Published June 15, 2026 at 4:14 PM CDT

Public media is in the middle of transformative change as NPR and local stations try to navigate the loss of federal funding and the shifting media landscape.

Just last month, NPR offered buyouts to over 300 employees in a move to align its payroll more closely with the new financial picture. It ultimately laid off 10 journalists, accepted 18 buyouts of news staffers, and kept other positions unfilled.

Katherine Maher, the president and CEO of NPR, came to Kansas City last week as the keynote speaker for KCUR's Radioactive fundraising gala.

Maher told KCUR that she believes stations around the country could settle into new and different roles in the future, perhaps in a similar fashion to how libraries have changed in recent years.

"When I was growing up, libraries were a place that you went, you checked out books. Now, libraries are places that you can go, and they have maker spaces, and they have events, and they teach digital literacy, and you can go online and take care of any number of sort of civic services," she explained.

"They're really multidimensional, multigenerational places, and I think public media has the opportunity to make that same transition in terms of what it is to the communities that it serves."

• Katherine Maher, president and CEO of NPR