If you think public media is all tote bags and pledge drives, think again. In an era of deep fakes, echo chambers, and clickbait, public media may just be our last best hope for staying both informed and, well, sane. Enter Jayme Swain, CEO of VPM (that’s Virginia Public Media), a bold leader with a newsroom in one hand and a blueprint for democracy in the other.
In this episode of Women Advancing, we go way beyond “what’s on PBS tonight” to unpack the power of local storytelling, the truth about trust in journalism, and how one media leader is building a more connected, curious, and civically engaged public; one podcast, open mic night, and revitalized newsroom at a time.
Jayme shares how VPM is not only rewriting the narrative of public media but reclaiming its place as a force for good, a cultural compass in chaotic times. We talk innovation, leadership, news literacy ( Gen Z gets it), and why the Daily Show might be one of the best civics teachers out there. Discover why public media remains vital in fostering trust, critical thought, and meaningful connections in our society.
Hit play, then hit share. Democracy depends on it.—
Watch the episode here
Listen to the podcast here
Rewriting The Script: News, Community, Leadership, And The Long Game; Reimagining Public Media With Jayme Swain, CEO And President Of Virginia Public Media
Everyone, what happens when you hand the mic to a media powerhouse who believes media broadcast isn’t dead yet, and nor is it for pledge drives. It’s sure as heck is different than what your grandparents used to listen to. You get Jayme Swain, who’s the CEO of VPM. That’s Virginia Public Media. She’s a woman who’s rewriting the rules of storytelling in real time. In this episode, we dig into what it means to lead with purpose, the magic of local journalism, and why the future of media might just be a little more public and a lot more powerful, and so much more accessible than we think. This one it’s a broadcast of bold ideas. Read and then share yours.
We are so lucky you are in for such a treat, readers. We have got Jayme Swain, who’s the CEO of VPM, that’s Virginia Public Media, joining us. We’re going to do a deep dive into all things Jayme, but also really doing a highlight and a focus on the importance of media, but also local media and how we can start to trust again with media. I don’t want to get ahead of myself. Jayme, welcome to the show.
Thank you so much for having me. I just love the whole philosophy and idea of this wonderful podcast and I’m thrilled to be here.
From Commercial Chaos To Public Media Purpose
Believe me, you make it shiny and new, but let’s just jump right in if you don’t mind. I get excited, and I just want to go right there. Lady Media Leader and I’ve had conversations with a few, with Amy Bernstein, who’s the editor-in-chief of HBR. I’ve had Stephanie Meadow join me. I’ve had Sandy Hausman. You’ve led at both PBS and VPM. What first pulled you into the world of public media? Was there a moment when you knew “This is my calling?”
There was a moment.
Really?
Yes. I always knew I was going to be into television. I knew I wanted to be in journalism. I’ve always worked in commercial media, and I was at a startup, and it was journalism adjacent, and it was chaotic, and it just got to me. I think I was at a point in my life where I said, “I want to do something more meaningful.” Literally, in 2008, I begged PBS to take me. I was interviewing around DC, it was in DC at the time, mostly commercial media. I remember McNeil there as a kid. I grew up with Channel 13, being from the Jersey shore. I wanted to come back to my roots. I wanted to come back to something meaningful and spend my time making a difference. That’s why I ended up at PBS.
When you wanted to be in media, was it from the journalistic side, or was it in front of a camera, or a combination of both?
It originally started just anything with television. Again, I’m a child of the ‘80s. I watched everything from game shows and soap operas to MTV, but we feel a lot of when I listen back or I reflect back, I remember Cokie Roberts. I remember we would sit in and watch Tom Brokaw every night. These were the days when we didn’t have a lot of channels, and we would talk about it as a family.
We got the newspaper. We got Newsweek. We actually were a pretty voracious news consumer family. I had the indelible mark on me that information is important. When I started my thinking about my career in media, I definitely decided to pick the journalism path. I knew I wasn’t reporter. The producer route was much more my wheelhouse. I like to be behind the scenes, making it come together, telling those stories and making it work.
