PBS, the country’s largest public television programming distributor, is laying off dozens of employees nearly two months after lawmakers voted to deprive the outlet of hundreds of millions of dollars in grants.
In a memo to station managers on Thursday, PBS CEO Paula Kerger said the staff reductions were a last resort after months of cost-saving measures that included a hiring freeze, restricted travel and suspended pay increases.
The cuts include 34 immediate layoffs, the closing of dozens of open positions and reductions earlier this summer tied to the loss of federal funding for educational programming.
“These decisions, while difficult, position PBS to weather the current challenges facing public media,” Kerger wrote.
Like other public media groups, PBS is grappling with the elimination of $500 million in annual federal support approved by Congress in July. The network previously said it was reducing its overall budget by 21 percent and lowering dues for member stations to help offset the loss.
The impact is being felt across the public broadcasting system. NPR is also cutting expenses, with NPR CEO Katherine Maher telling Texas Public Radio that the organization has trimmed its budget by 8 percent. She described the reductions as a “first step” toward navigating the crisis.
PBS does not operate any television stations directly. Instead, it serves as a distributor of public media programming — educational TV shows, documentaries, concerts, news shows and films — which are licensed by member stations. More than 300 independently-operated, non-commercial TV stations buy shows from PBS.
Local TV stations that pay to air PBS programming are bearing the brunt of the funding cuts. Dozens have warned that they face the likelihood of shutting down if they do not receive new sources of supports. Many are pursuing other sources of funding to stay afloat — stations in the largest TV markets have robust corporate partnerships, where for-profit entities provide significant underwriting.
But that funding is typically harder to come by in small communities and rural pats of the country, where local PBS member stations may provide some of the only sources of community-oriented news and TV programming. The use of corporate sponsorships has also been questioned by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr, who wrongfully compared the practice of underwriting public television and radio programming to advertisements aired on commercial broadcast stations.
The New York Times was the first to report on the PBS layoffs on Thursday.
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