Louisville Public Media laid off eight staffers and cut two more unfilled positions earlier this week, according to an LPM news story.
The station is facing a budget deficit of more than $750,000 and plans to cut operating expenses by 10%, according to the story. Six full-time and two part-time staff were laid off.
LPM’s board voted to reduce the station’s budget.
News Editor John Boyle was among those laid off. “It’s been an honor to be a part of such an incredible team at Louisville Public Media/WFPL News over the past four years, but that time has come to an end,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “I’m not going to let my disappointment in this outcome overshadow all the incredible work we did.”
The layoffs also affected two staffers who worked for WFPK, LPM’sTriple A station; one who worked for WUOL, its classical station; two marketing positions; and a technical operations staffer, LPM reported.
The station completed a $1.7 million capital campaign in 2022 to expand its newsroom.
“What we expected to happen at this point three years ago was considerably higher membership growth,” LPM CEO Stephen George told the station’s board, according to the story.
But that hasn’t been the case. Membership has been flat, and underwriting revenue is “only now returning to pre-pandemic levels,” LPM reported.
Current Editorial Intern Owen Auston-Babcock contributed reporting to this article.
a $1.7 million dollar capital campaign to improve the newsroom is completed and two years later you boot the news editor? That’s bullshit. Something is very wrong about those two facts. An editor makes what $70K? That’s not breaking the bank esp. when you just pulled in that mount of money.