Jack Speer, NPR newscaster, retires after more than two decades

Jack Speer, one of public radio’s most familiar voices, is retiring after more than two decades at NPR.  Speer, based in Washington, served as a newscaster for NPR since 2007, reporting, writing, editing and producing hourly updates during NPR programming.

Before joining the Newscast Unit, he spent nearly 10 years as a correspondent on NPR’s Business Desk, covering major economic stories and filing reports from across the country. He was part of the team that covered the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and produced stories ranging from one-on-one interviews with CEOs to features on historic institutions, including North America’s oldest brewery and one of the last door-to-door Fuller Brush salesmen.

Speer joined NPR in 1998 following a stint anchoring the Washington Business Journal reports on WUSA-TV in Washington. Earlier in his career, he worked at radio and television stations in Washington, Cleveland, and Trenton, New Jersey.

Speer earned multiple honors, including the American University Journalism Award for Excellence in Personal Finance Reporting, the Washington Journalism Society’s Best Editorial Commentary Award, and the Best Newscaster Award from the New Jersey Associated Press.

In addition, Speer serves as an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University’s Carey School of Business, where he teaches courses on crisis communications and media convergence. He has also presented at national conferences and delivered a TEDx talk on the power of storytelling in learning.

Speer holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and a master’s in journalism from the University of Maryland. He lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with his wife, Colleen Allen. They have two children.