JARL MOHN REVEALS A BIG REASON FOR HIS SUCCESS AS CEO OF NPR: IT IS ALL ABOUT THE MEMBER STATIONS

Jarl Mohn (image courtesy LA Times)

Today we have part two of our conversation with Jarl Mohn, President and CEO of NPR. You can read part one here.

There are many reasons why Jarl Mohn has been, in our opinion, the most successful President and CEO of National Public Radio (NPR). During our recent interview, Mohn summed it up in a single sentence:

“We can’t be successful unless the member stations are successful.”

Mohn is the eighth President/CEO of NPR in the network’s 48-year history. 

But he is the only one who came to the job with extensive experience in radio and electronic media. 

This matters because member stations are the essential  architecture of the public radio system.

NPR member stations are the source of the largest share of the organization’s revenue.   

NPR’s ratings are actually a compilation of the ratings of the stations.

Increasingly, NPR News is becoming a seamless mix of reporting by the network and local stations.

Some past Presidents of NPR never got past the lobby of a member station. Mohn drove to stations, rolled up sleeves and saw content created. Plus, he became acquainted with the people who make the magic on a daily basis.

Station leaders know his commitment and respect him for it. As we learned during our interview, Mohn has loved almost every minute he has spent at stations and his excitement is contagious:

Mohn: One the reasons I’ve got along with leaders of the NPR member stations is because I grew up in radio, I’m station people give me the benefit of the doubt because I was a radio guy. We’ve tried to get the mindset within NPR that our greatest single strategic advantage is the stations. The reason is, the stations are the way we reach people in their communities. I treasure the affinity NPR has now with its member stations.

Spark News: When did you realize the importance of the relationship between NPR and its member stations?

Jarl Mohn visiting WMKY in Kentucky

Jarl Mohn: “I spent 13 years at a member station, on the board of Southern California Public Radio. Early in my tenure I twice travelled the country to visit member stations. The second national trip was a “driving tour” and it was great fun. I think that seeing the world from their perspective is important. The people I met liked the fact that I took the time to talk with them, listen to them, engage with them, helped improve relations with stations.”

SN: Some people are dismissive about terrestrial radio’s future. Are you?

JM: “Unlike many of my predecessors, I still remain bullish on terrestrial radio. Some times when I give a speech, I talk about the history of predictions that radio will be killed by new competition. Think of all of the ways it has been said that radio was on the way out. Television, the 8-track tape, cassettes, CDs, Napster, Internet radio, Pandora and satellite radio were all expected to kill radio, but that didn’t happen.”

Jarl Mohn visiting West Virginia Public Radio

“For several years I was on the board of SiriusXM satellite radio. They offer good services but they are not ubiquitous like terrestrial radio. 

Public radio has unique advantages. It is noncommercial and easily available to listeners for free.”

“Certainly, any time there is a new technology it is going to take away some market share. But radio still reaches 93% of the entire US adult population every seven days.”

SN: Some observers say that podcasts will hurt radio. But NPR has had success with content that does well in both podcasts and on the air.  Why is this multi-platform approach important to NPR?

JM: “At NPR we have quite a few shows that began as podcasts and then transitioned to radio. They are doing remarkably well on both platforms.

“Podcasts are important to NPR’s brand and they are bringing people in the younger demos to NPR the radio. We are seeing that people are discovering spoken word programming because of podcasts.”

“I am very bullish on podcasts.  They are great source of revenue for us and the market is growing like crazy. Podcasts are a great doorway, an on-ramp, to our community service journalism”.

SN: You will be leaving your CEO job in the near future. What is next for you?

JM: “My contract ends at the end of June 2019, but I am going to stay in the job until the board finds my replacement. As you know, historically there have not always been smooth transitions of CEOs at NPR. I promised my management team and the board that until the transition is complete.”

Jarl Mohn at Wyoming Public Media

“Whoever replaces me as CEO needs to understand that we are a media organization and be aware of all aspects of the business.  It is important for the next CEO to have the desire to communicate with member stations and what there needs are.