Information is important. Share on XThat’s so funny. We were a Newsweek family, too.
You’d get it every week and I remember pouring through it as a kid, we would talk about it. We would talk about the New York Times. We talk about USA Today, Time Magazine. These were all things that were in and out of my family all the time.
For us, it was also National Geographic. I can remember we would make popcorn, and then we’d go watch 60 Minutes.
I think about the Sunday morning shows. That’s where I fell in love with Kobi. We watched the McNeil Lair news hour. There were times we would sit down and watch a documentary. I think that was drilled into me, this sense of information. Not just watching or observing that, talking about it, debating about it, saying, “These are the facts we just saw. Let’s talk about it. We might all have different perspectives.” To me, that’s what we’re missing now. What is it that we can all trust and get behind, and then convene and discuss? Certainly, my brother, my dad, and my mom and that we didn’t all agree on everything, but that was the basis of that conversation.
I couldn’t agree more the importance of just critical thinking and just debate. I also think for that very reason, it instills and it seeds in you just bare curiosity.
That’s right.
It’s not a judgment. “I’m right, you’re wrong.” Not about that. It’s like, “How do you see it that way?” How did you come to that without any judgment or value statement attached to it?
I’d say to people now, I talk to a lot of people about news and the news ecosystem, particularly local, and at a time where public media is being criticized. One of the things I say to people is that the news is not here to validate your belief system or your values. It is here to make you think. If you think something’s biased, do a couple of things. Ask why that is. Maybe read another source. Ask what you are thinking, like why do you think it’s biased?
I know not everyone can do this, and you mentioned critical thinking, but I read all kinds of different stuff. I don’t believe any one thing because I try to say, “How does this come together? What’s ringing true?” If I see it in similar places, and again, I’m a traditionalist, I’ll look at the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, and still things like The Economist, and obviously public media. I pull together, “Here’s what I think is coming forward.”
I think it’s really interesting that you raised this point because you look at a number of different sources. In this era of AI, where we’re going in and riddle me this and get that answer, I think one of the biggest dangers and it’s tied to that is that people don’t take the time to do what you just said, to question, to counter, to build a quilt, if you will, or build a series of different conversations. It’s just like, “That’s what the computer told me.”
That’s right. Maybe AI will make us more discerning and a little bit more skeptical. It’s funny. I saw a 60 Minutes piece where they were talking about teaching digital literacy, but AI literacy to students, like teenagers. What they said at the end? We’re like, “This was great, but can you show my mom this? Can you show my dad this?” It’s because they grew up in this. We always think, “They don’t have digital literacy.” I think some of the worst offenders are people of my generation. I’m a Gen Xer looking at my parents, boomers, others, not thinking because it’s not innate to us. It’s not something that we’re used to.
AI will make us more discerning and a little bit more skeptical. Share on XDebunking Myths: Modernizing Public Media’s Image
It’s so funny. I had mentioned earlier before we got on that I had done this conversation, one of these three presentations, to a group of auditors. One of them was all about the different generations. Of course, the five key pain points are really that the industry is embattled with. One of them, of course, is tech and disheartening.
One of the younger set, it’s probably a Z, said in the chat, “I just wish that my Boomer colleagues would just take a chance and open up the tools and just see if it would work.” I do think it’s right. I often think, I thought this since I worked with the George Lucas Education Foundation, I had kids coming to me and telling me, “Kate, we have to dumb down when we get into the classroom.”
That’s not because the teacher’s stupid. They just don’t know how to use the technology. They’re just not as abreast, that’s just the pace has they’ve surpassed us. Who should be teaching whom? Is there a way we could do a little bit of a broader embrace of reciprocal mentorship on all things? What’s the biggest myth about public media that you find yourself constantly debunking because people are swinging and taking hits with the media now? What is that?
