Katherine Maher, president and CEO of NPR, has won the National Press Foundation’s 2025 W.M. Kiplinger Distinguished Contributions to Journalism Award. Maher has led NPR since March 2024 – a time of increased polarization, as Congress passed a bill to end federal funding to public broadcasting after decades of bipartisan support.
“Public media is a form of civic infrastructure, strengthening the fabric of our nation through information, culture and connection among citizens,” Maher said in testimony before the U.S. House Representatives in March. “I joined NPR because I believe in the importance of building a strong American public discourse, and the vital role of free information, news, culture, and entertainment in serving a strong and dynamic nation. I believe deeply in public service, and our responsibility to all of our fellow Americans.”
Previously, Maher was CEO of Web Summit and CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation, which oversees Wikipedia.
“First at Wikipedia and now at NPR, Ms. Maher has championed the crucial importance of carefully reported, edited and curated information in the functioning of a democracy,” said Knight Kiplinger, a member of the panel of judges. “She makes it clear that, more than just a national news organization, NPR has 244 member organizations that operate more than 1,000 local public radio stations, each performing a vital information role in their communities. Their survival and prosperity should not be at risk, she passionately argues, for which we commend her.”
Maher accepted the award at the National Press Foundation’s annual awards dinner on March 12, 2026 ,at the Ritz-Carlton Washington, D.C.
History of Journalism Excellence
The Kiplinger Award was created in 1983 to honor persons who have, through their vision and leadership, strengthened American journalism and furthered the efforts to establish the highest quality in American journalism. Previous Kiplinger honorees include Maria Hinojosa, Dorothy Butler Gilliam, George Will, Dick Tofel, Bob Woodward, Diane Rehm, Linda Johnson Rice, Bill Kovach, Seymour Hersh, Helen Thomas and Katharine Graham.
The award is named after W. M. Kiplinger, a pioneer of modern newsletter journalism in the 1920s, as well as personal finance journalism in the 1940s. The Washington seminar program for mid-career journalists that Kiplinger founded later became the Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellowship, a keystone of NPF’s training.
