NPR cuts 10 % of staff, names Haaga acting CEO

Roger Yu | USA TODAY

NPR said on Friday it plans to cut 10% of its staff through voluntary buyouts and announced it has named board member Paul G. Haaga as acting CEO..

Haaga, 64, will replace Gary Knell, who announced last month his plans to step down to become CEO of the National Geographic Society. Haaga will assume the new role on Sept. 30.

Haaga has been on the board of the media organization since 2011, most recently as its vice chair and chair of the finance committee.

NPR said the buyout plan, which will be applied "broadly across the organization," was needed to eliminate a deficit and lower expenses. NPR has about 840 employees.

NPR said its board approved a budget for fiscal year 2014 and a plan to balance its budget over the next two years. The budget includes operating and investment revenues of $178.1 million, expenses of $183 million, and an operating cash deficit of $6.1 million, it said.

Haaga retired as chairman of investment firm Capital Research and Management Company and was a former partner in the law firm of Dechert Price & Rhoads in Washington, D.C. He also served as a senior attorney for the Securities and Exchange Commission.

"His intimate knowledge of our organization, his unwavering commitment to the highest quality of journalism and programming, and his financial acumen make him particularly well-suited to lead NPR as we begin our search for a permanent chief executive," said Kit Jensen, chairman of the NPR board and CEO of WVIZ/PBS & 90.3 WCPN Ideastream, in a statement.

NPR's has had trouble keeping its CEOs in recent years. Haaga will be the seventh CEO in seven years at the organization.

In a phone interview in August, Knell said he had planned on staying at NPR beyond his current contract but the chance to lead a larger media organization was too good to pass up. "They play on a global scale," he said. "It was a chance for me to make a big impact."

NPR, which is a nonprofit membership corporation, generates its revenue from grants, sponsorships and programming fees charged to member stations, which depend on federal government support.

In its 2011 tax filings for the fiscal year that ended on Sept. 30, 2012, NPR said it had $190.5 million in total revenue and $191.2 million in expenses. In the IRS form, NPR also revealed that it paid its former CEO, Vivian Schiller, about $678,900 in salary and severance in 2011 after Schiller resigned in March of that year. The compensation includes $532,212 in severance, $99,671 in base salary and other payments.

After leading NPR for a little more than two years, Schiller stepped down after a series of crises that reinvigorated its critics. In 2011, NPR employees were shown in an edited video disparaging the Tea Party. Schiller also fired commentator Juan Williams in 2010 for his remark about Muslims traveling on planes.