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Boston Globe

GBH is laying off 10 employees from global news and documentary channel WORLD due to federal funding cuts

Advertisement The layoffs come roughly a year after GBH Goldberg said Friday that the layoffs and programming changes will take effect June 30, when the funding expires and PBS member station licenses for the channel end. She added that CPB paid for about half of the channel's costs and that this new approach is 'more financially sustainable in the current environment.' Advertisement 'We're grateful to all of our WORLD employees, for all of their hard work,' she said. Zoe Mathews, the steward for the union that represents GBH reporters and producers as well as some WORLD staffers, noted in a statement that the WORLD staff included award-winning documentarians who 'humanize complex issues through the work they do, often facilitating first-time filmmakers and storytellers from historically underrepresented communities.' 'To eliminate these journalists in this moment, in the way GBH has moved to do, is a betrayal of the very mission of GBH,' Mathews said. The cuts come against the backdrop of efforts from the Trump administration to end funding for public media. President Trump signed an executive order last week In a statement last week, CPB chief executive Patricia Harrison said that CPB is not subject to the president's authority. 'In creating CPB, Congress expressly forbade 'any department, agency, officer, or employee of the United States to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over educational television or radio broadcasting, or over [CPB] or any of its grantees or contractors.'' she said. While federal funding represents about 8 percent of GBH's annual revenue, additional federal funding cuts could have an outsized impact on its business due to the interconnectedness of the NPR and PBS networks. GBH is one of the largest producers of PBS programming in the country, which includes programs such as Masterpiece and Antiques Roadshow and kids shows such as 'Work It Out Wombats!' Advertisement The White House has also cut grants to Aidan Ryan can be reached at