Joint licensee WITF in central Pennsylvania and LNP, its daily newspaper, have eliminated 24 positions, according to a spokesperson.
WITF was gifted the daily newspaper LNP and its website, LancasterOnline, last year. The creation of Pennon, a new parent company for the station and newspaper, was announced in September.
The cuts represent about 10% of WITF and LNP’s workforce and are a result of the merger, a statement from the Pennon spokesperson said. The restructuring was described as “organization-wide,” and the statement did not specify which departments were affected.
The statement said the merger created opportunities for the “organization to fill critical gaps in access to news, information, engagement and education, in support of our mission to advance lifelong learning in our community.
“To achieve this, we need to invest in new areas, sunset certain operations and reorganize resources to create innovative and integrated products and services across the organization,” the statement said.
The workers losing their jobs were informed Thursday and offered severance packages, the statement said.
This is just the latest in a wave of job losses in public media over the last two years, including cuts at Kansas City’s KCUR and Classical KC revealed earlier this week.
Current has tracked more than 500 jobs lost to layoffs and buyouts since March 2023.