Downsizing Hits KQED/San Francisco
• The same COVID-19-related budget shortfall affecting stations from coast to coast has resulted in public News-Talk KQED/San Francisco laying off 20 staff members, about 5.5% of its workforce, while a handful of other employees had their hours reduced. KQED’s senior leadership blamed a sharp decline in corporate sponsorship due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In a staff email, KQED President & CEO Michael Isip said the recent implementation of a number of cost-saving measures were not enough to offset the need to lay off some staff in time for the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. Those measures included compensation cuts of roughly 12% taken by the senior leadership team this fiscal year. These layoffs and other cost-saving measures aim to address a projected $7.1 million budget gap. Among the organization’s content divisions, one full-time limited term journalist was laid off as well as one part-time managing editor, Paul Rogers. Senior leadership did not provide a breakdown of the 18 other layoffs across the organization.
In April, KQED had received a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan to help cover three months of salaries across the organization. “That resource has now ended, but the pandemic has not,” Isip wrote, adding that KQED leaders expect a roughly 20% decline in corporate underwriting revenue will continue “well into 2021.” Membership revenue, which he says “held steady” this year, is expected to drop by roughly 6% next year, as KQED’s listenership also struggles due to the pandemic. Other public media outlets in the U.S. are reporting similar trends. “This is a time like no other and circumstances we could not have predicted,” Isip wrote. “We are all hurting today and I feel deeply for the staff we’ve had to let go.”
In order to minimize other layoffs, KQED leadership has enacted a series of steps in addition to reducing compensation for the senior leadership team: 1) Elimination of a 2020 salary increase for all staff (conversations with union partners continue); 2) A decrease of 403(b) employer match from 3% to 0% effective Oct. 1; and 3) Furloughs for all non-essential staff from Dec. 28-31 and July 6-9.
SAG-AFTRA represents the radio journalists at KQED, and NABET represents engineers, announcers and a number of other employees in facilities and membership. No regular SAG-AFTRA jobs were eliminated. [Photo: Beth LaBerge/KQED]
