NPR Losing Top Exec Grundmann
• NPR’s SVP of Programming & Audience Development, Anya Grundmann, announced she will step down at the end of the year after nearly three decades at the network. Her record has been marked by innovations, successes and, of late, sharp setbacks buffeting the industry broadly and the network specifically.
“I’ve especially loved it when the sparks are flying, when we’ve imagined new ways we can lean into our enormous potential while staying true to our public service mission,” Grundmann says in a comment texted for this story. “It’s been the best kind of roller coaster ride.”
Since her transition from founding Executive Director of NPR Music to Head of NPR Programming in 2015, Grundmann has overseen music, entertainment and talk shows such as Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me and Fresh Air (which originates at member station WHYY/Philadelphia), and most of the network’s podcasts. Under Grundmann’s watch, NPR’s programming division also more than doubled in size, rising from 100 employees in 2019 to 231 in January.
Among her other accomplishments, Grundmann has been widely hailed for helping to cultivate Tiny Desk, the intimate, stripped-down concert series, and she was also integral to creating Up First, NPR’s daily podcast based on the top news stories in its flagship morning show, Morning Edition, and routinely cited as one of the nation’s leading news podcasts.
NPR President & CEO John Lansing praised Grundmann’s record and casts her departure exclusively as her own decision, noting, “She’s really legendary in the world of public media,” adding that Grundmann “led the podcasting revolution in many ways, and has been just an invaluable partner for me in my four years here.”
That being said, Grundmann’s departure follows Lansing’s decision last year to restructure the upper levels of the network by unifying the network’s news and programming divisions under a single chief content officer. Former SVP For News, Nancy Barnes, Grundmann’s counterpart over news, viewed that as a demotion and left NPR last fall to lead the newsroom of the Boston Globe. [Photo credit: NPR / Stephen Voss]
