Sad news hits the airwaves: Layoffs at NPR
It’s a sad day. We saw Yahoo! go through its second mass layoff in under a year. And now it’s being reported that National Public Radio - of which shows including All Things Considered, Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me and Car Talk have attracted a wide audience via iTunes - has eliminated 7 percent of its workforce, or 64 positions, and canceled two shows, News & Notes and Day to Day, in what is the organization’s first major layoff in more than 25 years, The Washington Post reports.
In this economy, it doesn’t come as a surprise that NPR saw a need to make some cuts -– amounting to $23 million -– despite reaching what it said is a near-record audience of 26.4 million listeners a week. NPR execs cite a drop in corporate sponsorships, which the company relies on for about a third of its profit, to a projected $33 million for the year instead of the $47 million budgeted.