Alaska Public Media Promotes Townsend to Chief Editor

A voice familiar to public radio listeners is joining the leadership ranks at Alaska Public Media (AKPM). Lori Townsend is promoted from News Director to Chief Editor and Senior Vice President of Journalism.

In this new position, Townsend facilitates collaboration within the statewide public radio news network and partners with other news organizations to extend the reach of AKPM’s reporting.

Townsend has been a fixture at AKPM for twenty-one years. She began as a reporter and host for Alaska News Nightly. She now manages that operation as well as the local Anchorage newsroom. Townsend also hosts two statewide news and public affairs programs, Talk of Alaska for radio and Alaska Insight for television.

“Lori Townsend is a strategic voice and leader here at Alaska Public Media and for public media’s statewide newsroom,” says AKPM President and CEO Ed Ulman. “During the last eight years, Lori continued to meet the challenges of growing and sustaining the largest news operation in Alaska. This new title acknowledges her work and commitment to ensuring every Alaskan has access to news and information they can trust.”

Townsend has worked in print and broadcast journalism for more than thirty years. She helped broaden AKPM’s capacity through national partnerships, including the recent multi-year grant to launch The Alaska Desk, aimed at enhancing statewide coverage by increasing collaboration across more than a dozen stations. Townsend also shepherds the multi-year rural health news coverage under a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant. Townsend serves as Chair on the Advisory Board for the Alaska Center for Excellence in Journalism.