When Molly Phillips arrived at Iowa Public Television in 1989, she was “just happy to have a job.”

Those days, she processed payments in the business office. Later she was director of communication and lobbied.

Now she runs the place. And she plans to retire there. “I’m a lifer,” she said. “I have learned so much at this place. I am not planning to leave. This is my absolute passion.”

Phillips took over in April 2013 after her predecessor and longtime friend, local journalism giant Dan Miller, retired. Now that Phillips has more than settled into the job, we stopped in at IPTV’s Johnston headquarters to discuss her career path and the future of the operation.

What has your journey been like at IPTV?
I grew up on “Sesame Street.” When people asked where I worked, I would say, ‘Iowa Public Television; you know, they have those kids’ shows we all grew up on.’ Now, I could give you an hour or two explanation of everything we do. I always say I don’t know if there is an Iowan out there who doesn’t get something from Iowa Public Television. From womb to tomb. We offer something for everyone. 

Teachers are using all of our assets and PBS learning media in the classrooms, and parents are coming to family nights and getting apps for their phones and iPads so the kids can still use them when there isn’t Wi-Fi, and they can still be learning. We are out in the schools and daycare facilities. We have a kids’ show now. From there we go to the adults who are getting inspiration or education from the shows we provide or from watching the shows on the internet. Two million people watch us every month, and 360,000 kids tune to us every month. Those are numbers that we are very, very proud of. 

How has IPTV changed? 
It has changed just dramatically. I don’t think there was internet, or there was very little (when I started). Now, we think of internet or our web site as another channel. We have three channels now on air. But we are getting more and more about using the web as another channel. We know that not everyone sits down and watches TV, and we certainly know not everyone is watching it when we are airing it. They are recording it. I was here when we switched from analog to digital. We had a huge presence in talking to people about how to get television now. What do you need to do when we go digital? It cost us about $48 million to convert. That was a huge undertaking by everybody at the station.

You chose veteran political analyst David Yepsen to take over as moderator of “Iowa Press” from another Iowa journalism legend, Dean Borg. You had Scott Siepker on your outdoors program before he was “Iowa Nice Guy.” How do you decide what talent to bring in part time to bolster your full-time staff of 100?
To fill Dean Borg’s shoes is huge, and the credibility that (Yepsen) brings is just tremendous. The name is known, he is known. We’ve gotten great feedback. (Siepker) is everywhere now. He’s very funny. We have Mike Pearson, who is hilarious but a gentle giant. We have Charity Nebbe (of Iowa Public Radio). We have some of the best people here with talent who are not our full-time people, but come in and do these shows for us. We have great people inside, but it’s hard for them to produce a show and be on a show.

You mentioned you are working on a strategic plan. How is that going? 
We are more than television. What do we want to be when we grow up? Fundraising is always a huge issue, so we have a subcommittee working on that with our Friends organization. Distribution — we have the parents and the little ones, and then we have this gap. Parents don’t necessarily have enough money to be members, but they are watching with their kids. They are not necessarily sitting down and watching other shows. We have to figure out what it is they are looking for. We’re all so inundated with two phones, an iPad, a computer, the kids. What can we do to entice you to stop and take a minute and come to us? Is there something you desire that you can get on the web or some other way? “Downton Abbey” was an example. You had college kids doing parties, and you had their parents doing viewing parties at their house. And they would text back and forth all the time. That show got that group of people, but we’ve got to do better. 

What do you do when you aren’t working?
I like to do family activities, and travel. We spent two weeks in St. Martin last fall. (Steve) scuba dives, so we usually go somewhere warm. I read lots of books and we enjoy the peace and quiet.