As Public Radio Faces Cuts and Political Backlash, RI Public Radio Is Merging Into RIPBS
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
National Public Radio (NPR) and public radio stations across the country are under the microscope as charges of political bias are mounting, revenues are falling, and stations are slashing their staff.
The Rhode Island-based "Public’s Radio" is moving forward with a merger that, functionally, has RIPBS consuming the station.
The local station continues to struggle financially and to gain an audience.
According to the station’s most recent public tax documents, it lost $477,000 for the 2022 year. The financial problems are not limited to Rhode Island’s public radio. Further, according to Nielsen, more Rhode Islanders listen to Boston-based WGBH over the local Public's Radio.
On Wednesday, Boston-based WBUR, one of the nation’s largest NPR affiliates, announced it is slashing 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.
“We didn’t have a choice financially,” WBUR Chief Executive Margaret Low said. “We ultimately need to make as much money as we're spending."
The Rhode Island station's budget is about $4 million annually. The Rhode Island Attorney General's office approved the Public's Radio merger with RIPBS on Tuesday.
Growing Problems at NPR
The Wall Street Journal has a feature on the plight of NPR.
“When Katherine Maher joined National Public Radio as its new CEO in March, she came ready to field internal scrutiny and concerns about coverage. What she hadn’t bargained for, two weeks into the job, was public criticism of NPR from a longtime editor. The controversy has triggered tumult inside NPR’s newsroom and thrust Maher into the spotlight,” reported the WSJ.
“In an essay earlier this month on the news site The Free Press, NPR editor Uri Berliner said the public radio network had lost its way by letting liberal bias skew its coverage. NPR erred on big stories including the origins of COVID-19, Hunter Biden’s laptop and the Israel-Hamas conflict, he wrote. Berliner was suspended last week and subsequently resigned," wrote WSJ.
Cuts Around the Country
In March, Colorado Public Radio laid off 15 employees. Employees were laid off, primarily in the audio and podcast production departments.
This week, KQED in San Francisco announced it is initiating staff buyouts, an effort to reduce costs in the face of a budget deficit.
Last September, New York Public Radio, the parent organization of the WNYC, announced it was cutting its workforce by about 12%.