“The board has given me the title of President Emeritus. NPR has its 50^th anniversary coming up in 2021 and I want to continue to raise money for the organization. I still see myself being deeply engaged with NPR.  I have a couple of ideas how I might be helpful to the whole system. Plus, I’d like to be helpful to some member stations.”

SN: We have one last question. It used to be that many commercial radio broadcasters looked down on NPR but that seems to have changed a bit.  What is the perception of NPR and public radio by commercial broadcasters?

The Mohn Broadcast Center, home of KPCC in Los Angeles

JM: (laughs) “Thanks for bring that up. About a year and a half ago I attend a private industry confab that was attended by the managers and programmers of the leading commercial radio News/Talk stations. Someone asked me how things were going at NPR and I told them about all the markets where we are now the number one radio news source in the market.”

“Then I told them my goal for NPR – that in five years every news-oriented NPR station should be the top radio news source in every rated market.  There were gasps in the room.”

“As the meeting ended, a commercial radio programmer I have known for years told me 'It is amazing what is happening with NPR. I wish you good luck, but maybe not too much luck.’”

JARL MOHN, BRIAN WILSON TO APPEAR AT THE “15th Annual NON-COMMvention”

NPR CEO Jarl Mohn should feel right at home when he appears at 15th Annual NON-COMMvention May 13-15 in Philadelphia at WXPN and World Cafe Live.  I know Jarl sort of remembers the great radio conferences like R&R and Gavin.  There was music from breakfast until late into the night.  That’s what the NON-COMM is like also.

Better yet, the NON-COMM is about integrity in business, public service and music discovery. This is Jarl’s kind of place.

There is still time to register.  More information is at [LINK].

[PLEASE NOTE: I haven’t confirmed that the “Brian Wilson” on the schedule is the Good Vibrations guy.  But I think it is. Besides, I’m sure Jarl doesn’t mind him as his opening act.]

NON-COMM SCHEDULE IS FULL OF HITS AND HISTORIC APPEARANCES

Dan Reed, the Founder and Producer of the NON-COMMvention has the released the full schedule.  One name from the past made me wish, oh wish, I could be there: Buffy Sainte-Marie.

BUFFY SAINTE-MARIE

I played the grooves out of her records back in the day. Universal Soldier – as true today as it was then. And the elegant, mysterious song God Is Alive, Magic Is Afoot. They were in heavy rotation when I hosted an early progressive rock show called Holding Together.

Buffy Sainte-Marie is a Cree, indigenous Canadian woman. She came from northern Saskatchewan, not all that far from where Joni Mitchell grew up.  Unlike Joni, Buffy returned to Canada where she now a multi-media artist and social activist.  She founded the Cradleboard Teaching Project, an educational curriculum devoted to better understanding Native Americans and Canadians.

ALSO RECOMMENDED AT THE NON-COMMvention

• Wednesday 5/13 7pm – Midnight: MUSIC SHOWCASES

Performers on the NPR Music Stage include Buffy Sainte-Marie and Shelby Lynne. Performers on the PRX Stage include Elle King and Ryley Walker.

• Thursday 5/14 9:30am – 10:30am: SESSION – Competing with the Devil

Noncom Triple A stations are seeing an increasing number of commercial stations trying to carve away listeners and sometimes artists.  I’ve been writing about 89.3 The Current’s commercial competitor Go 96.3. [LINK]

• Thursday 5/14 1:15pm – 2:45pm: ALL CONFERENCE MEETING – Dan Reed Interviews NPR President Jarl Mohn

• Friday 5/15 9:30am – 10:30am: SESSION – Triple A & Community Stations

• Friday 5/15 Noon – 2pm: MUSIC SHOWCASE – Free at Noon on the NPR Music Stage

Billy Bragg & Joe Purdy, Calexico, Brian Wilson

• Friday 5/15 2:15pm – 3:30pm: THE MUSIC MEETING

Songlines promoter Sean Coakley hosts the annual rate-a-record session.

