GBH layoffs hit 45 staffers less than a month after World cuts

GBH in Boston announced Monday that it laid off 45 employees, or 6% of its workforce, attributing the cuts to revenue concerns.

A station spokesperson confirmed that the layoffs affect multiple departments at GBH, which has around 750 workers and is the largest national producer in public media with a portfolio including Frontline, Nova, American Experience and children’s shows.

“GBH is being impacted by several dynamics at once: federal funding cuts, rising costs of doing business, and the need to evolve our work to meet audiences’ needs,” said CEO Susan Goldberg in a statement to Current. “Yesterday, we made structural changes that will cut expenses and our workforce to reduce our budget gap, while also creating high quality content in new ways that will help us reach a broader audience more efficiently.”

Last year, GBH laid off 31 employees, or 4% percent of its staff at the time, due to a $7 million funding gap. It suspended the television programs Greater Boston, Talking Politics and Basic Black, though Basic Black has since been reinvented as GBH News Rooted and the station is also working on a revamp of Greater Boston. Other changes from last year’s workforce reduction include the sunsetting of a digital jazz stream due to low listenership, though GBH Music’s Jazz on 89.7 was expanded to overnight weekend hours.

More recently, GBH laid off nine employees last month at World, a multicast channel produced by the station that features a variety of programs. A spokesperson attributed those cuts to a loss of funding from CPB, according to a GBH News story. The spokesperson added that the decision to lay off the staffers preceded Trump’s executive order that aims to end funding to PBS and NPR through CPB.

CPB funding covered roughly half of World’s cost, Goldberg and the spokesperson told GBH News. A CPB spokesperson told GBH News that the corporation’s decision to stop funding World was made “[i]n consultation with GBH” and reflected concerns that station fees and philanthropic contributions “were not sufficient to sustain the channel, as previously anticipated.”

World included initiatives such as America ReFramed, Doc World and Local USA. More than 400 filmmakers have signed a letter to Goldberg and leaders at PBS and CPB urging them to reconsider the cuts.

The reduction at GBH comes amid threats from the Trump administration to zero out public media funding. GBH receives about 7% of its funds through CPB.

“Layoffs are never our first choice,” Goldberg said. “We’re sad to have to say goodbye to colleagues and grateful for their contributions. At a volatile time like this, we owe it to the public to reshape our work to meet the moment and to ensure long-term sustainability.”