September 3, 2025; Washington, D.C. — NPR announced today that Ryland Barton will be joining the Newscast team as a PM anchor, writing, producing, and delivering hourly national newscasts beginning September 22.
An experienced public media reporter, host, and newsroom leader, Barton came to NPR in 2023 as an editor for the States Team on NPR's National Desk, where he coordinated with reporters across the country to produce stories about state government, policy developments, and the political forces shaping communities nationwide. His editorial leadership and reporting helped audiences understand the critical but often underreported stories emerging from state capitols and local elections.
Most recently, Barton served as NPR's overnight editor, working with reporters in the Middle East, Ukraine, Russia, China and India for Morning Edition and NPR.org. He also reported on funding cuts for NPR and PBS, the legal battle to stop the deportation of Mahmoud Khalil, and the politics of state abortion restrictions.
"I'm a believer in public radio, especially the power of NPR's network to lift up voices from around the country to tell the story of the nation," said Barton. "Newscasts bring the breadth of NPR's excellent reporting to our audience in five minutes. Especially when there is more competition for our attention than ever before, these updates are long enough to inform, but short enough to fit into the audience's busy day. I'm excited to bring that to our listeners with the incredibly talented Newscast team, whom I've been privileged to engage with over the years as a reporter and desk editor."
"We are thrilled to have Ryland join the Newscast team," said Edith Chapin, NPR Senior Vice President, Editor-in-Chief, and acting Chief Content Officer. "His love of public radio and breadth of experience makes him the perfect voice to deliver the news to millions of listeners."
Before joining NPR, Barton worked extensively at public radio stations. At Louisville Public Media, as Managing Editor for Collaboratives, he led a multi-state newsroom covering economic, environmental, and public health issues in Kentucky, West Virginia, and Ohio. He oversaw a state politics team, coordinated regional projects, and he led the network's prize-winning coverage of the mismanaged response to catastrophic flooding in eastern Kentucky in 2022. As Capitol bureau chief at Kentucky Public Radio, Barton covered the ascent of the state's Republican Party and issues of both local and national interest, including COVID restrictions, racial justice protests, and pension reform. At KWBU in Waco, Texas, he was a local All Things Considered host and reporter (where he created the station's first PM newscast); and at KUT, in Austin he was a part-time host, producer, and reporter.
A lifelong public radio listener, Barton fell in love at an early age with programs like Riders Radio Theater — a variety show hosted by Country/Western swing band Riders in the Sky — and listening to All Things Considered on his way home from school. He drove tractors and threshed seed at University of Kentucky's research farm while in high school and college. He graduated from the University of Chicago and received a master's degree from the University of Texas, where he began honing his public radio skills at an NPR workshop in Austin.
The NPR Newscast is the network's most widely distributed audio product, reaching more than 20 million listeners through nearly 1,000 local stations, and its podcast version, NPR News Now, frequently reaches #1 in the Podtrac charts. A dedicated team of journalists works around the clock — 24 hours a day, seven days a week, year-round — to produce 37 newscasts every weekday, including 24 at the top of each hour and 13 at the half-hour during Morning Edition and All Things Considered. On weekends, the Newscast team delivers 24 reports each day, supplemented by concise 45-second headlines twice an hour during Weekend Edition and weekend broadcasts of All Things Considered.
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