I wish I could be at the NON-COMMvention this year but my vision problems prevent it.  I hereby assign my drink tickets to Chris Wienk from WEXT.  Chris is the hardest working person in noncom radio.

JARL MOHN TAKES HIS LOVE OF PUBLIC RADIO ON THE ROAD

JARL MOHN AT 2014 PRPD IN PORTLAND

Jarl Mohn, NPR President and CEO, is currently on a road trip across America visiting NPR stations large and small. At every stop, Mohn brings his passion and sense of purpose to folks working on the front lines of public radio. Mohn knows that healthy, motivated stations are the key to the future of public radio.

Previous NPR CEO’s sometimes didn’t share Mohn’s enthusiasm about member stations. Because of NPR’s governance system (the CEO reports to a Board made up of mainly station managers), sometimes conflicts arise between station priorities and national priorities. NPR competes with the biggest news providers. NPR also serves it’s member stations from coast-to-coast, a patchwork quilt of “family farmers.”

"LEE MASTERS" ON THE AIR

Mohn has been successful with station folks because his roots are at stations. In 1967 he began working the overnight shift at a station in Philadelphia while attending Temple University on a scholarship. Mohn took the air-name Lee Masters. By the 1980s he was an on-air personality at WNBC, New York, working with Howard Stern and Dan Imus. He also owned and operated hometown commercial stations.

Mohn moved into cable TV in 1986 when he was recruited by Robert Pittman to run MTV and VH1. He loved to LA manage the fledgling Movietime cable channel, which he turned into E! Entertainment Television. In the early 2000s he cashed in his business holdings with enough dough to retire. But he didn’t.

His philanthropic work eventually led him to become President and CEO of NPR in 2004. When he got the gig, he told a member of the NPR Board:

“I feel like I was born to do this.”

Mohn has never lost his intuitive feel for healthy stations and the role they play in American life. He is NPR’s number one champion of partnership between local stations and NPR. Now Mohn is on the road spreading the love.

NUGGETS FROM MOHN’S CROSS-COUNTRY TOUR

We have been following the press coverage of Jarl Mohn’s visits to stations. Here are highlights in his own words.

• KUAR, LITTLE ROCK

Asked about the purpose of his current cross-country trip:

I'm taking three weeks to travel across the country. I've never driven across the country coast-to-coast and I'm using it as an opportunity to visit NPR member stations. I started in Washington, DC, I'm going to end up in Los Angeles. I'll visit 25 towns and cities and call on something like 34 of our NPR member stations.

“Like many people listening to KUAR right now, I was a supporter and a big fan and I got then I got involved. I think it's very important to communities all across the country, so my role, one of the things I wanted to do was do whatever I can to support journalism.

  

• KRWG, LAS CRUSES

Asked about why millennials listen to NPR:

“I ask each of them [I meet] how they came to listen to NPR and each one of them has a very different story. [Some are] what we call backseat babies, they grew up...listening to NPR when they’re in the back of the car. Some discovered NPR through our Podcasts. Others started listening because friends recommended it.”

“So, whether it’s online,” our a broadcast, or on a smartphone, we want to reach the people that like our kind of news and storytelling every possible way.”

• WABE, ATLANTA

JARL & PEGGY MOHN

Asked about replacing heritage hosts like Diane Rehm and recruiting new talent:

“I think if you attempt to make everybody happy, you probably fail. We have to think about what sounds good, what sounds right, what fits with our brand and what sounds like the future. It will require giving shows longer than the six-month test runs most traditional media outlets allow.”

Asked about the importance of journalism to the future of NPR:

"I think and what I aspire to – is great journalism, great news gathering and very good story-telling. I think the more great storytelling we can do, stories that are from around the world that are really, really important but sometimes hard to make engaging and stories for people to connect with, the better job we do of storytelling."