There are a lot of myths. I think one of them is that we’re for your grandparents. We’re for that old school, TV, radio. That is one of the biggest myths. We VPN, so just if people don’t know what that is, so much of the public media is truly local. You’ll hear about PBS, you’ll hear about NPR, but where we started was local media, local stations that used broadcast for educational purposes.
In 1967, the FCC chairman at the time, Newton Minow, said, “These broadcast airways have become this vast wasteland. Let’s set aside broadcast spectrum for educational purposes.” LBJ put together the Public Broadcasting Act, which has a federal appropriation. One myth is that it goes to PBS and NPR. It goes to stations like ours and BPM, headquartered in Richmond, covering central Virginia and stations across the country.
There is a view that we’re still, that we’re just these old TV people. I can tell you, Kate, like our newsroom, we’re on Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, and Blue Sky. We want to be where people are. I think public media can be more innovative due to the public-private partnership that the federal dollars currently support, because we’re accountable to the American people.
Public media can be more innovative due to the public-private partnership that the federal dollars currently support because we're accountable to the American people. Share on XWe need to make sure we’re where all of the folks are watching. The reality is that it is changing rapidly. It’s not like we’re worried about selling ads on television and that’s drawing up, or we’re some conglomerate somewhere. We are local media. We are owned locally, which is some of the only local media across this country. We are innovative. We’re constantly innovative. I think that the VAT wasteland statement is more prominent now.
If you go online, if you are a 22-year-old and you’re looking for relevant information on TikTok, don’t you want us there? Don’t you want your local public media? Guess what? My reporters are the same age as those people. They’re young. They’re diverse and they live in a community, and they can be trusted. I think that’s under attack. To me, isn’t that who you want your kids to listen to? Isn’t that who you want to be able to find on these platforms?
Innovation At VPM: Podcasts, YouTube, And Revitalizing Style Weekly
It’s really interesting. I’d never really thought of it through that lens in so many ways. It’s peer reporting.
That’s right.
Who better? They’re at least, especially as you just said, you want to meet everybody where they’re at. If you want a trusted source, more often than not, a peer is going to have some, you’re going to start from a similar understanding level. I would think for sure. How do you define innovation when you’re in this media-driven media org like yours? You tap some of it, but what are some of your prouder products as of late that demonstrate that people could go and check out?
It’s a great question. When I came to VPM in 2019. You do have an organization that’s been around. We’re actually celebrating our 60th anniversary this year, which is something that people were in people’s homes. They have a deep affiliation and affection for it. At the same time, we need to reinvent ourselves. We need to reinvent what public media looks like in 2025.
We launched podcasting. I hope people check out our podcast. We have an investigative podcast called Admissible: Shreds of Evidence. That’s an extraordinary truth. You like those people who like true crime, your podcast folks that are listening. Check it out because we are one of the only people who did that local story on podcasting, deep investigative journalism. Again, we’re on social media. We’ve launched YouTube channels.
We have YouTube, and we’re doing local news on YouTube. We’re even doing Spanish language short-form YouTube because we have a growing Spanish language audience here in central Virginia. Check that out. Follow Style Weekly. Style Weekly was an alternative publication that started in the 1980s in the Richmond region. It was then bought and sold many times.
Finally, a Hedge Fund called All in the Global Capital bought a bunch of assets from Tribune Media Company, and they’ve done this across the country, and they shuttered it. We came in to buy Style Weekly. You can go to StyleWeekly.com. It was a weekly paper. That business model doesn’t work anymore. We said, “Let’s step back and really think about what it is.” We do four publications a year that are stunning. They’re really for your coffee table.
Our Instagram will get like hundreds of thousands of views because it’s spectacular. It tells you, “People also want to know what artists are coming in town. What new restaurant is coming? Who’s coming to the VMFA? As in the community, we want to know what’s happening in the community, not just the politics, but the celebrations and the activities, and style does that, but in a new way. I hope people can go to VPM.org, StyleWeekly.com, and sample public media, and you might be surprised at just the breadth and depth of what we’re doing.
