As part of an ongoing reorganization, KUHT-TV in Houston has laid off 12 staffers. The Houston Chronicle describes it as “part of a cost-cutting move by the new general manager.” Personnel were cut in production, programming, development, technology and administration. Lisa Trapani Shumate, executive director and g.m. of Houston Public Media, said reductions were made “to bring expenses into alignment with revenue.”
“You cannot build an organization when you are not operating from a strong financial position,” she told the paper. “We wanted to get things into alignment and build on our plan to achieve our objectives and provide the new media offerings we are going to have.”
Also, Debra Fraser, currently station manager on the radio side, will now be in charge of news programming, engineering and technical operations for all three stations — KUHT-TV, KUHF-FM and KUHA-FM — as director of operations and station manager.
Top managers John Proffitt of KUHF-FM and John Hesse of KUHT-TV departed in December 2011.