‘No One in Public Media Is Safe’: KQED Layoffs Underscore Peril of Federal Defunding
KQED to Slash Workforce by 15%, Cutting Dozens of Jobs in Latest Round of Layoffs
Why Reporter Ruben Salazar’s Death 55 Years Ago Still Resonates in LA Protests
A New York Investment Firm Just Bought Sonoma County's Local Newspaper
Santa Rosa’s Press Democrat Was Just Sold. Locals Are Concerned For the Paper’s Future
Press Democrat Union Waives Contract, Leaving Newspaper’s Sale Imminent
KQED Cuts 34 Positions Amid Budget Shortfall
Here’s Why KQED Is Latest Public Media Outlet to Face Layoffs
San Francisco Supervisors Throw Support Behind Internet Archive as It Fights Copyright Ruling
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"title": "‘No One in Public Media Is Safe’: KQED Layoffs Underscore Peril of Federal Defunding",
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"content": "\u003cp>On the heels of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12048122/kqed-to-slash-workforce-by-15-cutting-dozens-of-jobs-in-latest-round-of-layoffs\">major layoffs at KQED\u003c/a>, Congress moved to claw back over a billion dollars in federal funding for public media, heightening financial uncertainty for some 1,500 radio and television stations across the country, including one of the system’s biggest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the dominant narrative around the Corporation for Public Broadcasting cuts has centered on the existential danger for small, rural stations, KQED’s precarious situation suggests the consequences could ripple far wider.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This [layoffs] announcement makes it clear that no one in public media is safe,” said Rodney Benson, a media professor at New York University. “The threat to public media funding affects even the largest and strongest outlets.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED \u003ca href=\"https://radioinsight.com/headlines/303978/june-2025-5-29-6-25-nielsen-audio-ppm-ratings-day-1-kqed-fm-sets-new-high-rock-rises-in-los-angeles/\">posted record-high radio ratings\u003c/a> last month and has grown its digital and podcast audiences, but that hasn’t translated to financial stability. Earlier this week, the organization announced it would slash 15% of its staff, citing lower-than-expected revenue growth and economic volatility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The loss of federal dollars will only deepen those challenges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is the most difficult, distressing moment in the nearly 60-year history of public broadcasting, in the 71-year history of KQED,” the organization’s President and CEO, Michael Isip, said \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101910637/congress-votes-to-defund-public-media\">Friday morning on the program Forum\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11987158\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11987158\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/kqed-hq-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1500\" height=\"999\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/kqed-hq-1.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/kqed-hq-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/kqed-hq-1-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/kqed-hq-1-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An exterior view of KQED’s headquarters in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Jason O'Rear)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The rescissions package that the House sent to President Donald Trump’s desk late Thursday guts $1.1 billion in federal funding for public media that Congress previously approved, zeroing out that money for the next two years. CPB distributes the federal money to NPR, PBS and its member stations, which were expecting their next payments in the fall. Those will no longer come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The immediate response to this particular round of cuts will be that we are likely to see many stations … go dark,” NPR CEO Katherine Maher said Friday on Morning Edition. “These are stations that serve rural communities. They are stations that receive, in the case of Alaska, up to 70% of their budget in federal funds. And we’re talking small budgets. We’re talking $500,000, $600,000.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED, meanwhile, receives close to $8 million a year in CPB funding, representing about 7% to 8% of its \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/community-report#financials\">annual revenue\u003c/a>. Like many large stations in major markets across the country, KQED’s budget includes significant revenue from donors and corporate sponsors, lessening its dependence on federal funding.[aside postID=news_12048122 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/240522-KQEDheadquarters-12-BL_qed.jpg']“We’re going to move forward, we have no choice but to,” Isip said. “We have a responsibility. Our community expects it from us, and we’ll find a way to preserve independent, noncommercial, public media.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But how the station will do that isn’t yet clear. Isip said KQED would tap reserves to cover fiscal years 2026 and 2027 and seek out new revenue sources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are going to be communities who are losing local news and information, so what can KQED do to fill those gaps around the state?” Isip said, noting that the outlet remains one of the largest nonprofit newsrooms in the country. “We have the privilege and the resources to be able to think about how we can support the rest of the state.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That mission could draw in new philanthropic support, Isip said, and there is still a chance that Congress restores some funding in its upcoming regular budget process for next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, station leaders have not ruled out the possibility of further cuts in a future without federal funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While conservative legislators have targeted public media funding for decades, the scale of the current campaign is unprecedented, said Mike Janssen, an editor at the industry publication \u003cem>Current\u003c/em>. “The number of attacks and the different directions they’re coming from all at once is what’s different,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11987160\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11987160\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/kqed-hq-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1500\" height=\"1102\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/kqed-hq-3.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/kqed-hq-3-800x588.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/kqed-hq-3-1020x749.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/kqed-hq-3-160x118.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The interior of KQED’s newsroom at its San Francisco headquarters. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Jason O'Rear)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The political push to defund public media includes not just the CPB rescission and \u003ca href=\"https://cpb.org/pressroom/CPB-Statement-Response-President-Trump-s-Proposed-Rescissions-Package-and-Budget\">elimination of funding in Trump’s proposed 2026 budget\u003c/a>, but also an executive order he signed in May to cut federal funding for NPR and PBS. The Department of Education also \u003ca href=\"https://cpb.org/pressroom/CPB-Statement-US-Department-Education-Terminating-Ready-Learn-Grant\">ended its Ready to Learn grant\u003c/a>, which has funded educational TV programs, and the FCC opened an investigation into underwriting practices at public stations, including KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These challenges arrive as public media organizations are already navigating a turbulent landscape of declining radio and TV audiences, weakening underwriting revenue from corporate sponsors, and a podcast market that has proved difficult to monetize.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a perfect storm,” said Janssen, who’s covered public media for more than two decades. “Traditional funding models are kind of falling apart, and there’s this big need to expand on digital platforms for new audiences, and those two things just aren’t a good combination.”