The New York Times published a lengthy piece headlined, "Inside the Crisis at NPR," on Wednesday that renewed a harsh spotlight on "internal turmoil" at NPR.
Internal documents reviewed by The New York Times and interviews with more than two dozen current and former public radio executives show how profoundly the nonprofit is struggling to succeed in the fast-changing media industry.
Public radio has become "too predictable and a bit boring,” writes Jack Mitchell, a founding producer of “All Things Considered.” “Fix that by letting ideas clash. Generate light with some heat.”
"The appeal of the content must be clearly different than what we currently offer. The people needed to do this work are probably not even in our industry today."
"At our first staff meeting there were no chairs (or tables) but there were eager people with lots of plans sitting on the floor and I was one of them," Wertheimer writes.