Nancy Cassutt Ison

Nancy Cassutt Ison was a creative and compassionate news leader whose influence at television, radio and digital newsrooms spanned five decades. Beginning as a television reporter in the 1980s, she went on to help run WCCO-TV News in Minneapolis, Minnesota Public Radio News in St. Paul and the national economics radio show MarketPlace in Los Angeles, among others. She had a reputation for mentoring young journalists and reorganizing newsrooms to effectively navigate an increasingly complex and constantly changing news industry.

Ison died June 19 of a glioblastoma brain tumor at her home in Hudson, WI, surrounded by her family. She was 64.

Known in the news industry as Nancy Cassutt, she began forging her career on the air at WDIO-TV in Duluth, MN, in 1984, covering local government and politics. While reporting on a city council meeting, she met a competitor from the local newspaper. She and Chris Ison eventually would be married for almost 38 years, continuing the journalism competition for much of that time. After a stint reporting in Green Bay, WI, she became the assignment editor at KSTP-TV in the Twin Cities, and then at WCCO. By 1990 she was overseeing the WCCO newsroom as Managing Editor and Assistant News Director.

In 2000, Ison joined a young company called Internet Broadcasting, where, as Vice President for Content and Operations and later a Senior Vice President, she helped create and run news websites for television stations around the country, most of which had done little to adapt to the digital age. In 2010 she was lured to Minnesota Public Radio, where she would go on to manage several departments. Six years later, she became MPR’s Executive Director of News and Programming. In 2019 she became Managing Director of News at MarketPlace, the business and economics radio show in Los Angeles owned by MPR’s parent company, American Public Media (APM), where she helped guide the newsroom during the Covid 19 pandemic.

Ison brought creativity, vision and a strong sense of ethics to her newsrooms. In 2017 and 2018 the popular show “A Prairie Home Companion” became embroiled in a sexual harassment scandal allegedly involving host Garrison Keillor. The show was distributed by APM and was important to the success of APM and MPR. Ison didn’t let that relationship deter her newsroom from critical, in-depth coverage. She separated herself from others on the company’s management team to ensure she could help direct coverage without interference or the appearance of conflict of interest. MPR’s coverage won the Society of Professional Journalists Ethics in Journalism Award. Later, Ison saw promise in a small, start-up news site covering Minnesota’s immigrant community. She invested MPR resources in the Sahan Journal, sharing stories that helped both organizations expand their coverage and reach a larger audience. It also brought what she said was important diversity in coverage and in her staff’s perspective. Today, Sahan is an independent, award-winning news site with a staff of more than 20.

Ison retired in 2022, but that lasted only days. She joined a national marketing agency, and later oversaw the sponsorship sales team at Twin Cities Public Television before her cancer diagnosis forced her to step away to focus on treatment. But the cancer didn’t stop her drive.

A life-long fitness fanatic, Ison continued to work out on the yoga mat and in the weight room. She had long been known to her neighbors as the 5:30 a.m. runner, even on below-zero mornings. She ran a marathon at age 50. At 64, she received her certification to teach yoga sculpt. She was a cross country and water skier, an avid golfer and hiker. Just weeks before her passing, she was still visiting her personalized weight training class, even when she couldn’t leave her wheelchair.

Ison didn’t let her career keep her from being a devoted parent to her two daughters, a loving partner to her husband and a caregiver to her parents. Old friends called her the glue that kept everyone together. New friends seemed to connect instantly. To her two granddaughters, she was simply known as Cece, the fun grandmother who never tired of chases, laughs and hugs.

Ison was preceded in death by her parents, Florian and Joyce Cassutt, longtime teachers from Hudson. She is survived by her husband, Christopher Ison; two daughters, Kathryn (Craig) Skarnes and Allison Ison (husband Scott Morrison); two granddaughters, Esme and Lena Skarnes; brothers Michael (Cindy) and Mark Cassutt; brother-in-law Luther (Deanne) Ison; and many nieces and nephews.

Services will be 11 a.m. Thursday, July 10, at St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church, 4537 3rd Ave. S., Minneapolis. Visitation is one hour prior, at the church. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Arm in Arm in Africa (aiaia.org) or Sahan Journal (sahanjournal.com).