VIENNA, Va.—Richard T. Kaplar, president and CEO of The Media Institute since 1981, will step down effective Jan. 31, 2026, the organization said, to be succeeded by former FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly.
Now president of MPORiellyConsulting, O’Rielly served on the FCC as a Republican from 2013 through 2020. During his tenure, O’Rielly supported technologies such as NextGenTV and 5G wireless networks, worked to foster diversity in media ownership and to modernize media regulations that hampered media growth and innovation, the institute said.
Kaplar plans to remain with the Media Institute as a consultant.
“I’ve had the privilege of advancing The Media Institute’s mission for 44 years and especially during these last eight years as its head,” Kaplar said. “It’s been extremely satisfying, but I think it’s time for change. I fully support Mike O’Rielly and I look forward to his energy and ideas for the Institute.”
Kaplar joined The Media Institute in 1981 and served as its vice president from 1984 to 2016. He was named executive director in 2016 and kept that title when he was named as its head in January 2018. He was named president and CEO in December 2018, just the third person to fill that role.
Kaplar has been involved in the creation of every enduring program in the Media Institute’s history, the organization said, including the Communications Forum Luncheon Series that began in 1981; its annual awards banquet that started in 1982 and which he rebranded as the Free Speech America Gala in 2018; and Free Speech Week, which started in 2005.
As the institute’s president, he launched the Digital Media Center in 2020; “The Madison Project: Free Speech and Press in American Democracy” in 2023; and created the Fellows Program that includes O’Rielly, a senior fellow; Distinguished Senior Fellow and Digital Media Laureate Stuart N. Brotman; and James Madison Fellow Patrick Butler.
Kaplar has written, edited or produced more than 40 books and monographs on a variety of communications policy topics. His areas of interest include freedom of speech and the First Amendment; competition and market economics; and government regulation of telecommunications.
In addition to serving as a Media Institute senior fellow, O’Reilly is a member of its First Amendment Advisory Council and serves on the steering committee of its Madison Project.
“I am humbled by the Board’s selection of me to replace Rick Kaplar, who has so ably and honorably served The Media Institute for decades,” O’Reilly said. “The organization’s defense and promotion of the principles within the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment remain critical to our nation and political discourse and will be central to my work at The Media Institute.”
O’Rielly came to the FCC following a long Capitol Hill career, spending 20 years as a staffer in the House and the Senate. He was policy adviser in the Office of the Senate Republican Whip and prior to that was a policy analyst for the Senate Republican Policy Committee.
He began his Capitol Hill career in the House in 1994 as a staffer for Rep. Tom Bliley (R-Va.), then moved to the Senate as an aide to Sen. John Sununu (R-N.H.). He then moved to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where he remained until 2003.
“With a career spanning five decades, Rick Kaplar has been an inspirational leader of the Institute,” said Richard E. Wiley, chairman of The Media Institute’s board of trustees. “We both are pleased to welcome Mike O’Rielly as our new and outstanding President and CEO.”
The Media Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization specializing in communications policy and the First Amendment. For more on the group, visit www.mediainstitute.org.
