the time of the historic and deadly heat wave of July 1995—Channel 2 boasted the talent of the all-star weather team of Steve Baskerville, Harry Volkman, and Lansing's fellow Minneapolis alum Paul Douglas, who took his forecasts to the roof of CBS Chicago's McClurg Court broadcast center. Meanwhile, the acclaimed Tim Weigel joined the station as sports director.
In August 1995, Lansing took over as vice president and station manager at WXYZ-TV, ABC 7 in Detroit, and two years later took the same position at WEWS-TV, ABC 5 in Cleveland. Lansing went on to take over as vice president, senior vice president, and in 2005, president of Scripps Networks—the parent company of the Detroit and Cleveland stations.
In this role, Lansing oversaw the $2.5 billion Scripps Networks Initiative Division, which included six cable networks—Cooking Channel, DIY, Food Network, Great American Country, HGTV, and Travel Channel, the George Washington School of Media & Public Affairs noted.
Lansing then served as CEO and director of the U.S. Agency for Global Media from 2015 until 2019. The independent federal agency oversees public service media networks that distribute programming around the world in 63 languages.
In 2019, Lansing took over as CEO of NPR. In an obit story by Media Correspondent David Folkenflik, the public radio broadcasting organization noted that Lansing's focus from the start was diversifying the staff, programming, and news coverage choices in what he called his "North Star."
Poynter noted that Lansing created a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion office at NPR—and the number of people of color on the executive team and the staff as a whole increased significantly during his tenure. NPR also noted that Lansing publicly defended "All Things Considered" host Mary Louise Kelly after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused her of lying to listeners in 2020.
In 2023 under Lansing, NPR quit Twitter, now X, after the social media platform labeled the news organization as "state-affiliated media."
Also in 2023, amid a projected $30 million shortfall, Lansing also oversaw a 10% cut in the staff at NPR.
Lansing's successor at NPR, Katherine Maher, released a statement Friday:
"John had a tremendous impact on NPR's workplace culture and led the organization through some of its most difficult times. His commitment to improving NPR's audience and staff diversity has left an indelible positive impact. He cared deeply about diversity and inclusion; he lived by his values every day, resulting in a staff and leadership team markedly more diverse than when he arrived. John understood the importance of NPR's mission to support democracy by informing the American public, and led the organization to rise to the challenge of an unprecedented global pandemic. His speed and decisiveness during that difficult period enabled NPR to maintain uninterrupted, high-quality programming at a moment when trustworthy news was a lifeline to Americans. He inspired those around him with his integrity and compassion, and his loss will be felt deeply by our staff and across the public radio system."
Lansing retired from NPR at the end of 2023.