It’s funny, isn’t it? People are thinking, “It’s so stodgy,” but really, what might be stodgy is their outdated beliefs.
I think the myth is that you figure grandpa’s public media is not what it is today, certainly.
Building Trust: Transparency And Community Engagement
The trust piece, as you were just talking about, we were just covering. We all know it’s fractured in general, just public trust in media in general is how do you lead an organization that has to balance that line of both informing and building trust, but you’re doing it across a number of different audiences?
Trust is something we think about every day. Our entire business model is based on trust. The idea is that, as your readers, if you trust what we’re doing and we’re bringing you relevant content, we hope you support us with your hard-earned dollars. We have to earn that trust every single day. I think there are a couple of pieces about that. One is authenticity. We need to be authentic. You need to feel that you can trust what we’re saying.
You can trust the information. You can trust the storytelling. We have to reflect the diverse communities we serve. That means in all of its fullness. Whether that’s race, ethnicity, age, geography, viewpoint, you need to be able to see yourself in what we do that’s relevant to you. We also need to be transparent. Particularly on the news front, again, there are myths about our journalism, but we post our ethics and standards right on our website.
You can come, we do regular open sessions where you can meet our journalists. I think that’s incredibly important. We do a lot of opportunities to say, “Tell us what you think, and that shapes our coverage.” Every year for the general assembly, we do what’s called the people’s agenda. Out there, what do you want to know?
Not just what we’d want to know, sitting in some room somewhere, making up what we think people care about. No, we’re public media. Asking, and then you respond to that. Don’t ask people for feedback and then not do anything with that. Again, that’s inauthentic. That’s not very transparent. I think there are a couple of values that we hold dear that hopefully help us earn that trust. Again, we think about this each and every day, and we live in the community.
We go into the community. It’s not just broadcasting. It’s convening people together. It’s being out there. It’s hosting events. I’m constantly out in the community. People have my email, so they can talk to me. I’m not just some figurehead somewhere. I live here. I’m on boards here. I’m involved here. I care about the community just like my neighbors.
I was just going to say community figure, cause you are incredibly accessible, which is so not often the case. At least with my past media experience, that was so not the case at all. You’re talking about some of those innovation pieces and things you’re pushing things like social media and such. Has there been a decision that you made as CEO that felt risky, but it paid off?
Bold Moves: Building A New Home For Virginia Public Media
Every day. I’m a risk taker. I lean into risk. I think the biggest thing that we have going on right now is that we are building a new building in Dallas. Our current headquarters in Richmond is a 1964 facility that’s in Chesterfield County. It was always a wonderful home for us, but we sit under 1000 ft broadcast towers that the facility is aging. It doesn’t have the technology that we need to do all that innovative work I just talked to you about.
My basis surrounded by retail and housing, and you cannot find us. That doesn’t feel very public. I give a lot of credit to the board. It was a time to take a bold step. Building from the ground up a brand new building. We are moving into downtown Richmond. Your readers who know Richmond, we’re going to be a few blocks from the General Assembly and the state capital. We are on Broad Street, which is truly the heart of our city.
We believe in Downtown, Richmond, but I was down there, it’s a big thing, Kate, building a building. I learned a lot of the construction that I don’t ever want to have to remember again, but it’s risky. Now we’re doing this in the midst of a federal funding fight where we could lose a significant amount of resources. At the end of the day, it is still an incredibly important investment in VPM in our future, in our talent, in our community.
Now in moments like what we’re going through now, is what we value as a community. I value our local storytelling. I value information. I value our neighbors and our community. I think that building is not just for VPM, it’s for everybody. It’s still the best decision. While people ask me, “Are you guys still going to do this?” “Yeah,” I don’t know if people have noticed, but if anyone drives around Richmond, it’s nearly up. Yes, we’re fully committed to moving that forward, no matter what happens with federal funding.
That’s terrific. That’s also just another way to change, I’m going to say, the trajectory of different people’s ideas of what they could do and what they could be.
