NPR Reviews

Pros

Close, tight-knit community; plenty of events/celebrations to keep things interesting, recognizable brand name, great location (DC's Chinatown); friendly, helpful staff; very relaxed work environment

Cons

Not too many cons, there has been a lot of shift among senior leadership within NPR, so I think that the organization is still trying to recover. For entry-level jobseekers, there is not a lot of potential for promotion/temp work, etc.

Advice to Senior Management

NPR is still growing, so I would recommend creating more opportunities for job growth, perhaps provide employees with more opportunities for training--but overall they are doing a good job.

Pros

Intelligent staff, good facilities, I was given a lot of respect by my manager and peers. Amazing feeling of community.

Cons

There are very few job openings, so it is somewhat difficult to get hired in your top department. Getting promotions can be competitive.

Pros

It looks good on your resume. That's a given. But cutbacks to the news industry in general mean that good jobs are few and far between. Promotion will require talent, skill, and hard work-- but also luck and timing.

Cons

If you're young enough that money doesn't matter and you can move around to just about any rural backwater you're needed, you might be able to hang on long enough to make it in a bigger market. All of this assumes that you're talented enough to do so, of course.

Advice to Senior Management

Give your affiliate stations more respect. They are the lifeblood of public radio. I attended a regional workshop as one of these "little guy" reporters and was dismayed to see that affiliate-station reporters are really just commodities-- NPR wants them to take risks with their storytelling but it's nearly impossible to do so when you have a stylistically conservative local news editor to answer to.

Pros

Great vision and great implementation back when I left in 2008. Management was very supportive of employees and their growth. There was a lot of money to be invested in quality employees.

Cons

Personally would have liked some cross training for employees so those on the administrative side could get some broadcast and journalism training as well as show the journalists and head honchos how much work went in on the administrative side to make the place run so well.

Advice to Senior Management

Please reach out to all populations and work towards a more diverse voice that both represents and informs the audience.

Pros

- Community-oriented
- Supportive and creative work environment
- Decent starting pay when compared to similar positions in the area
- Laid-back
- Appreciates well-rounded employees
- Open communication

Cons

- Very few positions available
- Little room for advancement

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up the good work! Thanks for making JPR such a fabulous workplace!

Pros

the quality of journalism; the opportunity to work on large, national stories; the quirky mix of hard news and features; the low-key, casual atmosphere and emphasis on balancing work/family life

Cons

the organization is very top-heavy with lots of managers and senior producers; decisions about who is promoted can often seem arbitrary and based more on personal relationships rather than merit; there is little feedback on one's performance; and people's experiences really varies depending on which show/desk they work for and who they report to

Advice to Senior Management

more transparency in decision-making and strategic planning...I would give that advice more to middle managers than to senior ones

Pros

NPR practices high quality journalism and has the best professional standards in radio. Salary and benefits are commensurate with positions. Employees in all departments take great pride in their work. .

Cons

NPR is slow to implement change due to a heavily bureaucratic culture. Senior managers seem more concerned with creating the appearance of change rather than implementing real change. Department heads tend to be authoritarian and unyielding. Everyone seems more concerned about their own department than the network as a whole. Lack of coordinated focus. NPR preaches diversity, but as a workplace it is not friendly toward people from minority groups, who tend to be marginalized or written off.

Advice to Senior Management

Establish a much fairer system of hiring and promotions. Ensure that all departments foster a spirit of inclusiveness, with real sanctions -- not just talk -- for managers who fail to do so. Stop the internal competition between the various shows for resources.

Pros

The satisfaction of working at a place that does such high quality journalism and music/cultural programming. (You get to listen to NPR all day!) Also, the nature of its "product" makes it an extremely interesting place to work. You learn something every day and you're working with very smart, enthusiastic people who could be working elsewhere and making more money. There's a real dedication to National Public Radio's mission and to quality journalism in every department -- not just the ones actually creating the broadcasts. Folks in human resources or legal, for example, are just as committed to the organization.

Cons

There's a lot of intrafamily squabbling in public broadcasting, which can make it hard to get things done sometimes. You really have to figure out the relationships not just at NPR but at local stations as well. What is good for NPR is not always what's good for local stations and so stations fight NPR quite a bit (they fought NPR having a web site, for example, out of fear that listeners would just listen to NPR programming online instead of tuning into a station. But online, of course, was where media was headed and all they accomplished was painfully delaying the inevitable.)

Advice to Senior Management

Be less fearful about trying new things.