Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

NPR CEO to retire at end of 2023, Trans Journalists Association is expanding its resources

☀️ Happy Thursday! The Briefing updates you on what’s happened and what’s coming in the news and information world – and what our data tells us about it. Not a subscriber yet? Sign up here!

In today’s email:

  • Top story: NPR CEO to retire at the end of the year
  • Under the radar: The Trans Journalists Association is expanding its resources
  • Looking ahead: Judge to hear arguments in U.S. et al. v. Google next week
  • Chart of the week: How closely Americans are following news about legislation affecting transgender people

🔥 Top story

John Lansing, president and CEO of NPR, said on Tuesday that he plans to retire at the end of the year. Lansing first joined as president and chief executive in 2019 after running the U.S. Agency for Global Media.

According to a recent Pew Research Center analysis on the state of public broadcasting, the average weekly listenership of the top 20 NPR-affiliated stations (by listenership) dropped by 10% from 2021 to 2022. At the same time, NPR’s total operating revenue at the national level in 2022 was $316.7 million, an increase of 8% from the previous year.

🕵️ Under the radar

📅 Looking ahead

Next Tuesday, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia will begin considering arguments in U.S. et al. v. Google. The case, which is the federal government’s first monopoly trial of the modern internet era, focuses on whether Google has illegally used its search business to stifle competition.

According to a 2022 Pew Research Center survey, 44% of Americans think major technology companies should be regulated more than they are now, down from 56% the previous year. The share of Americans who say they want less government regulation of major technology companies roughly doubled in this time, from about one-in-ten in previous years to one-in-five in 2022.

📊 Chart of the week

The Trans Journalists Association is trying to address news coverage of legislation affecting transgender individuals. As of spring 2022, 8% of U.S. adults were following news about bills in several states related to people who are transgender extremely or very closely, a Pew Research Center survey found. An additional 24% said they were following these stories somewhat closely, while most (68%) were following just a little or not at all. Liberal Democrats were more likely than other groups to say they were engaged with news coverage of these bills.

Chart showing that Liberal Democrats are more likely than other groups to be following news about bills related to trans people closely.

👋 That’s all for this week. 

The Briefing is compiled by Pew Research Center staff, including Naomi Forman-Katz, Jacob Liedke, Sarah Naseer, Christopher St. Aubin and Emily Tomasik. It is edited by Katerina Eva Matsa, Michael Lipka and Mark Jurkowitz, and copy edited by David Kent.

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