Asked about his ultimate NPR fantasy:

"We want to have that magic and, you know, there’s the reputed driveway moments. I see thousands and thousands of cars sitting in their driveways with the engines running, people listening to NPR in their cars. They can’t stop listening. because that they can’t stop listening.  It’s a wonderful fantasy, because it is real.

Asked about NPR embracing podcasts and digital media

"Podcasting is a fast growing part of our business. So is NPR One. We need to make really compelling content, tell great stories across all platforms. I just looked at month of September. It was our highest month in audience levels for podcasts, biggest month for NPR One and it was our biggest month for NPR.org."

One of my favorite podcasts is Kelly McEvers’ Embedded. It's a remarkable podcast and it's great journalism and 75 percent of the audience, people that listen to that show, are under 35. So we think this is a really great gateway into listening to and understanding and appreciating public radio.

JARL MOHN LIGHTS A SPARK AT NPR NEWS STATIONS

When I recently posted the Nielsen Audio listening trends for the five major noncommercial format groups [LINK] I noted that the three-month trend was up for NPR News stations. The gains in listening are due, in part, to Jarl Mohn, the relatively new NPR CEO.

JARL MOHN, NPR PRESIDENT & RADIO GURU • PRPC 2014

At the September 2014 Public Radio Programmers Conference (“PRPC”) Jarl laid out a plan to grow the NPR News audience using inexpensive forward promotion techniques.  The key is to get all of the stations to implement an aggressive schedule of tune in promos for the next upcoming Morning Edition.  The plan became known as SPARK.

SPARK is a collaborative effort by NPR and the participating stations.  The first results are in and they look promising. 

On Monday 4/20 Jody Evans, President of PRPD, released a station-by-station analysis of the first six weeks – two books – and most stations had seen growth in listening to ME.  Here is the chart courtesy of PRPD and RRC:

JARL MOHN RETIRES AS PRESIDENT/CEO OF NPR & MAKES A $10 MILLION DONATION TO THE ORGANIZATION

Jarl Mohn at the 2014 PRPD Conference in Portland

Jarl Mohn, NPR’s President and CEO, announced on Tuesday (12/4) that he will be stepping down at the end of June 2019. 

While Mohn’s decision was not a surprise, his departure will mean NPR has some big shoes to fill.

Also, when he made the announcement, Mohn surprised colleagues by saying he and his wife Pam are making a $10 million dollar donation to NPR.

Mohn joined NPR in 2014. His tenure as President and CEO has been consequential.  Under his leadership NPR news programming reached a record high number of Americans, fund raising showed continuous growth, NPR became the nation’s leading podcaster and the company gained powerful national clout.

Mohn will still play important roles for NPR after he exits the CEO job. According to a press release from NPR, Mohn will become President Emeritus, serve on the NPR Foundation Board and co-chair NPR's 50th anniversary capital campaign. 

He sent this message to NPR staff:

"My wife Pam and I are more committed than ever to helping NPR and public radio achieve long term financial stability, particularly at a time when journalism is under economic and political pressures.”

“We are so confident in the future of this organization that we are announcing our personal donation of $10 million to NPR as well as our long term personal commitment to the organization.”

“We invite others who care about quality journalism and public service to join us in investing in this remarkable institution and its journalists.”

NPR’s Board of Directors will be conducting a national search for the next President and CEO of the organization.

Jarl Mohn a/k/a Lee Masters early in his radio career

Mohn has had an amazing and often lucrative career in media. He came from a humble beginning. While attending Temple University on a scholarship, Mohn got a work-study job as an all-night board operator at WRTI. He took the air name Lee Masters and climbed the “DJ ladder” to the top, including an on-air personality at WNBC, New York.

He owned and managed radio stations until 1986 when became the head of MTV and VH1. Mohn moved to Los Angeles to manage a failing cable channel then called Movietime. He made a fortune when he turned the channel into E! Entertainment Television.