[aside postID=news_12038576 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/GettyImages-2206434879-1020x680.jpg']He pointed to other large public media outlets like \u003ca href=\"https://current.org/2024/07/laist-cuts-28-positions-with-buyouts-layoffs/\">LAist in Los Angeles\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://current.org/2025/06/gbh-layoffs-hit-45-staffers-less-than-a-month-after-world-cuts/\">WGBH in Boston\u003c/a> that have made similar investments in innovation and also faced cuts. Since March 2023, \u003cem>Current\u003c/em> has tracked roughly 654 layoffs in public media and 73 buyout offers accepted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Janssen and other experts are hard pressed to point to a model that’s working. Optimism about partnerships between local newspapers and public media stations has tempered after Chicago Public Media’s acquisition of the \u003cem>Chicago Sun-Times\u003c/em> failed \u003ca href=\"https://current.org/2025/03/chicago-public-media-avoids-layoffs-as-35-employees-accept-buyouts/\">to fend off reductions there\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have to keep growing audience, but how do you do that in a lean way where you can also absorb the shock of what’s going on with underwriting and audience?” Janssen said. “It’s a very hard line to walk.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nik Usher, associate professor of communication studies at the University of San Diego, said medium-sized outlets like KQED are in a particularly difficult situation. They’re too small to compete with major national outlets, but big enough to pour resources into making their own programs, rather than relying primarily on content made by NPR or other national producers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This “Goldilocks problem,” Usher said, means they’re “not too big and not too small. Just the right size to be screwed by the way that the attention economy works right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11987159\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11987159\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/kqed-hq-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1500\" height=\"1000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/kqed-hq-2.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/kqed-hq-2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/kqed-hq-2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/kqed-hq-2-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The interior of KQED’s lobby at its headquarters in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Jason O'Rear)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While these stations may get a relatively small portion of their overall funding from the federal government, losing it could hurt other revenue sources, such as shows that outlets like KQED produce and sell to other stations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Cuts make it harder to do good work, and then that good work is less compelling and fewer people want to purchase it to rebroadcast,” Usher said. “It’s kind of got a potential to spiral.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Victor Pickard, a media policy scholar at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication, said the crisis at KQED underscores a larger reckoning with the country’s anemic support for public media.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve always impoverished our public media,” he said. “It’s a bit of a misnomer to call it public; it’s much more of a hybrid dependent on private capital.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In most Western European countries, public media is \u003ca href=\"https://www.internetvoices.org/sites/default/files/resources/public-media-and-political-independence.pdf\">funded at about $100 per capita\u003c/a> annually, according to a report from NYU’s Benson and a colleague. \u003ca href=\"https://cpb.org/sites/default/files/reports/revenue/2020PublicBroadcastingRevenue.pdf\">In the United States, it receives\u003c/a> about $1.50 per capita in federal funding each year, and around $3 per capita in total public support, including state and local dollars. With private funding from corporations, foundations and individual donors factored in, the figure is still under $10 per capita.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11987200\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11987200\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/KQED_Expansion_web_3_1000x600.jpg.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/KQED_Expansion_web_3_1000x600.jpg.png 1000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/KQED_Expansion_web_3_1000x600.jpg-800x480.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/KQED_Expansion_web_3_1000x600.jpg-160x96.png 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">KQED’s renovated headquarters in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Jason O'Rear)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As a result of public media’s shaky government funding, Pickard said it now faces many of the same financial pressures as commercial outlets — shrinking ad revenue, market-driven content decisions, and the need to chase audiences with deep pockets. But that’s exactly what public media was meant to resist: a system that only serves those who can pay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we are going to guarantee that all members of society have access to a baseline level of news and information — not just wealthy audiences but everyone, not just people who live in cities, but people living in the hinterlands as well — then we need a public media system,” he said.[aside postID=news_12038583 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20240411_PressDemocratFile_GC-4_qed-1020x680.jpg']As stations look to make up for the loss of federal support, they’ll also find private funding sources facing their own challenges. Corporate sponsors are likely to be tested by economic uncertainty and the FCC’s investigation into underwriting practices. And foundations are seeing heightened demand for grants as wider government support for nonprofits evaporates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We just think that these are signals that it’s going to be more challenging moving forward,” KQED’s Isip said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State-level funding, meanwhile, doesn’t come close to replacing the hole left by CPB cuts. According to a \u003ca href=\"https://current.org/state-funding-guide/\">tracker compiled by \u003cem>Current\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, 36 states provide some level of direct funding to broadcasters, but in most of those states, funding remained flat or decreased between the last two budget cycles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California does not directly fund public broadcasters as part of its state budget. In May, officials announced a partnership between the state and private donors, including Google, to distribute money for local news coverage, but it’s not clear whether public media stations will be eligible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Benson cautioned that public media shouldn’t abandon hope for federal funding, for now, he said the path forward is paved with private dollars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The future is public media that is more fully in the nonprofit model,” he said in an email. “If anyone can make it work, stations like KQED can, but I would imagine that at least in the near term, budgets will be tight and these will not be the last layoffs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was reported and written by KQED reporter \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/vrancano\">Vanessa Rancaño\u003c/a> and edited by KQED senior editor \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/jservantez\">Jared Servantez\u003c/a>, who contributed additional reporting. Under KQED’s standard practices for reporting on itself, no member of KQED management or its news executives reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>On the heels of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12048122/kqed-to-slash-workforce-by-15-cutting-dozens-of-jobs-in-latest-round-of-layoffs\">major layoffs at KQED\u003c/a>, Congress moved to claw back over a billion dollars in federal funding for public media, heightening financial uncertainty for some 1,500 radio and television stations across the country, including one of the system’s biggest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the dominant narrative around the Corporation for Public Broadcasting cuts has centered on the existential danger for small, rural stations, KQED’s precarious situation suggests the consequences could ripple far wider.