4 days ago
Federal cuts strain Pittsburgh public media
Pittsburgh's public TV and radio stations are facing $2.5 million in annual shortfalls due to Republican-led federal cuts.
Why it matters: Public media outlets serve essential community newsgathering and emergency roles, but the Trump administration and others on the right have long accused them of left-leaning bias.
Context: Congress rescinded $1.1 billion in Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) funding for all stations across the nation, based on publicly available financial data collected by a former NPR staffer and shared with Axios.
Driving the news: WQED, Pittsburgh's PBS affiliate, laid off 19 employees on Wednesday, mostly in marketing, membership, and production, after cutting five positions in May, TribLive reports.
WQED President Jason Jedlinski said the move follows the elimination of federal funding and aims to secure WQED's long-term financial stability.
The big picture: For hundreds of stations with available data, CPB grants made up about 10.3% of U.S. public TV stations' overall funding as of fiscal year 2023, and 4.1% for radio stations.
That share is much greater for some stations.
Zoom in: 13.3% of funding for WQED was provided by CPB grants.
Two of the region's public radio stations — WYEP and WESA — received 7.5% of their combined funding from CPB grants.
Caveat: Public media stations can also receive other forms of federal grants, plus corporate sponsorships and donations from (ahem) viewers like you.
WESA and WYEP recently raised over $500,000, but are still short of their $700,000 shortfall and will seek more funding to cover next year's gap.
What they're saying: WQED has already been losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in foundation support over the years, Jedlinski said in a webinar.
"The documentary budgets, whether for national programs WQED used to create … or Rick Sebak local shows … has declined given other priorities for marketers among other types of media," he said.
Between the lines: Public media stations in relatively populous, high-income cities tend to have better access to donors.
But rural stations tend to be more reliant on federal dollars — while also serving key roles for local news and emergency broadcasts, including weather and AMBER alerts.
The other side: Republicans have long sought cuts to public broadcasting with efforts tracing back to the Nixon administration.
The Trump administration has argued that public media creates media that is overly supportive of Democrats and liberal views, and taxpayer dollars shouldn't be used for that.
The latest: Many public TV and radio stations have pressed their pleas for donations, hoping to appeal to viewers and listeners in their time of need.
