One is a veteran TV government. The opposite emerged from the world of digital media. Each are actually chief executives of main public media organizations showing earlier than Congress on Wednesday, the place they are going to face robust questioning from lawmakers.
Right here’s a have a look at their backgrounds.
Katherine Maher
C.E.O., NPR
Ms. Maher, 41, has spent a lot of her profession main digital media organizations. She joined NPR final yr after serving as chief government of Internet Summit, a company that holds expertise occasions all over the world. Earlier than that, she was the chief government of The Wikimedia Basis, the nonprofit that helps the net encyclopedia Wikipedia.
Ms. Maher joined NPR at a difficult time for the general public radio community. Shortly after she began, a longtime senior editor resigned after making allegations of liberal bias at NPR. Across the similar time, conservative critics unearthed social media posts from Ms. Maher by which she embraced progressive causes.
Since then, Ms. Maher has taken steps to deal with issues from NPR’s conservative critics. Final week, Ms. Maher mentioned that she had visited members of Congress over the past yr to listen to their views, explaining that she believed NPR needs to be “consultant of the range of views and beliefs in our nation.” On her watch, NPR has additionally voided language pertaining to variety in a union contract, a notable departure from the D.E.I. focus underneath her predecessor.
“I used to be introduced in to convey a brand new power, focus, and ambition to our work,” Ms. Maher mentioned. “I imagine it’s important that NPR reaches a broader viewers that displays the nation, and I’m investing within the instruments and practices to allow us to higher perceive and serve audiences primarily based on what they want from public media, and the place they pay attention, learn, and watch.”
Paula Kerger
C.E.O., PBS
Paula Kerger, 67, is the longest-serving chief government in PBS’s historical past. She joined the community in 2006 from 13, a PBS member station serving the higher New York space. Earlier than making the transition to public media, Ms. Kerger was a fund-raising government on the Metropolitan Opera, the nation’s largest performing arts establishment.
Ms. Kerger’s largest problem as chief government of PBS has been the gradual however regular erosion of conventional TV and the rising energy of direct-to-consumer streaming. Like her friends at business conventional media organizations, Ms. Kerger has sought to increase the distribution of her community’s programming on streaming providers, putting a cope with YouTube TV and beginning a subscription service known as PBS Passport.
Ms. Kerger will in all probability be requested about programming tied to PBS that has come underneath fireplace from conservatives. One program that has been singled out by critics is “Drag Queen Story Hour,” a digital sequence created for PBS LearningMedia, a form of on-line classroom. PBS has since taken that program offline.