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This [layoffs] announcement makes it clear that no one in public media is safe,” said Rodney Benson, a media professor at New York University. “The threat to public media funding affects even the largest and strongest outlets.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED \u003ca href=\"https://radioinsight.com/headlines/303978/june-2025-5-29-6-25-nielsen-audio-ppm-ratings-day-1-kqed-fm-sets-new-high-rock-rises-in-los-angeles/\">posted record-high radio ratings\u003c/a> last month and has grown its digital and podcast audiences, but that hasn’t translated to financial stability. Earlier this week, the organization announced it would slash 15% of its staff, citing lower-than-expected revenue growth and economic volatility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The loss of federal dollars will only deepen those challenges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is the most difficult, distressing moment in the nearly 60-year history of public broadcasting, in the 71-year history of KQED,” the organization’s President and CEO, Michael Isip, said \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101910637/congress-votes-to-defund-public-media\">Friday morning on the program Forum\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11987158\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11987158\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/kqed-hq-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1500\" height=\"999\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/kqed-hq-1.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/kqed-hq-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/kqed-hq-1-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/kqed-hq-1-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An exterior view of KQED’s headquarters in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Jason O'Rear)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The rescissions package that the House sent to President Donald Trump’s desk late Thursday guts $1.1 billion in federal funding for public media that Congress previously approved, zeroing out that money for the next two years. CPB distributes the federal money to NPR, PBS and its member stations, which were expecting their next payments in the fall. Those will no longer come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The immediate response to this particular round of cuts will be that we are likely to see many stations … go dark,” NPR CEO Katherine Maher said Friday on Morning Edition. “These are stations that serve rural communities. They are stations that receive, in the case of Alaska, up to 70% of their budget in federal funds. And we’re talking small budgets. We’re talking $500,000, $600,000.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED, meanwhile, receives close to $8 million a year in CPB funding, representing about 7% to 8% of its \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/community-report#financials\">annual revenue\u003c/a>. Like many large stations in major markets across the country, KQED’s budget includes significant revenue from donors and corporate sponsors, lessening its dependence on federal funding.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“We’re going to move forward, we have no choice but to,” Isip said. “We have a responsibility. Our community expects it from us, and we’ll find a way to preserve independent, noncommercial, public media.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But how the station will do that isn’t yet clear. Isip said KQED would tap reserves to cover fiscal years 2026 and 2027 and seek out new revenue sources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are going to be communities who are losing local news and information, so what can KQED do to fill those gaps around the state?” Isip said, noting that the outlet remains one of the largest nonprofit newsrooms in the country. “We have the privilege and the resources to be able to think about how we can support the rest of the state.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That mission could draw in new philanthropic support, Isip said, and there is still a chance that Congress restores some funding in its upcoming regular budget process for next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, station leaders have not ruled out the possibility of further cuts in a future without federal funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While conservative legislators have targeted public media funding for decades, the scale of the current campaign is unprecedented, said Mike Janssen, an editor at the industry publication \u003cem>Current\u003c/em>. “The number of attacks and the different directions they’re coming from all at once is what’s different,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11987160\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11987160\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/kqed-hq-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1500\" height=\"1102\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/kqed-hq-3.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/kqed-hq-3-800x588.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/kqed-hq-3-1020x749.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/kqed-hq-3-160x118.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The interior of KQED’s newsroom at its San Francisco headquarters. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Jason O'Rear)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The political push to defund public media includes not just the CPB rescission and \u003ca href=\"https://cpb.org/pressroom/CPB-Statement-Response-President-Trump-s-Proposed-Rescissions-Package-and-Budget\">elimination of funding in Trump’s proposed 2026 budget\u003c/a>, but also an executive order he signed in May to cut federal funding for NPR and PBS. The Department of Education also \u003ca href=\"https://cpb.org/pressroom/CPB-Statement-US-Department-Education-Terminating-Ready-Learn-Grant\">ended its Ready to Learn grant\u003c/a>, which has funded educational TV programs, and the FCC opened an investigation into underwriting practices at public stations, including KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These challenges arrive as public media organizations are already navigating a turbulent landscape of declining radio and TV audiences, weakening underwriting revenue from corporate sponsors, and a podcast market that has proved difficult to monetize.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a perfect storm,” said Janssen, who’s covered public media for more than two decades. “Traditional funding models are kind of falling apart, and there’s this big need to expand on digital platforms for new audiences, and those two things just aren’t a good combination.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>He pointed to other large public media outlets like \u003ca href=\"https://current.org/2024/07/laist-cuts-28-positions-with-buyouts-layoffs/\">LAist in Los Angeles\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://current.org/2025/06/gbh-layoffs-hit-45-staffers-less-than-a-month-after-world-cuts/\">WGBH in Boston\u003c/a> that have made similar investments in innovation and also faced cuts. Since March 2023, \u003cem>Current\u003c/em> has tracked roughly 654 layoffs in public media and 73 buyout offers accepted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Janssen and other experts are hard pressed to point to a model that’s working. Optimism about partnerships between local newspapers and public media stations has tempered after Chicago Public Media’s acquisition of the \u003cem>Chicago Sun-Times\u003c/em> failed \u003ca href=\"https://current.org/2025/03/chicago-public-media-avoids-layoffs-as-35-employees-accept-buyouts/\">to fend off reductions there\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have to keep growing audience, but how do you do that in a lean way where you can also absorb the shock of what’s going on with underwriting and audience?” Janssen said. “It’s a very hard line to walk.