Dear friends,
After nine years at Louisville Public Media, six of them as President and CEO, it is time for me to hand the reins to the next leader. I will be stepping down in January.
It has been an honor unlike anything I’ve experienced to lead this fine organization. Through a time of unprecedented change and tumult in Louisville and across our country, we have stood together — connecting over news and information we can trust, and music and arts that bind our community and make it stronger.
I think often of my first day at LPM, in August 2015, when I was hired as Executive Editor. I tried to calm my nerves as I walked up the rear stairwell at 619 South Fourth Street, a building I’d been in many times though always for other things. My footsteps echoed as I climbed to the newsroom on the second floor. I’d rehearsed the opening speech, filled with sweeping pronouncements, I’d give in the morning news meeting.
I never gave it. I didn’t need to.
This place was already built on a culture of inquiry and innovation, curiosity and community. It has been since 1950, when the first broadcast from WFPL hit the airwaves.
We have accomplished an enormous amount together in the past decade: dramatically increasing the amount of local public service journalism we produce, expanding local hosting on our music stations, growing our audience, and offering more live events than ever before in neighborhoods and venues that span the beautiful diversity of our city. We have embraced a digital future, launching newsletters, podcasts and other products designed to meet people where they are.
We have piled up local, regional and national awards, drawing recognition for our deep reporting and careful storytelling. We have increased the amount of daily local public service journalism we produce by 50 percent, positioning LPM as a go-to source for news about our community, state and region.
Most importantly, we have done this together. Your support is what made this happen. We’re partners — always have been, always will be.
This is a team endeavor, and we have the best there is at LPM. Some have been here for decades, others less than a year. Each of them is motivated by one thing: to deliver on our mission with care, diligence and joy.
Today, as we enter our 75th year of service in 2025, LPM is stronger than ever. And there is much to be excited about on the horizon: a new local news talk show and podcast from WFPL, a regional news hub in which LPM is partnering with NPR and other stations to expand coverage of regional news that matters, expanded areas of coverage from our local newsroom, new features and community presence from our music stations.
Over the next several months, I will work with LPM’s highly engaged and talented Board of Directors and executive team to find the next leader. The Board is launching a national search under the leadership of Chair Abby Shue and John Schriber, who will lead the Board’s transition committee.
In January, I will join the American Journalism Project, a national venture philanthropy organization that is leading the rebirth and reinvention of local news in communities like ours all around the country. As Head of Emerging Markets, I’ll lead the expansion of AJP’s Local Philanthropy Partnerships program, which works in partnership with local civic, philanthropy, and media leaders to develop ambitious, collaborative local news initiatives that make pivotal interventions in their local news sectors. Over the last four years, this program has resulted in the investment of over $65 million of new local philanthropic capital into sustainable, high-impact plans to bolster local news ecosystems.
I’ll miss you, but I won’t be far — still based in Louisville, and forever supporting LPM.
Stephen George
Sustaining Member, Louisville Public Media