Mohn cashed in his business holdings in the early 2000s and, with his wife, turned to philanthropy. He joined the Board of South California Public Radio which led him to NPR.

NPR’S MVP – JARL MOHN – RETURNS IN MID-JANUARY

Image courtesy of the Los Angeles Times

Like many folks in the biz, I am pleased to hear that NPR president and CEO Jarl Mohn plans to return to the organization in mid-January. Mohn has been on a medical leave of absence for the past couple of months.

Mohn’s return is good news because his work on behalf of NPR has been inspiring. 

Under his leadership NPR stations have seen spectacular ratings, record fundraising and has become an increasingly valuable presence in our  democracy. NPR is also the nation’s leading publisher of podcasts. Plus use of the mobile app NPR One continues to rise.

A big reason for the recent success of NPR is Mohn’s intuitive feel for the fundamentals of radio. You could say that Jarl Mohn is “native to the platform.”

This is important because stations are still the bedrock of public radio. CPB funding is channeled to the stations. Most people encounter NPR and station programming via on-air signals or streaming audio. Stations are “idea factories” that convey NPR’s good work.

Mohn knows the media business better than anyone else that ever led NPR since the early 1980s. On the right is a list of the CEOs/ Presidents of National Public Radio since Frank Mankiewicz.

Mohn brings something to NPR that none of the past leaders had: A true passion for the art, science and business of radio.

Each of the previous leaders of NPR brought unique perspectives to the job. Some were more successful than others. However, Jarl Mohn’s talents are unique.

His passion comes from public radio’s mission and it's role in our country today. 

Mohn is energized by the challenges. 

At his heart, Mohn is a great broadcaster, entertainer and communicator. Doing something well makes him proud and happy.

Mohn, now 65, can retire any time he wants to. But he’d rather be in the game. He still has the enthusiasm he talked about when he first got the gig in 2014. Here is how he described it then when interviewed on KPCC, Pasadena in [link]: 

I began my career as a disc jockey. I was in radio for years. I became a program director and general manager. I ended up buying some stations in El Paso and Louisville.

Mohn and KPCC-ers in 2014

After selling my stations, I got into the cable television business. I ran MTV and VH1 in the '80s. I created E! (Entertainment Television) in the 1990s. Then I did venture investing in early-stage digital media. Then I got to know about public radio when I went of the Board of Southern California Public Radio.

When [the NPR CEO job] came up, there had been a fair amount of turnover at NPR. I was asked if I was interested. I said, this is the one job in America that I think I'd love doing.  I made a commitment to spend at least five years leading the organization. 

Let’s hope and pray that Mohn will be leading NPR until 2019 or perhaps longer because he has much more to contribute to our collective, public service enterprise.

JARL MOHN: “EVERY NPR STATION SHOULD BE THE #1 NEWS/TALK STATION IN THEIR MARKET”

Jarl Mohn at NPR HQ (Stephen Voss/NPR)

Earlier this week, Spark News conducted a wide-ranging interview with NPR President and CEO Jarl Mohn. Today we have Part One dealing with ratings and best practices.

Next Friday, March 8^th, we will have Part Two, in which Mohn discusses the “state of radio,” the power of podcasts and what Mohn has learned after five years of leading NPR.

There is no doubt that Mohn is optimistic about the future of NPR and its member stations. During the first minutes of our interview, Mohn said what he thought NPR and stations can accomplish in the near future:

Mohn: My personal belief is that there is no reason at all why every news-oriented NPR member station can’t be the number one news/talk station in every rated market in the country. This is our goal.

Just a few years such a prediction would be disregarded as hyperbole but the results of the Fall 2018 Nielsen Audio PPM and Diary ratings indicate  that it not such a wild dream.

Over the past couple of weeks, Spark News published an in-depth review of full-time NPR News/Talk stations in Fall 2018 and a comparison to Nielsen ratings frpm Fall 2016.  This is important because during Fall 2016 many stations reached record high numbers of listeners, in part due to the November 2016 presidential election. There was considerable speculation at the time that the ratings NPR stations would fall back to pre-2016 levels.