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nik Usher, associate professor of communication studies at the University of San Diego, said medium-sized outlets like KQED are in a particularly difficult situation. They’re too small to compete with major national outlets, but big enough to pour resources into making their own programs, rather than relying primarily on content made by NPR or other national producers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This “Goldilocks problem,” Usher said, means they’re “not too big and not too small. Just the right size to be screwed by the way that the attention economy works right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11987159\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11987159\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/kqed-hq-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1500\" height=\"1000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/kqed-hq-2.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/kqed-hq-2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/kqed-hq-2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/kqed-hq-2-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The interior of KQED’s lobby at its headquarters in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Jason O'Rear)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While these stations may get a relatively small portion of their overall funding from the federal government, losing it could hurt other revenue sources, such as shows that outlets like KQED produce and sell to other stations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Cuts make it harder to do good work, and then that good work is less compelling and fewer people want to purchase it to rebroadcast,” Usher said. “It’s kind of got a potential to spiral.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Victor Pickard, a media policy scholar at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication, said the crisis at KQED underscores a larger reckoning with the country’s anemic support for public media.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve always impoverished our public media,” he said. “It’s a bit of a misnomer to call it public; it’s much more of a hybrid dependent on private capital.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In most Western European countries, public media is \u003ca href=\"https://www.internetvoices.org/sites/default/files/resources/public-media-and-political-independence.pdf\">funded at about $100 per capita\u003c/a> annually, according to a report from NYU’s Benson and a colleague. \u003ca href=\"https://cpb.org/sites/default/files/reports/revenue/2020PublicBroadcastingRevenue.pdf\">In the United States, it receives\u003c/a> about $1.50 per capita in federal funding each year, and around $3 per capita in total public support, including state and local dollars. With private funding from corporations, foundations and individual donors factored in, the figure is still under $10 per capita.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11987200\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11987200\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/KQED_Expansion_web_3_1000x600.jpg.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/KQED_Expansion_web_3_1000x600.jpg.png 1000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/KQED_Expansion_web_3_1000x600.jpg-800x480.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/KQED_Expansion_web_3_1000x600.jpg-160x96.png 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">KQED’s renovated headquarters in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Jason O'Rear)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As a result of public media’s shaky government funding, Pickard said it now faces many of the same financial pressures as commercial outlets — shrinking ad revenue, market-driven content decisions, and the need to chase audiences with deep pockets. But that’s exactly what public media was meant to resist: a system that only serves those who can pay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we are going to guarantee that all members of society have access to a baseline level of news and information — not just wealthy audiences but everyone, not just people who live in cities, but people living in the hinterlands as well — then we need a public media system,” he said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>As stations look to make up for the loss of federal support, they’ll also find private funding sources facing their own challenges. Corporate sponsors are likely to be tested by economic uncertainty and the FCC’s investigation into underwriting practices. And foundations are seeing heightened demand for grants as wider government support for nonprofits evaporates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We just think that these are signals that it’s going to be more challenging moving forward,” KQED’s Isip said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State-level funding, meanwhile, doesn’t come close to replacing the hole left by CPB cuts. According to a \u003ca href=\"https://current.org/state-funding-guide/\">tracker compiled by \u003cem>Current\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, 36 states provide some level of direct funding to broadcasters, but in most of those states, funding remained flat or decreased between the last two budget cycles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California does not directly fund public broadcasters as part of its state budget. In May, officials announced a partnership between the state and private donors, including Google, to distribute money for local news coverage, but it’s not clear whether public media stations will be eligible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Benson cautioned that public media shouldn’t abandon hope for federal funding, for now, he said the path forward is paved with private dollars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The future is public media that is more fully in the nonprofit model,” he said in an email. “If anyone can make it work, stations like KQED can, but I would imagine that at least in the near term, budgets will be tight and these will not be the last layoffs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was reported and written by KQED reporter \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/vrancano\">Vanessa Rancaño\u003c/a> and edited by KQED senior editor \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/jservantez\">Jared Servantez\u003c/a>, who contributed additional reporting. Under KQED’s standard practices for reporting on itself, no member of KQED management or its news executives reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated at 6:15 p.m.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED announced Tuesday it’s laying off 45 people and losing 12 more who took voluntary departure offers, marking a 15% reduction in staff as the organization faces a significant budget shortfall and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12048108/will-congress-cut-funds-to-npr-pbs-and-foreign-aid-this-week\">mounting financial uncertainty\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s the third round of layoffs in five years for one of the most-listened-to public radio stations in the country and comes as federal funding for public media is under threat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cuts impact every level of the organization, from top executives to custodial staff, but content-producing departments account for nearly three-quarters of them. KQED is disbanding its digital video team and slashing its education department, which produces media literacy curriculum, as part of a plan to sharpen its focus on local news and community events.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In these uncertain times, the prudent, responsible thing to do is address what we have control over and to stabilize the organization so we can better navigate whatever challenges and uncertainty comes our way,” President and CEO Michael Isip said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED is operating at a $12 million deficit in the current fiscal year. The reductions are expected to bring down the shortfall by about 90% going into next year, Isip said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to paring back its staff, the nonprofit said it will stop contributing to employees’ retirement accounts and freeze salary increases beginning this fall. The current plan is to restart both next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leaders with the unions representing many of KQED’s workers said the company will have to negotiate before freezing pay for union members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), which represents radio, digital news and podcast employees, said in a statement that the union is “committed to protecting the rights of our members in accordance with our collective bargaining agreements and ensuring that those impacted are treated fairly and equitably.