GBH Boston Cuts 31 Staffers
• Following in the unfortunate trend of budget cuts currently wreaking havoc with public, member-supported radio and television stations across the country, GBH Boston last Wednesday announced the layoff of 31 staff members — representing 4% of its overall workforce. In late March GBH management had warned staffers about potential job cuts to address a large budget deficit.
“We made these hard choices only after implementing a range of other cost-saving measures and operating efficiencies,” said Susan Goldberg, GBH Pres. & CEO in a staff email. “The basic reason for these reductions is simple: revenues are flat and the cost of doing business has gone up. A lot.”
GBH — one of the nation’s largest producers of public media content — has a $7 million budget gap. The most dramatic cuts were to programming within the news division, the organization’s largest department, where roughly 10% of the 100 GBH News staffers were among those laid off. According to Goldberg’s email, 13 departments across GBH were impacted overall. GBH has a total of 850 employees. GBH would not say if further cost cutting is ahead.
The GBH layoffs come just one month after Boston’s other NPR affiliate, WBUR announced cuts of up to 14% of its staff, which it said were necessary after a deep drop in on-air sponsorships.
The cuts also came on the heels of the announced resignation of Pam Johnston, GM of GBH News, who is stepping down at the end of the month.