That’s right. It was a mindset without us completely. I think we’re on a consideration set that we haven’t been. We’re more relevant. Again, we have to be relevant to the people that we serve. We serve so much of Virginia that being in our state capitol is incredibly important to the constituencies across the state.
Regional Storytelling: Elevating Underheard Voices
Also, you like risk. I’m a risk lady myself and shaking things up, but I know that’s what some of your news coverage has been doing. What’s your vision for the future of the region?
There’s broadly about region.
Our regional storytelling. Let’s put it that way. I’ll say it that way.
Again, I think what’s been interesting is if you look at the media ecosystem, so much of our storytelling has been nationalized. If you look at your local broadcasters, a lot of those TV people are owned by larger companies headquartered elsewhere. The newspaper industry, which is largely collapsing, anybody that’s left has a lot of those owned elsewhere.
Luckily have a few family-owned papers and things hanging on. The question is, what does storytelling look like? For me, again, community storytelling, the reason I went from PBS to local is because what matters day in and day out is what is happening in your community. What is going on? How do people get involved? How can we be good citizens? I think public media is a great place to be stepping into that storytelling vibe.
Not just news, but just to give you some other examples, we found that when we looked at our region, we have a large rural population. When we surveyed people, people feel like their stories aren’t heard. There are a lot of pejoratives about rural communities, like a poor rural community. The truth is, there are amazing innovations happening in our rural communities across Virginia.
What we decided to do is have a series called Life in the Heartland, and it’s produced by two producers that come out of Staunton, Virginia, so it’s people who live here telling the stories of other people who live here. It spotlights different communities and different things happening across rural Virginia. We can then do events and convenings. I tell you, people are like, “Thank you, because our stories weren’t out there.
We weren’t heard, and these things were elevated, and we should all care. It doesn’t matter that such and such thing is happening in Augusta County. That’s still Virginia.” It’s that type of thing. We did a documentary about Edna Lewis. Edna Lewis was a black chef, but no one had heard of Edna Lewis. She had some of the greatest impact on culinary arts and how we think about food than anyone, but that wasn’t a story that was ever told.
It was a story that was buried. We brought that forward. That is now a national documentary on PBS. People across the country can see that and experience Edna Lewis. To me, our culture, our society, strong communities are built on stories, on storytelling. If we do it, who will be there to do it? My vision is for a strong, robust public media and others, not just us, humanities organizations, and other media outlets doing the work to elevate and celebrate all that we have going on here in the Commonwealth, or wherever the community that you live in.
I was going to tap. I was going to ask what you’re doing to ensure that voices historically that are underrepresented, and also just equity-based programming, which may be hit from funding and such. It sounds like you’ve got that more than covered.
I think because it’s in our DNA. It’s that we have to represent the fullness of everybody that we represent. That means being authentic, being in community, listening, and saying, “We hadn’t heard this story, and you have to build that trust.” You cannot just go into a community and say, “Tell me your story.” It takes time, and you have to build those relationships. Someone will come to you and pitch you an idea, or you’ll be able to create that environment where someone brings you in.
We’re actually working on a documentary about Abraham Skipwith who is the first black homeowner in Richmond and on Enjoli and Sesha Moon have been working on some research about Jackson Ward here in in the Richmond region and how it was the Harlem of the South it was a this burgeoning growing area and it was one of these areas that was destroyed but his story nobody knows that story same thing with vinegar Hill in Charlottesville. We did a documentary called Raised/Razed about urban renewal and the concept behind it, but this community was flattened.
Kate, when we showed that in Charlottesville, I had people in tears who said, “I have lived here my entire life and had never heard that story.” I felt like we were so honored that Lorenzo Dickerson did that work with us because he trusted that we would give him the space and the ability to do the story and tell how he felt it should be told as somebody who was a descendant of a family from Vinegar Hill. That’s how we think about it. It’s being in community. It is building relationships and it’s being that trusted place, hopefully. That’s across the board, whoever comes to us.
