CHICAGO (CBS) — John Lansing, a former news director of CBS Minnesota and CBS Chicago who later became CEO of National Public Radio, has died.

NPR reported that Lansing died Wednesday at his home in Wisconsin at the age of 67. He had only resigned from his post as head of the public broadcaster a few months ago.

According to a biography published by the U.S. Center on Communication Leadership and Policy, Lansing began his career in the media business at the age of 17 as a studio technician and photographer at WPSD-TV in Paducah, Kentucky. He later worked as a photographer for WAVE-TV in Louisville.

He attended Bellarmine University but left before completing his degree when he was hired as news director at WWMT-TV in Grand Rapids. According to published biographies, Lansing was named assistant news director at KARE-TV in Minneapolis in 1988 – and in 1990, news director at CBS Minnesota’s WCCO-TV 4 in his hometown of Minneapolis.

Published reports indicate that Lansing developed a “family-sensitive” approach to news at WCCO in an environment where a focus on crime and a sensationalist approach to local news were the norm in much of the country.

In a 2016 blog post, former WCCO meteorologist Paul Huttner also mentioned Lansing’s involvement in the station’s weather coverage during the 1991 Halloween blizzard. When it was snowing at a rate of one to two inches per hour on a Friday morning and no anchors, reporters or other meteorologists were in the station’s offices at the time, Huttner wrote that Lansing rushed in and told him, “Paul, I want you to make this the Weather Channel. I want you to get on the air and stay on the air as long as you can.”

Lansing then took it upon himself to organize live telephone interviews for police officers as well as reporters and staff who were stuck at home at the time, Huttner wrote. The storm ultimately brought 28.4 inches of snow to the Twin Cities.

In the fall of 1994, Lansing joined CBS Chicago, WBBM-TV, Channel 2 as news director — joining general manager and former WCCO colleague Bob McGann. As noted in published reports, McGann, Lansing and other CBS Chicago news staffers held community meetings to gather feedback and criticism on local television news as they revamped the station’s local newscasts with a community-focused approach — Channel 2 News called them “Chicago’s News.”

Lansing was also at the helm when longtime afternoon anchor Lester Holt took over as anchor of Channel 2’s 10 p.m. news alongside Linda MacLennan, while renowned Bill Kurtis He limited his duties to presenting the 6 p.m. news together with Mary Ann Childers.

During Lansing’s tenure, which coincided with the historic and deadly heatwave in July 1995—Channel 2 boasted the talent of the all-star weather team of Steve Baskerville, Harry Volkmanand Lansing’s former classmate from Minneapolis Paul Douglaswho brought his predictions to the roof of CBS Chicago’s McClurg Court broadcast center. In the meantime, Tim Weigel joined the station as sports director.

In August 1995, Lansing accepted the position of vice president and station manager at WXYZ-TV, ABC 7 in Detroit, and two years later he accepted the same position at WEWS-TV, ABC 5 in Cleveland. Lansing then became vice president, senior vice president and, in 2005, president of Scripps Networks, the parent company of the Detroit and Cleveland stations.

In that role, Lansing oversaw the $2.5 billion Scripps Networks Initiative Division, which included six cable channels — Cooking Channel, DIY, Food Network, Great American Country, HGTV and Travel Channel — according to the George Washington School of Media & Public Affairs.

Lansing then served as CEO and director of the US Agency for Global Media from 2015 to 2019. The independent federal agency oversees public media networks that broadcast their programs worldwide in 63 languages.

In 2019, Lansing took over as CEO of NPR. In an obituary written by media correspondent David Folkenflik, the public broadcaster noted that Lansing’s focus from the beginning was on diversifying staff, programming and reporting, which he called his “North Star.”

Poynter noted that Lansing created an Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion – and that the number of people of color on the leadership team and across the staff increased significantly during his tenure. NPR also noted that Lansing publicly defended “All Things Considered” host Mary Louise Kelly after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused her of lying to listeners in 2020.

In 2023 under Lansing, NPR leaves Twitternow X, after the social media platform labeled the news organization a “state-affiliated media outlet.”

Even in 2023, amid a projected deficit of $30 million, Lansing also oversaw a 10 percent reduction in staff at NPR.

Lansing’s successor at NPR, Katherine Maher, released a statement on Friday:

“John had a tremendous impact on NPR’s workplace culture and led the organization through some of its most difficult times. His commitment to improving NPR’s audience and staff diversity has left an indelible positive impact. Diversity and inclusion were very important to him; he lived by his values ​​every day, resulting in a staff and leadership team that was significantly more diverse than when he arrived. John understood the importance of NPR’s mission to support democracy by informing the American public and led the organization to rise to the challenge of an unprecedented global pandemic. His speed and decisiveness during this difficult time enabled NPR to maintain uninterrupted, high-quality programming at a moment when trusted news was a lifeline for Americans. He inspired those around him with his integrity and compassion, and his loss is deeply felt by our staff and across the public broadcasting system.”

Lansing will retire from NPR at the end of 2023.