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11987511\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11987511\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240522-KQEDheadquarters-10-BL_qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240522-KQEDheadquarters-10-BL_qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240522-KQEDheadquarters-10-BL_qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240522-KQEDheadquarters-10-BL_qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240522-KQEDheadquarters-10-BL_qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240522-KQEDheadquarters-10-BL_qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A KQED sign in the lobby of the organization’s headquarters in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The cuts whittle KQED’s workforce to 312, down from 369 full-time employees. An additional 10 vacant positions will go unfilled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Four senior leaders are among those leaving the company, including Chief Operations and Administrative Officer Maria Miller and Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer Eric Abrams. Isip said they were “mutual agreements that this was a good time for them to transition,” and he added that Abrams’ departure was not a response to pressure from the Trump administration to roll back DEI initiatives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Petrice Gaskin, KQED’s director of mid-level giving who worked with Abrams as co-chair of the organization’s DEI council, lamented the optics of losing him in this climate. “At the same time, we acknowledge that this is a tough time period for everyone,” she said, “we’re really fighting for survival here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She credited Abrams with building a healthier culture at KQED, in part by making space to navigate difficult conversations. “KQED as a whole, people want to be nice and kind, but sometimes being nice gets in the way of addressing difficult topics that have to be unpacked that aren’t nice,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Devastating’ cuts to some teams\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>KQED’s education department is among those hardest hit; it’s losing eight of its 13 regular members. “It’s pretty devastating. The folks who we are losing … every single one of them has contributed to the success of our work in pretty significant ways,” said Michelle Parker, executive director of education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cuts mean listeners won’t hear as many young voices on the airwaves, and staff won’t see clusters of teens around the studio each year during \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/youthtakeover\">Youth Takeover\u003c/a> week, as the station is ending the eight-year-old tradition of giving swaths of airtime over to local youth once a year. The department will still help young people produce and publish media through the Youth Media Challenge showcase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are still committed to youth voice, and we will still continue to do it in the best ways we can with the resources we have for as long as we are allowed to do that,” Parker said.[aside postID=news_11987176 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/KQED_Expansion_web_3_1000x600.jpg.png']The small remaining team will provide fewer educator workshops and less curriculum development than in the past, but it will keep professional development courses for K–12 teachers available through the \u003ca href=\"https://teach.kqed.org/\">KQED Teach platform\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In dissolving its digital video team, the organization is focusing its online video offerings on expanding the audiences of existing shows and podcasts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are really rethinking digital video,” Editor in Chief Ethan Toven-Lindsey said. “In terms of our local and news growth, it made sense for [the team] to be disbanded and to not have this separate, standalone unit, but to be integrated into different units.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The station’s call-in radio show, Forum, already \u003ca href=\"https://video.kqed.org/show/kqedforum/\">produces videos\u003c/a> that stream on KQED’s website and YouTube, while its Political Breakdown podcast team is considering making its own video content. “That’s the map,” Toven-Lindsey said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The digital video team’s work had centered on the often \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/pressroom/11550/kqed-receives-seven-northern-california-emmy-awards\">Emmy-lauded\u003c/a> Deep Look and other resource-intensive programs. Now, just two members of the 13-person team will remain at KQED, with one of them reporting to newsroom leadership. A scaled-back version of Deep Look will live on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Separate from the reductions, Chief Content Officer \u003ca href=\"https://wpln.org/post/nashville-public-radio-names-holly-kernan-of-kqed-as-president-and-ceo/\">Holly Kernan left last month to become CEO of Nashville Public Radio\u003c/a>. Rather than replace her, Isip named Toven-Lindsey editor in chief, a new position.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s an indication that KQED’s future sustainability, our future strategy, our future growth — the backbone is local news,” Toven-Lindsey said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Six of the staff cuts will come from the newsroom, including four layoffs and two people who took voluntary departure offers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sarah Augusta, who took the buyout offer after six years with KQED’s fundraising team, said she “decided to make a total right angle career switch” and open an independent bookstore in Martinez this fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While she said her team, which works with some of the organization’s largest donors, at times felt under-resourced, she added that “this place also attracts some of the most fascinating, interesting, creative people I’ve ever worked with.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A volatile financial picture\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The station has been running a board-approved deficit since 2022. Based on revenue projections at the time, leadership expected to get back in the black by fiscal year 2027, according to a KQED spokesperson. The timeline banked on revenue growth of 2.4% a year, but it’s only grown 1.3%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Board chair Jennifer Cabalquinto said the broader economic situation has thrown those projections out the window. “The volatility is very real, and that’s really impacted the revenue sources,” she said, noting that the threat of losing federal funding compounds the picture. “It’s a double whammy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Trump administration is working on multiple fronts to gut federal support for public media. \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/07/15/g-s1-77572/npr-pbs-funding-rescission-congress\">The Senate faces a Friday deadline\u003c/a> to decide whether to claw back $1.1 billion appropriated for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a move already approved by the House of Representatives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/community-report#financials\">KQED received $7.6 million from CPB\u003c/a>. If that’s pulled, Cabalquinto said the organization would likely rely on cash reserves in the short term.