Media

 Insider Radio -  As good as the first half of 2024 has been ratings-wise for public news/talk stations such as Washington, D.C.’s WAMU, San Francisco’s KQED and Boston’s WBUR, that’s about all the good news there’s been amid layoffs at these and many other public radio stations. Following NPR’s 10% staff cutback last year, 2024 has seen 25 workers pink-slipped at KQED, 15 at WAMU, 31 at Boston’s WGBH along with 14% of WBUR’s workforce, 14 at Chicago Public Radio, and 15 at Colorado Public Radio.

Not surprisingly, the pattern of cutting those who actually create station content while sparing the top tier has negatively impacted the work environment. “The morale inside the newsrooms is devastated, and it’s horrible,” University of Southern California Annenberg journalism professor and industry consultant Robert Hernandez tells Nonprofit Quarterly. ...

At the heart of these layoffs has been financial challenges to public stations, including listeners moving to, and supporting with donations, an ever-growing number of competitors. “Local and national foundations, a traditional source of support for public media, have spread their funds across other forms of non-profit local news, such as statewide digital news start-ups or news organizations specializing in investigative news, [so] there’s a lot more competition within local news for foundation money,” says Jim Friedlich, CEO and Executive Director of the Lenfest Institute, a Pennsylvania nonprofit seeking ways to sustain local news organizations.