One is a veteran television executive. The other was born from the world of digital media. Both are the chief executives of major public media organisations that will appear in Congress on Wednesday, and will face tough questions from lawmakers.
Let's take a look at these backgrounds.
Katherine Maher
CEO, NPR
Maher, 41, has spent much of his leading career in digital media organizations. She joined NPR last year after serving as chief executive of Web Summit, an organization that hosts technology events around the world. Prior to that, she was the CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation, a nonprofit organization supporting the online encyclopedia Wikipedia.
Maher joined NPR during a tricky time on public radio networks. Shortly after she started, a longtime senior editor resigned after filing liberal bias allegations in NPR. Around the same time, conservative critics unearthed a social media post from Maher, whom she embraced the progressive cause.
Since then, Maher has taken steps to address concerns from conservative NPR critics. Last week, Maher said he visited Congress members last year to hear their opinions, explaining that NPR believes that it “represents the diversity of opinions and beliefs in our country.” On her surveillance, NPR also overridden the language of diversity in union contracts.
“I was brought in to bring new energy, focus and ambition to our work,” Maher said. “I think it's essential that NPR reaches a wider audience that reflects the country. I'm investing in tools and practices to better understand and watch audiences based on what I need from the public media and where I listen, read and watch.”
Paula Karger
CEO, PBS
Paula Karger, 67, is the longest serving chief executive in PBS history. She joined the network in 2006 from 13, the PBS member station serving the New York area. Before his transition to public media, Karger was a fundraiser executive at Metropolitan Opera, the nation's largest performing arts institution.
Kerger's biggest challenge as PBS CEO is the slow and steady erosion of traditional television, and the rise in the power of streaming directly from consumers. Like his peers in traditional commercial media organizations, Mr. Karger has expanded the distribution of network programming on streaming services, signed an agreement with YouTube TV and attempted to launch a subscription service called PBS Passport.
Kerger will likely be asked about programming related to PBS attacked by conservatives. One program chosen by critics is “Drug Queen Story Hour.” This is a digital series created for PBS LearningMedia, a kind of online classroom. PBS then took the program offline.
