John Lansing, who served as executive director of the US Global Media Agency, died Wednesday at his lakeside home in Wisconsin at the age of 67. The cause of his death was not immediately known. John Lansing took over as executive director of the US Agency for Global Media, USAGM, in 2015. As executive director, he led all US media outlets for government-funded international broadcasts. Voice of America is the largest agency in this group, which also includes Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, Middle East Broadcasting Network and Radio-Television Marti.
In a written statement, the executive director of the US Global Media Agency, Amanda Bennett, called the former head of the agency “a strong supporter of freedom of the press, safety of journalists and connecting people around the world in support of freedom and democracy.” .
When he was head of the US Global Media Agency, he created a committee made up of the heads of each of the agency's bodies “so we could regularly talk about the state of the world together”, Ms Bennett said.
“John did a lot to modernize this agency. From adopting the strategy to prioritize presence on digital platforms, to adding internet freedom initiatives and renaming the agency from the International Broadcasting Board of Governors to the US Global Media Agency, his vision was transformative,” he said. apparently Mrs. Bennett.
During his tenure, the US Global Media Agency networks grew their weekly global audience by more than 100 million people. He also expanded the use of the agency's platforms, including beginning to broadcast live broadcasts encoded on shortwave radio to penetrate countries that block or ban American programming. During his leadership, the US Global Media Agency in 2017 launched the Russian-language Current Time TV program hosted by Radio Free Europe in partnership with Voice of America. John Lansing resigned as executive director of the US Global Media Agency in 2019.
After leaving the US Global Media Agency, John Lansing took the post of executive director of National Public Radio, NPR, where he served until earlier this year. In a statement, his successor at NPR, executive director Katherine Maher, said he understood the importance of NPR radio's role in supporting American democracy.
John Lansing got his start in journalism when he was 17 years old at a local television station in Kentucky. Later in his career, he served for nine years as president of Scripps Networks, which oversees the Food Network and Travel Channel. He then became president and CEO of the Cable & Telecommunications for Marketing group, which includes 90 American and Canadian television companies.
He is survived by his wife Jean and their four children, Alex, Jackson, Nicholas and Jennifer.