Culture Eats Strategy: Lessons From Big Media And PBS
I think you’ve done a terrific job with it all. It’s counter cause you’ve gone this local embrace and role of, “We’re the steward.” As it really comes through to me. You’ve worked in big media, though, and those media systems. Is there a lesson that you carried over from there that’s been helpful?
I think from a national media. Certainly, you learn the tools of the trade, and you learn from some of the best of the best. Some of my mentors and people who are incredibly strong. It’s CNN, there are some incredible reporters and producers, and others I was able to be around. I think I take away something that was challenging in those big places, and it was culture. I really believe the phrase culture will eat your strategy for breakfast.
They make television shows off of this stuff. Newsrooms can be vicious places. You work a lot of hours. You’re not getting paid very much. It can be ugly. I was in the startup world. That was very ugly. I think what I came away from is that you can create a media environment where you can have a culture where people feel seen, heard, and that you have a belonging.
They can thrive and be their best. We don’t have to scream at people. We don’t have to behave in a way that I think, I don’t know why that became a culture in media companies, and it still happens to this day. People that you have might have talked about this, but it stuck with me. When I went to PBS and I saw an entirely different culture led by one of the best women, Paula Kerger, who’s been the head of PBS for almost nineteen years, is one of the best media leaders in the country.
What she was able to do and build, and how she was able to create that and part of it is that she brought people in who believed so much in the mission, who cared so much. Again, fostering that culture of people thriving. I think I get better work out of people and more out of people than screaming at somebody or just doing the things, some of the terrible behavior I saw in newsrooms or other places, other media organizations.
That behavior, it stays, you cannot unsee it, and you cannot un-feel it. Even thinking about some of the moments that I’ve had to endure, and I’m sure so many reading have had to too, but it makes you a little queasy. Jayme, what three words would you use to describe your own leadership as a result?
When I think about my leader, I always try to think about it, not what I think, because then I’m like, am I? I’ll tell you what they would say, because they tell it to me. One, I am a driver. I’m an athlete, but like I’m also a driver. I push hard. That is true of me. I’m an athlete again, and I’m a sprinter, particularly. I do push hard. I’m decisive. I think that’s one thing I’ve seen in other leaders.
I’m like, “I’m not going to be that. We’re going to pick a path. We’re going to go and we’re not going to navel gaze for too long.” I think they’d say I was decisive. I think the thing I hope that they say, though, is that I’m also supportive. I’ll tell you, like during COVID, it was an interesting leadership moment because the driver was someone with a high bar, like, “Here we go, guys.” I realized, “Wait a minute. I people are hurting. People are scared.
I have to dial the driver down, and I have to dial the compassion up. I have to dial the supportive nature of me up.” That wasn’t a natural space to be, but I hope that people feel that I support their careers. I support them personally that I care about them, because ultimately it’s all about people. I want everyone who’s working with me and my colleagues, who I’m so fortunate to work around that they feel that. Yes, I might drive. Yes, I might move the goalposts and excellence. Yes, I might do those things, but inherently that I do care about them as people.
It's all about people. Share on XI’m believing, I’m sure that comes through in spades, I’ve got to say. I remember leading in COVID, and I was spending so much time in our little squares. I remember we would have to go to Slack, and you would have to pick a word, and you would have to pick an emoji every day that said “How are you feeling?” At first, I rolled my eyes, going, “Are you kidding me?” It got to be fun to see who could be the goofiest or who could be the most outrageous or or or so. It’s true. It opens your eyes.
We bring stuff to work. I’ve been a hard driving, especially in that commercial media landscape, nobody cares what’s going on at home, show up, and if you work your twelve hours. There were some traumatic things. I remember being on the newsroom floor when Columbine happened. There are things that we all go through in that ecosystem. Again, remembering that we’re humans and people are coming in, they’ve got issues with their kids.
We have so many folks dealing with caregiving for parents. You have to just, again, put that compassionate hat on and remember that people are their whole human self and there’s a lot going on there. It’s hard as a leader because you’re trying to, “You see a vision. I have a vision. I want to push towards it, but at the same time, you just want to make sure.” That was a lesson for me during COVID. That’s not an innate place for me, but it was a really good lesson for all leaders.
