From: Eva Rodriguez, Vice President and Executive Editor, NPR
Re: Monthly Content Review
May 2025 session
The Cohort:
Majd Al-Waheidi, Digital Editor 2, Morning Edition
Meghan Ashford-Grooms, Supervising Editor, Standards and Practices
Alfredo Carbajal, Supervising Editor, National Desk
Tasha Diakides, Executive Producer, Newscast & NPR News Now
Sylvie Douglis, Producer 1, Life Kit
Pallavi Gogoi, Chief Business Editor, Business Desk
Holly Morris, Digital Journalist Trainer, Training Team
Scott Neuman, Correspondent, General Assignment Desk
Jordan-Marie Smith, Associate Producer, All Things Considered
Nick Spicer, Europe Editor, International Desk
NOTE: DME Jim Kane joined at my request to take notes to allow me to focus entirely on the conversation. Jim also provided insights into themes and takeaways, but did not participate in the conversation.
The Content, by the numbers:
NPR aired or published 2,211 pieces of content (not including Newscast) in April 2025.
· By category: 1,589 were news -- produced pieces or two-ways with NPR/Member station reporters or outside experts/newsmakers; 361 were categorized as culture, and 119 as music. (142 pieces were uncategorized.)
· By platform: Broadcast shows hosted 1,067 of these pieces, owned and operated digital platforms were vehicles for 910 stories, and podcasts accounted for 264. (Content posted exclusively on third-party platforms such as Instagram and YouTube are not discoverable in this data scrape.)
The Topics: The death of Pope Francis/election of Pope Leo XIV** and the fifth anniversary of the murder of George Floyd.
**Pope Francis died in late April; Pope Leo was elected in early May.
The Discussion, generally:
We began the session with resounding praise for NPR's coverage of Pope Francis's death and Pope Leo XIV's election. The most consistent feedback was about the importance of on-the-ground reporting that allowed correspondents, editors and anchors to capture sounds and describe scenes that allowed listeners and readers to experience the moment. This was also true across digital platforms. It was also agreed that the coverage benefited enormously from the expertise of the Religion team and its ability to convey accurate and timely information on Catholic protocols and rituals. The consistent on-air presence of a former long-time NPR Rome correspondent added to the depth of knowledge and infused considerable charm into the broadcasts.
An enormous amount of planning – some of which happened months and years before Pope Francis's death – set us up for success in serving audiences. For example, pre-recorded and pre-written obits allowed NPR to go live with the news of the pope's death with richly reported pieces that gave insights into the man and the pontiff; arrangements that had been made weeks before Pope Francis's death provided studio space near the Vatican that served as NPR's HQ during the two weeks of proceedings.
Turning to coverage of the fifth anniversary of George Floyd's murder, the cohort applauded the Morning Edition series from Minneapolis. Similar to the feedback about Vatican coverage, members of the group appreciated the sounds and sights and voices from Minneapolis that brought the listener and reader into the environment and helped to frame how the city and the community had changed in the years since the murder. There was much appreciation for the reporting of the ME host and her often sharp interviews that dug beneath the surface to get at difficult issues and questions that still lingered. One example: Her interview with the former Minneapolis police chief, who oversaw the force at the time of the murder and who saw one of his precincts go up in flames in violence triggered by Floyd's death. Members of the group also pointed to the piece about mixed feelings about the creation of George Floyd Square – a memorial near the site of the murder that led, among other things, to the closure of surrounding street traffic. The host spoke with people who feel passionately that Floyd and his murder must not be forgotten and listened as nearby business owners – many of them Black – voiced deep concern and even resentment that their businesses had been hurt by these street closures. A digital piece about George Floyd Square, produced by NPR's Minnesota-based criminal justice reporter, also earned plaudits for its nuance and depth.
The cohort acknowledged the piece from Georgia about programs established to help officers deal with the heightened stresses of policing in the post-Floyd era. Another piece touched on reforms instituted after Floyd's murder and examined whether these reforms had gone far enough to protect communities that were frequently harmed by overzealous law enforcement. Both of these pieces were well-done and welcomed, but several members of the cohort believed that more pieces from the law enforcement perspective should have been included to round out NPR's run of coverage. The cohort yearned for pieces that examined how officers in different parts of the country experienced 2020 and how their jobs – or their view of their jobs – had changed since then. They wanted to hear about whether reforms had helped to spark a healing process with communities and bolstered their work, or whether reforms had hampered their ability to protect law-abiding citizens. They wanted to hear from rookie and veteran officers with clean track records about how it felt to be lumped together in the often-fierce criticism and condemnation of all law enforcement from some corners and whether that hostility made them step back from legitimate law enforcement efforts. Are there instances in parts of the country where police have been empowered even more since episodes of looting and other violence in the aftermath of Floyd's murder? How has that worked or backfired? Several cohort members noted that public safety, writ large, was and is an important issue in many parts of the country – an issue that is often exploited for political gain. A broader discussion of law enforcement and safety could have/should have been explored as part of the fifth anniversary coverage, the group agreed.
Finally, one member of the cohort also correctly noted that the Floyd murder spawned a global movement, with rallies and protests in many countries outside the United States, but the NPR-wide coverage did not explore this angle.
Takeaways:
1. Planning matters. For some, the thought of planning could be eye-glazing and be seen as gutting the kind of spontaneity that makes journalism exciting and authentic. But planning actually allows for more timely pivots and bursts of creativity, in part because you go into an event well-informed and well-armed and last minute shifts reflect positive adjustments rather than scrambles to merely keep apace of the moment.
2. Being on the ground matters. Stationing correspondents, reporters and hosts on site allows for the kind of on-the-ground reporting, with distinctive sights, scenes and sounds that often makes NPR coverage memorable.
3. Expertise matters. Whether on religious issues or criminal justice matters, the depth of our knowledge base and reporting gives us an edge in serving audiences that are too often served by generalists at other news outlets.
4. Three-dimensional coverage matters. We serve audiences best when we provide well-rounded coverage that sheds light on the many facets of a complicated issue. In the case of the Floyd coverage, more pieces that focused on law enforcement's experiences would have made the overall body of work even stronger.
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