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NPR’s CEO Katherine Maher said she is “confident” it is compliant with Federal Communications Commission guidelines as it faces a FCC investigation into its sponsorship and advertising practices.
“We feel really confident that we have worked throughout the years to comply with FCC guidelines. We have a robust process and we’ll look to see what happens with the inquiry,” Maher told Maxi Tani at Semafor’s Innovating to Restore Trust in News Summit Thursday.
Responding to a question about the organization’s diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, Maher said NPR does not plan to replace Keith Woods, the public broadcaster’s chief DEI officer, after he retires in May. PBS shuttered its DEI office earlier this month, citing legal advice that it was necessary to comply with US President Donald Trump’s executive orders. Maher, however, told Semafor that NPR is planning “to move some of that work into our operations and strategy work.”
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The FCC inquiry isn’t the only cause for concern facing the public broadcaster. As Semafor previously reported, many local stations are concerned that Congressional Republicans will fulfill their promise to nix NPR’s funding mechanism from the federal budget, which would affect both the NPR mothership and its satellite stations.
Maher stressed that the local stations are at the heart of the broadcaster’s mission: “Many of these stations have their local identities. They mean something. Texas Public Radio in San Antonio is always going to be Texas Public Radio, and that is great.”
NPR is simultaneously attempting to build its podcast business while not alienating managers at its affiliate stations who feel that NPR’s focus on podcasts could take away from radio programming — and thus render local stations less valuable to their listeners.
“Podcasting is great, but broadcasting is a big piece of our power, and it’s where we have a huge audience,” Maher said.