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, NPR and PBS are suing Trump to block \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/05/ending-taxpayer-subsidization-of-biased-media/\">an executive order\u003c/a> that aims to cut off their federal funding, and the Federal Communications Commission is investigating the underwriting practices of local member stations — a move that Isip said has had “a chilling effect” among some corporate sponsors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED’s financial troubles stem from the organization’s growth in recent years, driven by multimillion-dollar investments, and sluggish revenue growth can no longer support its size. But they are also indicative of the existential challenges bearing down on the nation’s public media system and news industry writ large.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>New economic headwinds are contributing to a longstanding struggle to find financial footing in a digital environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It wasn’t just one thing that’s causing this deficit, it’s multiple investments in growing our service,” Isip said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Between 2013 and 2018, the nonprofit added 60 employees, mostly focused on digital services, according to Isip. During that period, the education department nearly tripled in size, he said, and the station added journalists, building among the largest nonprofit newsrooms in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We had to do that,” Isip said. “Broadcast audiences are declining. If we didn’t expand into new areas, that would threaten our future and our relevancy to our audiences moving forward.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The growth was made possible in part by $45 million in one-time money from \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/campaign21\">a fundraising campaign\u003c/a> that also bankrolled a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/pressroom/11576/kqed-plan-for-opening\">$94 million building renovation\u003c/a>, and station leaders were betting that expanding services would boost the station’s audience, bringing an uptick in ongoing revenue to follow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That has been the case,” Isip said. “But our financial support has not grown at the same rate as our expense growth.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carrie Biggs-Adams, president of NABET Local 51, which represents the company’s radio and television engineers, among many other employees, voiced concerns about leaders’ management of KQED’s assets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just stunning to have this happen in a place that had so much money a few years ago,” she said. Four NABET members are being laid off, according to Biggs-Adams.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the past eight years, KQED’s revenue has grown by 3.2%, while expenses have risen 4.7%, Isip said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He blamed a number of factors, including the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. While individual donations from community members are strong — the May pledge drive brought in an annualized total of about $1.9 million, and the February drive brought in $2.3 million, the biggest since 2018 — corporate sponsorship and underwriting have “softened,” Isip said. Funding from foundations and grants is about flat, he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11987509/kqed-cuts-34-positions-amid-budget-shortfall\">the company eliminated 34 positions\u003c/a> amid other cuts, with leadership again citing rising costs and flagging expenses. In 2020, it \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11832855/kqed-announces-layoffs-blames-coronavirus-pandemic-for-budget-shortfall\">laid off 20 employees\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was reported and written by KQED reporter Vanessa Rancaño and edited by KQED’s Jared Servantez. Under KQED’s standard practices for reporting on itself, no member of KQED management or its news executives reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated at 6:15 p.m.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED announced Tuesday it’s laying off 45 people and losing 12 more who took voluntary departure offers, marking a 15% reduction in staff as the organization faces a significant budget shortfall and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12048108/will-congress-cut-funds-to-npr-pbs-and-foreign-aid-this-week\">mounting financial uncertainty\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s the third round of layoffs in five years for one of the most-listened-to public radio stations in the country and comes as federal funding for public media is under threat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cuts impact every level of the organization, from top executives to custodial staff, but content-producing departments account for nearly three-quarters of them. KQED is disbanding its digital video team and slashing its education department, which produces media literacy curriculum, as part of a plan to sharpen its focus on local news and community events.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In these uncertain times, the prudent, responsible thing to do is address what we have control over and to stabilize the organization so we can better navigate whatever challenges and uncertainty comes our way,” President and CEO Michael Isip said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED is operating at a $12 million deficit in the current fiscal year. The reductions are expected to bring down the shortfall by about 90% going into next year, Isip said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to paring back its staff, the nonprofit said it will stop contributing to employees’ retirement accounts and freeze salary increases beginning this fall. The current plan is to restart both next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leaders with the unions representing many of KQED’s workers said the company will have to negotiate before freezing pay for union members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), which represents radio, digital news and podcast employees, said in a statement that the union is “committed to protecting the rights of our members in accordance with our collective bargaining agreements and ensuring that those impacted are treated fairly and equitably.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11987511\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11987511\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240522-KQEDheadquarters-10-BL_qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240522-KQEDheadquarters-10-BL_qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240522-KQEDheadquarters-10-BL_qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240522-KQEDheadquarters-10-BL_qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240522-KQEDheadquarters-10-BL_qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240522-KQEDheadquarters-10-BL_qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A KQED sign in the lobby of the organization’s headquarters in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The cuts whittle KQED’s workforce to 312, down from 369 full-time employees. An additional 10 vacant positions will go unfilled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Four senior leaders are among those leaving the company, including Chief Operations and Administrative Officer Maria Miller and Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer Eric Abrams. Isip said they were “mutual agreements that this was a good time for them to transition,” and he added that Abrams’ departure was not a response to pressure from the Trump administration to roll back DEI initiatives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Petrice Gaskin, KQED’s director of mid-level giving who worked with Abrams as co-chair of the organization’s DEI council, lamented the optics of losing him in this climate. “At the same time, we acknowledge that this is a tough time period for everyone,” she said, “we’re really fighting for survival here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She credited Abrams with building a healthier culture at KQED, in part by making space to navigate difficult conversations. “KQED as a whole, people want to be nice and kind, but sometimes being nice gets in the way of addressing difficult topics that have to be unpacked that aren’t nice,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Devastating’ cuts to some teams\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>KQED’s education department is among those hardest hit; it’s losing eight of