Encourages such a winning result of that is extraordinary loyalty, and also because the people feel heard. That’s definitely really the true definition of belonging. Understood. Also understanding, “That’s what this person’s going through today. I may be going through it tomorrow.”
That’s right. I might need that empathy. I might need that grace. I might pull the E card. A lot of leaders someone will say to me, again, I’m an ISTJ, like, “Be human. Jayme, give a human moment. How’s that going to be?” True because I had my own issues. If I gave grace and empathy to others, then when I’m not at my best, sometimes people think a leader is like, I’m not a machine. I’m still human, too. I just happen to be in this seat at this moment, stewarding this. That’s a real privilege and a real responsibility, but I, too, go through things and don’t always show up at work at 110%.
Daily Show Inspiration & Career Relationships
One thing, I’m sure there’s got to be some media that fuels you and be the nurses or inspires you. What’s a podcaster show you wish that you had created?
I’m going to go with The Daily Show. I love The Daily Show. I’ve loved it for a long time. I think what I love about it is that it’s smart and funny. It’s not if I could do something that clever, but I just think it’s also simple. It didn’t have to do anything crazy, but I wrote a religious John Stewart and Trevor Noah. Now John’s back on Monday, so I do try to tune back in, but I remember when he left, I thought, “I’m not going to be able to get through the day without John Stewart.”
It’s true. I agree. That’s often what I’ll do at the end of the day. It’s just to get some humor. Remind me why this is funny. It’s true. It’s really helpful. That’s funny. In closing, if you could give your younger self a one-liner of career advice, knowing what now, what would it be?
I think build relationships. I wish there had been some relationships I had kept stronger over time. I jumped at a lot of jobs. That was just the nature of media at the time, but the relationships that I did build always helped me in the end. I think it opened doors for me. What I see, honestly, when I look at younger people, particularly young folks who experienced COVID and sat behind a screen and maybe don’t come into an office, you’re missing building those networks and those relationships and learning and observing from those people that will pay off in spades.
The reason I’m in my job is I had I was invited into rooms, people saw me, I was able to observe how people handle different things, and that made me grow as a human. That’s what I want for people graduating. I know so many of our young folks are in that space, and if I were in that space or I would say to me, “It’s people. It’s relationships. It’s learning. Having that curiosity and feeling and keeping that network strong and reaching out to people.”
Right deal. Don’t burn bridges because it is true. You just never know. I also think as a reminder to we can all help someone, even with a college graduate. There’s a high school kid who wants to get in so that that whole notion of giving back and paying forward and that thing.
People want to help. I think if I could have told myself that, “I don’t want to bother somebody.” You’re not bothering, especially coming out of the University of Virginia or whatever college, people have these alumni networks. I’ll get kids who write me on LinkedIn or who always talk to them always. I’ll tell them “Link me in. If you need something, come back.” I’ve had one person do it, and she ended up at NPR. Some people will say, and then I never hear from them again, but I truly built that, and people will help you if they can.
I will say that I believe this is particularly true of senior-level folks because everyone assumes they’re too busy. They’re not going to want to listen. The truth is, it is lonely up there. Also, not saying that you do this, especially if you have teenage kids, but it’s nice for someone to have someone who thinks you do have some wisdom to offer. Just saying. It’s not all a big eye roll, but where there is value. Again, it’s nice. I think it gives you a terrific opportunity to find out what’s going on out there in the trenches, what people are thinking, what’s landing, what’s not. It’s a gift to you as well.
I agree. I love talking to young people. One, I think just paying it forward. I feel that certainly, as I’ve been helped paying it forward, but just you keep young by surrounding yourself with different generations. I always have her people with questions and me, I think it helps me as a leader. Helps me as an executive here at BPM, and I think that mentorship piece is incredibly important. What a gift I get later in my career. It’s a wonderful gift, and I appreciate engaging with people.
