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In his final days in the Inside Higher Ed newsroom, editor and co-founder Doug Lederman sits down with editor in chief Sara Custer to reflect on a 40-year career in higher education in a new episode of The Key, Inside Higher Ed’s news and analysis podcast.
Lederman talks about what kept him up at night in the early years of Inside Higher Ed and what big breaks came along to help establish it as a trusted news source for universities and colleges across the country.
The two discuss the future of Inside Higher Ed and how its role of explaining higher education to readers and holding institutions to account is more important than ever.
“There has not been a time when higher education has been as vulnerable, and I’m not talking about closing down vulnerable, I’m talking about its hold on the populace and the politicians who help fund it,” Lederman says.
He also talks about losing his first wife and how he kept going while working through grief. While taking care of the newsroom was a welcome distraction, in general workplaces should do more to support people through difficult periods of their lives, he says.
After leading Inside Higher Ed with co-founder Scott Jaschik, Lederman has become a trusted analyst of the sector, often a lone voice offering “tough love” for colleges. He says he plans to continue tackling the challenges he’s covered over his career, but from a different vantage point.
“The mission of higher education continues to make me interested and curious and eager to make a difference, just in a different way to how I’ve been doing it for the past 20 years,” he says.
Listen to this episode of The Key here, and click here to find out more about The Key.