its 13 regular members. “It’s pretty devastating. The folks who we are losing … every single one of them has contributed to the success of our work in pretty significant ways,” said Michelle Parker, executive director of education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cuts mean listeners won’t hear as many young voices on the airwaves, and staff won’t see clusters of teens around the studio each year during \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/youthtakeover\">Youth Takeover\u003c/a> week, as the station is ending the eight-year-old tradition of giving swaths of airtime over to local youth once a year. The department will still help young people produce and publish media through the Youth Media Challenge showcase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are still committed to youth voice, and we will still continue to do it in the best ways we can with the resources we have for as long as we are allowed to do that,” Parker said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The small remaining team will provide fewer educator workshops and less curriculum development than in the past, but it will keep professional development courses for K–12 teachers available through the \u003ca href=\"https://teach.kqed.org/\">KQED Teach platform\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In dissolving its digital video team, the organization is focusing its online video offerings on expanding the audiences of existing shows and podcasts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are really rethinking digital video,” Editor in Chief Ethan Toven-Lindsey said. “In terms of our local and news growth, it made sense for [the team] to be disbanded and to not have this separate, standalone unit, but to be integrated into different units.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The station’s call-in radio show, Forum, already \u003ca href=\"https://video.kqed.org/show/kqedforum/\">produces videos\u003c/a> that stream on KQED’s website and YouTube, while its Political Breakdown podcast team is considering making its own video content. “That’s the map,” Toven-Lindsey said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The digital video team’s work had centered on the often \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/pressroom/11550/kqed-receives-seven-northern-california-emmy-awards\">Emmy-lauded\u003c/a> Deep Look and other resource-intensive programs. Now, just two members of the 13-person team will remain at KQED, with one of them reporting to newsroom leadership. A scaled-back version of Deep Look will live on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Separate from the reductions, Chief Content Officer \u003ca href=\"https://wpln.org/post/nashville-public-radio-names-holly-kernan-of-kqed-as-president-and-ceo/\">Holly Kernan left last month to become CEO of Nashville Public Radio\u003c/a>. Rather than replace her, Isip named Toven-Lindsey editor in chief, a new position.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s an indication that KQED’s future sustainability, our future strategy, our future growth — the backbone is local news,” Toven-Lindsey said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Six of the staff cuts will come from the newsroom, including four layoffs and two people who took voluntary departure offers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sarah Augusta, who took the buyout offer after six years with KQED’s fundraising team, said she “decided to make a total right angle career switch” and open an independent bookstore in Martinez this fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While she said her team, which works with some of the organization’s largest donors, at times felt under-resourced, she added that “this place also attracts some of the most fascinating, interesting, creative people I’ve ever worked with.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A volatile financial picture\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The station has been running a board-approved deficit since 2022. Based on revenue projections at the time, leadership expected to get back in the black by fiscal year 2027, according to a KQED spokesperson. The timeline banked on revenue growth of 2.4% a year, but it’s only grown 1.3%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Board chair Jennifer Cabalquinto said the broader economic situation has thrown those projections out the window. “The volatility is very real, and that’s really impacted the revenue sources,” she said, noting that the threat of losing federal funding compounds the picture. “It’s a double whammy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Trump administration is working on multiple fronts to gut federal support for public media. \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/07/15/g-s1-77572/npr-pbs-funding-rescission-congress\">The Senate faces a Friday deadline\u003c/a> to decide whether to claw back $1.1 billion appropriated for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a move already approved by the House of Representatives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/community-report#financials\">KQED received $7.6 million from CPB\u003c/a>. If that’s pulled, Cabalquinto said the organization would likely rely on cash reserves in the short term.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, NPR and PBS are suing Trump to block \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/05/ending-taxpayer-subsidization-of-biased-media/\">an executive order\u003c/a> that aims to cut off their federal funding, and the Federal Communications Commission is investigating the underwriting practices of local member stations — a move that Isip said has had “a chilling effect” among some corporate sponsors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED’s financial troubles stem from the organization’s growth in recent years, driven by multimillion-dollar investments, and sluggish revenue growth can no longer support its size. But they are also indicative of the existential challenges bearing down on the nation’s public media system and news industry writ large.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>New economic headwinds are contributing to a longstanding struggle to find financial footing in a digital environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It wasn’t just one thing that’s causing this deficit, it’s multiple investments in growing our service,” Isip said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Between 2013 and 2018, the nonprofit added 60 employees, mostly focused on digital services, according to Isip. During that period, the education department nearly tripled in size, he said, and the station added journalists, building among the largest nonprofit newsrooms in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We had to do that,” Isip said. “Broadcast audiences are declining. If we didn’t expand into new areas, that would threaten our future and our relevancy to our audiences moving forward.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The growth was made possible in part by $45 million in one-time money from \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/campaign21\">a fundraising campaign\u003c/a> that also bankrolled a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/pressroom/11576/kqed-plan-for-opening\">$94 million building renovation\u003c/a>, and station leaders were betting that expanding services would boost the station’s audience, bringing an uptick in ongoing revenue to follow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That has been the case,” Isip said. “But our financial support has not grown at the same rate as our expense growth.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carrie Biggs-Adams, president of NABET Local 51, which represents the company’s radio and television engineers, among many other employees, voiced concerns about leaders’ management of KQED’s assets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just stunning to have this happen in a place that had so much money a few years ago,” she said. Four NABET members are being laid off, according to Biggs-Adams.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the past eight years, KQED’s revenue has grown by 3.2%, while expenses have risen 4.7%, Isip said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He blamed a number of factors, including the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. While individual donations from community members are strong — the May pledge drive brought in an annualized total of about $1.9 million, and the February drive brought in $2.3 million, the biggest since 2018 — corporate sponsorship and underwriting have “softened,” Isip said. Funding from foundations and grants is about flat, he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11987509/kqed-cuts-34-positions-amid-budget-shortfall\">the company eliminated 34 positions\u003c/a> amid other cuts, with leadership again citing rising costs and flagging expenses. In 2020, it \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11832855/kqed-announces-layoffs-blames-coronavirus-pandemic-for-budget-shortfall\">laid off 20 employees\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was reported and written by KQED reporter Vanessa Rancaño and edited by KQED’s Jared Servantez. Under KQED’s standard practices for reporting on itself, no member of KQED management or its news executives reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "why-reporter-ruben-salazars-death-55-years-ago-still-resonates-ice-protests",
