In a Wednesday staff memo, New York Public Radio CEO LaFontaine Oliver announced a second round of job cuts at the station in less than twelve months.
In the memo, which NYPR provided to Current, Oliver told staff that the organization “made the very difficult decision to reduce our workforce by a minimum of 8% in mid-September.” The CEO said leadership will open a voluntary layoff program through Aug. 29.
“[D]espite our best efforts to contain costs and grow our revenue, we continue to face severe financial headwinds,” he wrote. “Our deficit has continued to mount and it has become painfully clear that without swift action, we will soon face significant questions about our ability to continue to serve New York.”
Oliver described the financial shortfall as “serious,” adding, “[W]hile voluntary layoffs will not eliminate the need for involuntary layoffs, they could impact the total number necessary and give employees who are ready to leave the organization an opportunity to raise their hand. The package for voluntary layoffs is identical to that for involuntary layoffs, and is open to union and non-union employees alike.”
New York Public Radio oversees the flagship station WNYC, music station WQXR, New Jersey Public Radio and the news website Gothamist. It previously cut 6% of staff in October 2023, amounting to about 20 positions.
The station imposed a hiring freeze, eliminated some senior executive roles, forewent annual pay increases last year, and has kept its paid internship program on ice, Oliver wrote. All of that “hasn’t been enough to outpace increased expenses and declines in revenue,” he said.
Oliver cited a May staff meeting where he said the organization’s deficit “continues to climb, and with our Q4 reconciliation complete and the books closed on FY24, we are now projecting a deficit for FY25 that is on course to once again reach more than $10 million by the end of the year.”
The challenges are not “an isolated event on the broader journalism and media landscape,” Oliver said, pointing to struggles facing for-profit, nonprofit and public media groups due to “declines in advertising, shifting audience behaviors, disruptions in the tech space, stubbornly high interest rates, and overall uncertainty in the markets.”
Oliver added that “[c]ompetition for philanthropic support is stiff, not only from our peers in non-profit media, but also from for-profit news outlets who are accelerating their pursuit of these same dollars in the face of increased challenges.”
“This is not where we wanted to be,” Oliver wrote. “Our work is absolutely essential and we have a staff that is beyond dedicated to each other and our audiences. I am grateful to you all for your commitment to NYPR and to those who rely on us, and I’m truly sorry that we are not in a different place.”
WNYC and its sister operations have morphed into the same kind of pyramidal structure that for profit companies invented and revere. Everyone knows that when the highest paid 5 or 10 earn (IN TOTAL) 5 times or more what even the 25 percentile employee earns, the cuts SHOULD COME near that top.
There are some fine people who merit $200K-$300K, but darn near ZERO who should make $600K. What with the piggy former CEO, one fears that LFO gets things like a housing credit that puts him well over $1 Million. That WNYC people were grossly underpaid 40 years ago is no reason to throw money at them in 2024.
Even more importantly, the cuts should be the surgical kind that cancer docs and surviving patients totally understand. None of this “each dept. make a list of who they’re most willing to ax!” WNYC made some awful decisions re podcasts, and while “staying relevant” is a great goal, it’s quality not quantity that matters – especially now that there’s a glut of content. Seriously, 1 or 2 programs amount to tumors at this point. Since WNYC is a de facto profit-making business, make like Facebook or Google would in terms of throwing in the towel on a few of the very bad bets someone put down in the last 5-6 years!
Exactly. When those at the top don’t take salary cuts while running the station into the ground, I am not inclined to continue my Producers’ Circle membership. This is infuriating.
I’m an older long-time listener and former member of WNYC. I no longer find WNYC interesting or particularly informative. The quality of their programming has significantly declined, and long ago I decided not to renew my membership. I have so many complaints and criticisms of WNYC and public radio; sadly, they’re clearly no longer for me. There are much better sources for news, information and entertainment.
I also agree with Ed’s previous comment. WNYC relies on listener contributions but the top salaries are outrageous. Year round the station endlessly and shamelessly begs for money. How can such a large overpaid staff produce such an inferior product?
Realizing that salaries for on air hosts are elaborate and excessive , content more often than not biased, frequent absences and few guests actually are in studio with a host causes a stale outcome. Hosts, also broadcast from home. Put simply a laziness and lack of creativity has made my decision to no longer continue membership.
Realizing that salaries for on air hosts are elaborate and excessive , content more often than not biased, frequent absences and few guests actually are in studio with a host causes a stale outcome. Hosts, also broadcast from home. Put simply a laziness and lack of creativity has made my decision to no longer continue membership.
thanks for info.