New England Public Radio taps Kaufman, Kaplan as news program hosts

New England Public Radio this week announced that Jill Kaufman has been named the permanent local host of Morning Edition and Susan Kaplan is continuing her duties as host for All Things Considered.

 

"Jill and Susan are highly-valued professionals with long experience representing the best in public radio journalism," says Martin Miller, CEO and general manager of New England Public Radio. "I am thrilled they are in these positions because I know they will create great radio for our listeners."



 

Kaufman has been a creative force in developing and producing regional programming, including Focus: Western New England, Morning Edition Extra and the new commentary series. Before coming to WFCR in 2005 to be news director, she was an editor at PRI's The World and a Culture Desk reporter, both at WGBH in Boston. Kaufman hosted The Exchange, a live, call-in show on New Hampshire Public Radio. And in her nine years at WBUR-Boston, she was a morning newswriter and produced The Connection with Christopher Lydon. Kaufman this year won an Associated Press Broadcaster's award for her feature, "Hard Work Post-Irene for Shelburne Falls."



 

On her new weekday presence on air, Kaufman says, "Being with listeners Monday through Friday gives me the ability to sit still and pay attention to many more stories, providing our audiences with more content about the world they live in."  

 

Kaplan has been a reporter and host at WFCR since 1995. Her stories have aired nationally on NPR's Morning Edition, All Things Considered,On the Media, Only A Game and PRI's The World. She's the recipient of a 2010 Ochberg Fellowship awarded by the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma based at Columbia University, which supported her reporting on women in the military. For six years she hosted Watercooler, a weekly public affairs program on WGBY-TV in Springfield. Kaplan has received numerous Associated Press Broadcaster's awards.

 

Kpalan says her greatest interest is in reporting news directly impacting NEPR’s listeners throughout the region. "I would love to do as much local programming as possible, and we're ready to do that," she says. "We're very mindful of our whole coverage area. It's a challenge, but we have a commitment to local news. We make a great effort to be inclusive."