WBUR cuts up to 14% of staff

[GeePee]

https://www.wbur.org/news/2024/04/24...s-boston-media
WBUR, one of the nation’s largest NPR affiliates, announced plans Wednesday to cut as much as 14% of its staff through a combination of buyouts and layoffs over the next two months.

The Boston public radio station said the job cuts are part of an effort to reduce expenses by $4 million, about 10% of its annual budget, to help offset a steep decline in on-air sponsorships, also known as underwriting.

[bostongymjunkie]

Originally Posted by GeePee

https://www.wbur.org/news/2024/04/24...s-boston-media
WBUR, one of the nation’s largest NPR affiliates, announced plans Wednesday to cut as much as 14% of its staff through a combination of buyouts and layoffs over the next two months.

The Boston public radio station said the job cuts are part of an effort to reduce expenses by $4 million, about 10% of its annual budget, to help offset a steep decline in on-air sponsorships, also known as underwriting.

Some of them have been around for 20 plus years. Any word on what the deal is with sponsorships?

[robr2]

Originally Posted by bostongymjunkie

Some of them have been around for 20 plus years. Any word on what the deal is with sponsorships?

WBUR has seen underwriting decline by 40% over the past 5 years. WGBH and other public and commercial stations nationwide are seeing drops in revenue. There are fewer listeners and more options for those ears. Podcasts, streaming music, etc. are all taking share from terrestrial radio.

[htfdcolt]

The obvious solution--WBUR and GBH need to consolidate. Boston is one of the very few markets that has 2 NPR stations.

[ormari]

Originally Posted by htfdcolt

The obvious solution--WBUR and GBH need to consolidate. Boston is one of the very few markets that has 2 NPR stations.

This is the rational answer to the problem. However, I suspect egos might prevent that from happening until the situation deteriorates further. I don’t listen to either station with regularity anymore, but WBUR seemed to produce better content. Still, they were awfully proud of their products. I once approached both stations about carrying an excellent, nationally syndicated public radio program that I was familiar with from another public radio station in another city. GBH did not respond to my inquiry. WBUR said they knew the program but would not carry it, because they were instead working on the creation of a similar program with the same subject matter (which never materialized).

WGBH is legendary on the tv side. Their radio content isn’t particularly exciting.

The pandemic killed their advertising/“underwriting”. People listen to NPR while they commute. Work from home and business contraction during the pandemic were a one-two punch.

To make matters worse, NPR’s bias seemed to really ramp up under the Trump presidency, which drove off some conservative /moderate listeners. And it became even more pronounced in the wake of George Floyd’s killing.

It’s not just the local public radio stations that are suffering. I’m sure some of you read this essay recently, but I am posting it for those who missed it.

https://www.thefp.com/p/npr-editor-h...americas-trust

[GeePee]

Originally Posted by ormari

This is the rational answer to the problem. However, I suspect egos might prevent that from happening until the situation deteriorates further. I don’t listen to either station with regularity anymore, but WBUR seemed to produce better content. Still, they were awfully proud of their products. I once approached both stations about carrying an excellent, nationally syndicated public radio program that I was familiar with from another public radio station in another city. GBH did not respond to my inquiry. WBUR said they knew the program but would not carry it, because they were instead working on the creation of a similar program with the same subject matter (which never materialized).

WGBH is legendary on the tv side. Their radio content isn’t particularly exciting.

The pandemic killed their advertising/“underwriting”. People listen to NPR while they commute. Work from home and business contraction during the pandemic were a one-two punch.

To make matters worse, NPR’s bias seemed to really ramp up under the Trump presidency, which drove off some conservative /moderate listeners. And it became even more pronounced in the wake of George Floyd’s killing.

It’s not just the local public radio stations that are suffering. I’m sure some of you read this essay recently, but I am posting it for those who missed it.

https://www.thefp.com/p/npr-editor-h...americas-trust

I think these points hit the nail right on the head. I lean in both directions politically and can't help but recognize how blatant their programing is. It almost feels like SNL skits sometimes.
Thank you for sharing the article. Very interesting read indeed.

[robr2]

Originally Posted by htfdcolt

The obvious solution--WBUR and GBH need to consolidate. Boston is one of the very few markets that has 2 NPR stations.

There are ten markets nationally with two NPR stations. But both rank in the top ten NPR stations in the nation and top 10 in all of Boston. Merging would be a painful endeavor eliminating many more jobs than the recent layoffs. I'm not saying it's not a good move but if each can survive on their own, why not have two.

[htfdcolt]

Originally Posted by robr2

There are ten markets nationally with two NPR stations. But both rank in the top ten NPR stations in the nation and top 10 in all of Boston. Merging would be a painful endeavor eliminating many more jobs than the recent layoffs. I'm not saying it's not a good move but if each can survive on their own, why not have two.

There's a fair bit of duplicate programming between the two. Just common sense--you can eliminate a LOT of jobs and still provide most of the same listenership functionality for the most part (Morning Edition, ATC, Moth, Wait Wait, etc.) at half the cost. Better that one public station survives than 2 go under!

[bostongymjunkie]

Originally Posted by GeePee

I think these points hit the nail right on the head. I lean in both directions politically and can't help but recognize how blatant their programing is. It almost feels like SNL skits sometimes.
Thank you for sharing the article. Very interesting read indeed.

It really is. And it gets progressively worse - pardon the pun.

[MKTwet]

NPR appeals to the low information audience that doesn't do fact checking them. They are full of blatant opinion pieces rather than deliver news. That's why Elon Musk called them out for inaccuracies. Everything the media does today create a distortion than the reality. Ignorant folks can easily live inside this distorted reality the media created but it fuels their anguish that they can't become successful people independently and chose to blame someone for their own inadequacies with life and failure to take ownership of their own problems. That's why people become radicalized by woke policies, they blame people who are more successful using identity.