Wonderful. Everyone, you know who to reach out to now. You’re going to get flooded with an inbox, but seriously, Jayme, thank you so much for all your insights, your generosity, and also just for being you and really taking on this mantle of public media and making it open leaning the doors and helping change its narrative so that people see it through a really great light because it’s got so much to offer with you at the helm, even that much more.
That’s very kind. Thank you very much, Kate. I love the podcast and helping women. This is wonderful. Thank you for all you do.
Thanks so much.
—
What a terrific conversation with Virginia Public Media’s CEO, Jayme Swain. To me, it’s no surprise either that she was an athlete, because it’s been discovered and just revealed that 94% of those females in C-suite positions were about 52% of them who continued to play throughout college. Go, female athletes, leading the way. What I appreciated was Jayme’s openness. I think we’re so fortunate to have someone who is as authentic and takes the role of steward of something as important to those of us who are news consumers to heart.
Key Takeaways: Public Media Reimagined & Leadership Lessons
The three takeaways that I appreciate the most are the fact that PBS is not your grandparent’s news by no means by no stretch of the imagination. In fact, it has had to double down on innovation and cutting-edge executions of stories. They’ve done a terrific job leaning in big to social media. I guess the takeaway there for me is just keep revisiting your narrative and making sure if you’ve done a brand audit and you hear and see that people are thinking something that isn’t true, get up, get busy, and change it.
Go public media on that front. Second, interesting to me that the piece that Jayme took away from running and having executive positions in large media houses was the importance of culture. It looks as though, and good on her, for taking a moment to realize, “My natural inclination, I’m going to have to adjust that and make room for the lives and the styles of those who report to me.” She’s obviously done a great job because they’re doing some great reporting. Lastly, the piece where she shared about the advice she would give herself, knowing what she knows, which is building relationships.
We all know inherently that that’s important. One of the reasons why it is, is now more than ever, people are doing all sorts of career shifts. How many pivots can you do? All of those relationships you have and that network, those are the folks that are going to help you in the end. Be sure to be kind and help those behind you, and even those ahead of you. You’d be surprised. You’ve got your own wisdom that they could use. With that, I look forward to continuing the conversation with you. Let me know what you think. What were your three takeaways? Drop them in the chat. Thanks. until I see you again for the next episode.
Important Links
- Jayme Swain on LinkedIn
- VPM
- Amy Bernstein on LinkedIn
- Sandy Hausman on LinkedIn
- Admissible: Shreds of Evidence
- Style Weekly
- Raised/Razed
About Jayme Swain
Jayme Swain is President and CEO of VPM, Virginia’s home for public media, and the Virginia Foundation for Public Media.
At a transformational time for the organization, Swain oversees VPM, a network of PBS and NPR stations across Central Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley that connects nearly 2 million people to insightful programming in arts and culture, history, science, news and education.
Under Swain’s leadership, VPM has strengthened its position as a trusted source of news and information for Virginians and a powerhouse distributor of multiplatform, award-winning content for local and national audiences. She is also overseeing the construction of VPM’s new headquarters in downtown Richmond, which will open to the public in 2026.
As the leader of the Virginia Foundation for Public Media, she manages the stewardship and advancement of an endowment to support VPM’s mission and vision, ensuring the future of public media in Virginia for generations to come.
Swain is a media executive with over 25 years of experience in broadcast, print and digital with top brands such as PBS, CNN, FOX Sports and U.S. News & World Report.
She is active in public media and the community. She serves on the PBS Board of Directors and is chair of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee. She is also a member of the Organization for State Broadcasting Executives.
Locally, she serves on the University of Virginia’s Karsh Institute of Democracy Advisory Board as well as the Board of Directors for Elevate Early Education (E3), the Community Foundation for a greater Richmond, the Richmond Performing Arts Alliance, the Virginia Association of Broadcasters and ChamberRVA.
Ms. Swain is a graduate of the University of Virginia.