Kevin Martin comes on board as Chief Operating Officer; Michael Isip is named Chief Content Officer.
KQED President John Boland announced two new senior-level appointments today for the public media organization that serves Northern California. Kevin Martin, who has more than two decades of experience as an executive in the national public media system, is named Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer (COO). He is currently Vice President, Station Grants and System Development at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). Michael Isip, who is currently Vice President, Television, at KQED, has been promoted to Senior Vice President and Chief Content Officer (CCO). Martin and Isip will report directly to Boland and will have responsibility for majority of KQED’s staff and operations. Both appointments are effective May 5.
Martin has previously held COO and CFO positions at public media stations in Dallas (KERA) and St. Paul (Twin Cities Public Television) and started his public media career as the Director of Finance and Operations at ITVS (Independent Television Service). Isip brings 18 years of content experience to his new role, including eight years as a senior manager at KQED. He already oversees the KQED Science multimedia unit, which is the largest science reporting desk in California. He led the recent creation of the KQED Arts unit and will next consolidate all KQED News staff under an executive editor to be hired soon.
Martin and Isip join the leadership of one of the largest public media organizations in the country with close to 200,000 members. As a dual-licensee for NPR and PBS, KQED provides the residents of the Bay Area with national and international content alongside regional programming. KQED Public Television, one of the highest-rated public television services, reaches approximately 3 million viewers every week. KQED Public Radio is one of the most listened-to public radio stations in the country with more than 775,000 listeners per week. KQED’s websites (KQED.org and KQEDnews.org) and mobile apps attract nearly 2 million unique visitors each month. In the last year 43 percent of Bay Area residents used a KQED service each week via radio, television, mobile, social or Internet media, or in classrooms.
“KQED is in a period of dramatic change and growth as we transform the organization to meet the rapidly changing needs of the people of the Bay Area, both in terms of new media technology and increased regional coverage,” said John Boland. “I believe we’ve established the right structure with two senior executives leading the implementation of our 21st century strategy, and I have great confidence that we’ve selected the right leaders in Kevin Martin and Michael Isip.”