NPR Laying Off 64 Employees, 7 Percent of Staff; Cancels Two Programs

NPR Laying Off 64 Employees, 7 Percent of Staff; Cancels Two Programs
By Rafat Ali
Wed 10 Dec 2008

Even NPR, which is underwritten by user contributions, station fees and sponsors, isn’t sheltered from the economic crisis, despite its audience growth in the last few years: it will reduce its workforce by 7 percent (about 64 employees out of NPR’s staff of 889) and will be cutting back on its expenses. The company said that a significant number of the personnel cuts result from the upcoming cancellation of two NPR produced programs " Day to Day and News & Notes. Both programs will remain on the air through March 20 next year. These are the first organization-wide layoffs done by the company in 25 years.

These reductions will be made in reporting, editorial and production areas; station services; digital media; research; communications and administrative support. About 21 open positions will not be filled and travel and discretionary expenses have been cut across the org, it said.

In July, NPR projected a relatively manageable $2 million deficit for its fiscal year 2009. With the downturn, corporate sponsorships"which is its second-largest source of funding after fees paid to NPR by stations"have declined, raising the projected deficit to $23 million. Its revenues are projected to fall to $145 million, an 8 percent decline. Also, NPR cut its projected underwriting revenues from $47 million to $33 million this year, according to this WaPo story. Legal restrictions severely limit expenditure of the NPR endowment, which includes the $200 million bequest made by Joan Kroc in 2003. Kroc was the wife of Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald’s. Internal memo about the layoffs is here.

This comes as NPR’s new CEO Vivian Schiller has just joined. This shortfall and funding issues will possibly be the biggest part of her job now, which also means forward-looking digital media initiatives will likely be dialed back for the near future, which is a pity.