OPB has named its next leader.
At a time of media consolidations, belt-tightening in public media and an industry-wide struggle to find sufficient revenue from online platforms, OPB’s volunteer governing board voted Wednesday to name Rachel Smolkin, a senior vice president at CNN, its next chief executive officer. She will succeed Steve Bass, who has led OPB since 2006.
Rachel Smolkin, a senior vice president at CNN, has been named OPB's next chief executive officer. She will succeed Steve Bass, who has led OPB since 2006.
Jeremy Freeman / Courtesy of CNN
Smolkin is setting an ambitious goal for herself and for the 100 year-old institution she’ll oversee.
“I want us to build a model together that sets the national standard for multi platform, nonprofit regional journalism,” she said. “I believe that we can.”
Smolkin spent the last 10 years at CNN, starting as an executive editor of CNN Politics and rising to become a senior vice president supervising the company’s global digital news team. Smolkin hasn’t worked in public media, but said she agrees with what it stands for.
“I believe deeply in the public service mission. I believe that our country urgently needs strong local and regional news reporting,” she said. “OPB is a leader in this space now with a deep commitment to public service and a strong business model sustained by the generosity and dedication of our members. And we can continue to build on that.”
The OPB board began the search for a new CEO almost a year ago, after Bass announced his departure. With the help of search firm Spencer Stuart, an eight-member committee of current and former OPB board members conducted a lengthy national recruitment. They landed on a single finalist and ultimately the organization’s preferred leader.
OPB board chair Rukaiyah Adams said Smolkin is the kind of leader OPB needs at this time.
“The work she’s done at CNN to make it the largest digital platform in the world for news is exactly the kind of talent and scale that we need to be thinking about,” Adams said.
Adams noted the media landscape is at a challenging point, as analog broadcast platforms are losing audience, while digital media is expanding. Many media organizations are struggling with how to weather those changes financially.
Smolkin said making that transition will require doing some things differently — but not diminishing the organization’s commitment to journalism.
“The North Star is always going to be the integrity of our journalism. That cannot change,” Smolkin said. “But within that - how we deliver that, how we tell stories — there’s a lot of room to innovate. For media organizations that don’t innovate, that doesn’t go well with audiences.”
Smolkin said OPB has a strong relationship with its audience, and can build on that. She suggests looking to deepen OPB’s connection to its audience to one of engagement, rather than just “serving up content for them.”
“They are really part of the conversation — that there is a place for their voices to come in, for their questions to come in, that we are speaking to diverse audiences and we are hearing from diverse audiences,” Smolkin said. “The assets are there. I think the opportunity is stitching them even more closely together.”
Steve Bass, OPB President and CEO.
K.B. Dixon for OPB
At the same time Smolkin was leading digital news teams at CNN, she was earning an MBA at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. Outgoing CEO Steve Bass says Smolkin’s combination of skills is what OPB needs in his successor.
“Well, she clearly has got very deep journalism experience, which is something the board was looking for,” Bass said. “But it also is combined with a lot of good business sense and a lot of understanding of the digital world. So I think she’s kind of got the trifecta there.”
On the business side, Smolkin will take over an organization that is comparatively healthy in the current media environment, with annual revenue of more than $50 million and a payroll of 266 employees, according to 2022 tax filings. However, public media is facing headwinds more broadly, with recent layoffs announced in major markets, including KQED in San Francisco and WBEZ in Chicago. OPB’s own projections suggest the Portland-based nonprofit will see less growth in the coming years, adding urgency to a transition other media organizations have also struggled with: the shift from relying on legacy platforms for revenue toward making money and building membership from digital content and delivery models aimed at younger and more diverse audiences.
Smolkin, Bass and Adams agree on the kinds of changes OPB needs to make; they involve new ways of sharing stories and exploring ways to diversify the organization’s revenue streams.
“We know where we’re headed. You just don’t know exactly how to get there,” Bass said.
Forging ahead will require innovation and taking risks.
Board chair Adams said she and her colleagues are prepared to support investing OPB funds in trying new business models, even if it means taking risks.
“We will fund a culture shift toward measured risk-taking,” Adams said, while agreeing with Smolkin that the commitment to journalism and storytelling isn’t going anywhere.
“We want the product to remain solid journalism.The risks that [Smolkin] faces are business model risks, not product risks.”
Adams doesn’t see Smolkin as the least bit risk averse, calling her “brave.”
Smolkin said she’s not interested in making big cosmetic changes, like new logos or digital color schemes. Instead, she suggests trying out smaller changes and building on them, rather than making major moves.
But she already sees a few opportunities, such as working more with other nonprofit journalism organizations.
“Connect the Pacific Northwest with other parts of the country where it makes sense to do that, where it benefits our audiences to do that,” Smolkin said. “And there’s a lot of energy right now in the nonprofit space around lifting up local journalism. How do we tap into that?”
Smolkin said she wants to begin her time at OPB by having conversations with staff, listening and learning about public media and the Pacific Northwest, which are both new to her.
Smolkin plans to continue working at CNN until early July. She hopes to move from Washington D.C. to Oregon in August and will start at OPB in September.