WBUR facing ‘tough choices,’ possible staffing cuts amid ‘dramatic’ loss of money

WBUR is considering “tough choices” — which could include a hiring freeze or laying off employees — amid a “dramatic” loss of sponsorship support that has created business difficulties for the Boston-based public radio station. 

“This is a different story than we’ve told before. It’s unlike our usual on-air fundraising appeals,” WBUR CEO Margaret Low wrote in an email to donors Wednesday. 

In the email, Low says that business for the radio station has “never been harder” despite an increase in listeners and readers. The station has lost close to half of its on-air sponsorship income in the last five years and is asking for help to avoid joining the legion of news organizations that have been bought out or faced layoffs in recent months. 

“In the digital age, almost all [sponsorship] money now goes to the big platforms — like Facebook, Google, Amazon and Spotify,” Low wrote in the email. “This is bad news for the news business and has created big caps that can’t easily be filled.”

Though local news networks are especially vulnerable to financial pressures, large newspapers like The Washington Post and NPR have also announced job cuts and layoffs amid recent business concerns. In 2023, newspapers disappeared at an average rate of two a week, a Northwestern report found. 

Last month, NPR affiliate WAMU in Washington announced layoffs and shut down local news site DCist. 

“It’s clear we haven’t seen the last of it,” Low wrote in the email. 

The decline of sponsorship money has constituted a loss of nearly $7 million for the station, according Low’s email, and that money is not likely to return. The station isn’t significantly supported by government funding, with only 3% of its annual budget coming from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, according to the email. 

Low recently held an all-hands meeting with employees of the radio station, where she shared that WBUR would “likely” need to turn to measures like eliminating jobs or stopping hiring to make up for revenue shortfalls, she said in the email.

“WBUR is brimming with talent and ambition and we’re building a path to the future. That takes time and resources — and can quickly be undermined by short-term cuts that diminish journalism, as we’ve seen with the collapse of so many newspapers across the country,” Low wrote. 

Low’s email directly addressed the station’s members but also said the path forward lies in philanthropic investment. Philanthropists contributed $500 million to support local news in 2023, according to the Northwestern report, but local newspapers continued to shrink at a steeper rate than in past years.

“We’re in a race against time,” Low said. “My hope is for the kind of support that would help secure the future for WBUR.”

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