New York Public Radio is, once again, cutting its journalism and programming across several of its properties, including public radio news station WNYC 93.9 FM, podcast production house WNYC Studios and classical WQXR 105.9 FM. Amidst the cost cutting, an NYPR spokesperson refused to disclose the salary being paid to the organization’s President and CEO LaFontaine Oliver.
In an email to staff Thursday, Oliver said the organization was making cuts in the local newsroom, canceling the show “Notes from America” with Kai Wright, stopping production of WQXR podcasts and reducing the number of events planned at The Greene Space, a venue and multimedia production studio in Lower Manhattan. In total, 26 of 302 employees were cut.
Oliver blamed declining radio listenership and advertising dollars and the shift of consumers’ to new digital platforms and he lamented the departure of “talented colleagues and friends.”
“The moment we’re in is requiring us to make fundamental changes so we can remain viable and relevant for years to come,” Oliver wrote.
The cuts to the classical station include eliminating morning newscasts and no hosts during nighttime programming.
Newsroom staffers would not speak on the record but several talked about the deep sense of sadness at the cuts and the long-running frustration of seeing the news operation dwindle as people leave and are not replaced. Four people were cut from the newsroom despite Oliver’s memo stating that NYPR was “doubling down on local.” The NYPR spokesperson, Jennifer Houlihan Roussel, did not answer questions about that apparent contradiction.
“We are gutted that our organization’s leaders have once again decided to lay off the people who make New York Public Radio,” read a written statement released by union stewards of SAG-AFTRA, who represent their colleagues in the newsroom.
“NYPR continues to recycle a playbook focused on content cuts that amount to a short-term Band Aid rather than a long-term solution to our multi-million dollar deficit,” the statement said.
According to Houlihan Roussel, NYPR is facing a $12 million projected budget deficit this year and Thursday’s cuts should save $6 million annually.
The 8.5% reduction in staff was not a complete surprise, as Oliver had sent a memo to staff last month announcing a need for more layoffs following a 6% cut in staff last year and the cancellation of the podcasts “More Perfect” and “La Brega.”
The new cuts landed the same week the organization held a live event in Central Park marking 100 years since WNYC’s first broadcast, an event intended to be a celebration of the last hundred years and a moment to launch into the next hundred years.
In his email on Thursday, Oliver wrote that financial challenges are forcing NYPR to take “a hard look at what we can uniquely offer audiences in a crowded, competitive media landscape, and narrowing our focus on what we do best, what our community needs from us, and where we can attract the revenue needed to continue to serve our audiences.”
Previous cuts at NYPR and at media organizations nationwide have led to questions about executive pay. Houlihan Roussel would not say how much Oliver earns, even though that information will eventually become public when mandatory federal filings are submitted to the IRS.
An IRS filing attached to an NYPR annual report shows the other top highest paid executives at the non-profit made between $433,000 and $678,000 in the 2022/2023 fiscal year. Show host Brian Lehrer was listed as being paid $477,107. The report does not show Oliver’s salary but filings posted by the IRS document finances in 2021 and list then-President-and-CEO Goli Sheikholeslami’s salary as $773,169.
In an email, Houlihan Roussel said some executive roles have been eliminated and streamlined but said temporary salary reductions occasioned by the pandemic cannot be permanent.
“NYPR must be able to attract and retain talent, that is why annual salary increases were recently agreed to in negotiations with our staff union,” she wrote.
Houlihan Roussel said NYPR has been rigorously reviewing operating expenses and cuts wherever possible including 10 operations positions Thursday.
The continued financial troubles at NYPR reflect struggles of public radio stations around the country as well as the network National Public Radio, which cut 10 percent of its workforce last year, citing declining ad revenue.
Disclosure: This story was independently reported and written by Robert Wildeboer and edited by Cate Cahan, journalists who are not employees of New York Public Radio. It was not reviewed by any NYPR executive prior to publication.