In our analysis of the data for both years, many NPR News/Talk stations surpassed their results for Fall 2016 and are likely still increasing listening shares today. Spark News found:

• Full-time NPR News/Talk stations had the top average-quarter-hour (AQH) percentage of all news/talk stations in at least 26 markets.

• Seven full-time NPR News/Talk stations in PPM markets had more estimated weekly listeners than any other News/Talk station in their market in Fall 2018.

• 57% of the NPR News/Talk station in PPM markets had higher AQH shares in Fall 2018 than they had in Fall 2016.

• More then half (52%) of the full-time NPR News/Talk stations in PPM markets had more estimated weekly listeners in Fall 2018 than they had in Fall 2016.

Mohn at the How I Built This summit in

San Francisco in October 2018

(Larry Zhou / NPR)

Spark News asked Mohn if he and others at NPR expected these results:

Mohn: “I don’t think many of us expected after the election of 2016 that the audience growth would continue. So, we are delighted in many cases that the share, and in some cases the cume, has actually gone up.”

We asked Mohn why some stations didn't see continued audience growth since Fall 2016. Also Mohn told us what the prospects are like for the next election cycle:

Mohn: “We have seen in some markets a bit of ‘news fatigue’ about what is going on in Washington and it has caused ratings to go down. That said, as the election gears up for 2020 there is going to be more activity. I think we are going to see increases across the board. We are going to see continued growth.

Mohn began his career as

Rock DJ called Lee Masters

Spark News asked Mohn if the increases mean NPR is doing better or is the commercial radio news/talk competition getting worse:

Mohn:  “I do think we, and our member stations, are doing a better job. We are doing a better job on the journalism, we are doing a better job as programmers, and we are doing a better job as promoters. We haven’t promoted particularly well in the past but there have been major improvements.”

“It is also true that our commercial competitors in many markets are not investing in the local community coverage as they should. That represents an opportunity for us.”

We asked Mohn why folks in public media should care about commercial station’s rating performance?

Mohn and pals at KPCC in 2014

Mohn:  “It is a good question, Ken. When I took the job, I came from the commercial world and I cared greatly about ratings.  We did get pushback from some quarters, that, by itself, just looking at the ratings, is not a positive thing. I agree with that.” 

“But I do think the ratings are a measure of how many people are engaging with us. To me, if you are a NPR member station, the bigger your audience, the greater the likelihood you will increase your membership.”

“For us at NPR, we can’t do well and don’t do well unless the stations do well. Our ratings are nothing but a rollup of our member station’s ratings. We can’t do well unless the stations do well.”

We asked Mohn if NPR and member stations are doing better with the "basics of radio" now than they were when Mohn became NPR’s CEO in 2014:

Jarl and Pam Mohn

Mohn: “It is hard to make a broad statement, but I would say in general that across the system execution of the basics is much better than it has been.”

“That said, if I listen to almost any NPR member station, I can pick out things that can be improved."

“One example is there are so many stations that don’t give their dial position in every break.  My belief is that even P-1’s can’t tell you exactly where your station is on the dial.”

“There are stations that do it well. At KPCC during every single break they say ‘89 point 3, KPCC.’ In DC it is ‘WAMU 88 5’  during every break. But we still have stations in big markets that don’t do it. They could increase their cume by 10% at the snap of a finger and at no cost by saying their dial position.”

“Some programmers have said to me ‘With PPM, I don’t need to say the frequency.’ This blows my mind! PPM only picks up the station a person is listening to. It call tell yor where to tune in the station.”

“Another example is forward promotion. It takes a lot to get some stations to even do them.  I’ve heard some PDs say that promo liners make stations sound too commercial. But the stations that have a solid market position and use promo liners tend, on the whole, over time, tend to do better than those who do not.”

Tune in next Friday, March 8^th, for Part Two of our interview with Jarl Mohn.