The troubles continue for public broadcasters facing a declining audience and stuck with maintaining the means of production(transmitters and radio stations) of an old business model in a changing media environment that favors information delivered directly to phones.
WBUR in Boston announced layoffs, buyouts, and a new trade for newsroom coffee last week, all in an effort to trim costs. In an announcement to staff, CEO Margaret Low did not attempt to argue that there’s nothing to see here. She acknowledged the pain the move will create for out-going employees and the damage that will be done to the product. Still, the cuts are necessary.
Boston is one of a few cities with two major public broadcasters: WBUR and GBH. Both produce local and national programming.
And at the national level, The New York Times published a story(Inside the Crisis at NPR) that chronicles the plight of National Public Radio as it confronts declining audience and internal disagreements over what to do next.
In context, these reports of trouble in the world of public media come amid continued cutbacks in the world of Connecticut media. Last week we reported on layoffs and programming changes at WTIC and its sister station WRCH and noted a continued string of departures at Fox 61 that reach the very top of the organization.
If you covered New Haven, or Connecticut politics, in the 80s, 90s and into the 2000s you would have run across real estate developer Joel Schiavone. Known in New Haven as Mr. Downtown he is given lots of credit for revitalizing a section of that city and showing other cities in Connecticut how to get the job done through public/private partnerships. He died last week at age 87.
Poppy Harlow, a recent graduate of Yale University with a Master’s Degree in the Study of Law, has announced she is leaving CNN. The move comes a few months after CNN ended her time as morning co-host. She is leaving the network on good terms after being recruited as part of three person morning team that seemed doomed from the start. Harlow had been with CNN for nearly 20 years and has no immediate career plans, according to a post on the network’s website, but suggests she has more work to do.