"title": "Why Reporter Ruben Salazar’s Death 55 Years Ago Still Resonates in LA Protests",
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"headTitle": "Why Reporter Ruben Salazar’s Death 55 Years Ago Still Resonates in LA Protests | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003c!-- Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ -->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was originally published by \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/\">CalMatters\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/subscribe-to-calmatters/\">Sign up\u003c/a> for their newsletters.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The specter of law enforcement firing “less-lethal” rounds into crowds of protesters and striking journalists on the streets of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/los-angeles\">Los Angeles\u003c/a> is a haunting echo of the death of journalist \u003ca href=\"https://library.sonoma.edu/research/research-guides/regional-research/notable-north-bay-people/ruben-salazar-1928-1970\">Ruben Salazar while covering a protest more than 50 years ago\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In four days of protests over ICE immigration arrests in the Los Angeles Area, nearly a dozen journalists, including CalMatters investigative reporter Sergio Olmos, were struck by projectiles fired by law enforcement officers, according to data compiled by \u003ca href=\"https://lapressclub.org/about/board/adam-rose-2/\">Adam Rose, chair of the press rights committee \u003c/a>of the Los Angeles Press Club.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most sustained minor bruises, but one, British journalist Nick Stern, was hit in the leg with a projectile, apparently fired by a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy, while covering Friday night’s disturbance in the community of Paramount.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The impact left a 2-inch hole in his leg and required emergency surgery to remove a 40mm projectile, according to media reports.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It hurt so much that I thought they might be firing live rounds,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/08/la-protests-photographer-hit-by-non-lethal-rounds\">he told \u003cem>The Guardian\u003c/em>.\u003c/a> “I’ve been with non-lethal rounds before. They hurt like hell but generally don’t break the skin. But the blood made me think it was a live round.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another journalist, Lauren Tomasi of News9 Australia, was struck by a rubber bullet fired by a Los Angeles Police Department officer while she was broadcasting live during Sunday’s protest outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in Downtown Los Angeles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12043754\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2250px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12043754\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/LAProtestScreengrab01.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2250\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/LAProtestScreengrab01.jpg 2250w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/LAProtestScreengrab01-2000x1778.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/LAProtestScreengrab01-160x142.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/LAProtestScreengrab01-1536x1365.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/LAProtestScreengrab01-2048x1820.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2250px) 100vw, 2250px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">U.S correspondent Lauren Tomasi of 9News in Australia is hit by a projectile fired by LAPD during a live broadcast in downtown Los Angeles on June 8, 2025. \u003ccite>(Screenshot/9News)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department told CalMatters in a statement that the department is reviewing footage of Stern’s injury and “it is not clear at this time whether our department was involved.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The statement said the department is committed to ensuring members of the media “can perform their duties safely while covering events, including protests, civil disobedience and public gatherings.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The statement added that the Tomasi incident “involved another law enforcement agency and not the Sheriff’s Department.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://x.com/9NewsAUS/status/1931885297203347706?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1931885297203347706%7Ctwgr%5E5bb6c7a309df0e8abb6908bca8945f2a5808eb17%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fmedia%2F2025%2Fjun%2F09%2Faustralian-reporter-shot-with-rubber-bullet-while-covering-anti-ice-protests-in-los-angeles\">A video posted on X by News9 Australia\u003c/a> shows a uniformed LAPD officer taking aim and firing in the direction of Tomasi and her crew.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked for comment, an LAPD spokesperson directed CalMatters to \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/LAPDPIO/status/1932200228951892284/photo/1\">a news release posted\u003c/a> on the agency’s X account. It states that police fired more than 600 rounds of “less-than-lethal munitions” Saturday and Sunday while arresting 29 people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The release states that the department will continue to review body-worn footage from the incidents, but makes no mention of the Tomasi case or other journalists who were struck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>News9 reported that the LAPD has launched a formal investigation into the Tomasi incident.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A subsequent release by the LAPD states that its Professional Standards Bureau “will be investigating allegations of excessive force,” but does not mention Tomasi or other media.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A history of problems\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The hazards journalists face covering the news are not new. Throughout the years, dozens of journalists have been injured by police while covering disturbances in and around Los Angeles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rose, the LA Press Club’s journalists’ rights advocate, said he started compiling data on incidents after the violence during the 2020 LA George Floyd protests to try to determine whether there has been a pattern involving police encounters in which journalists are injured.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11987039\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11987039\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/200529-GeorgeFloyd-04-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/200529-GeorgeFloyd-04-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/200529-GeorgeFloyd-04-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/200529-GeorgeFloyd-04-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/200529-GeorgeFloyd-04-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/200529-GeorgeFloyd-04-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/200529-GeorgeFloyd-04-BL-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A demonstrator outside Oakland police headquarters on May 29 2020, carries a sign with the words, “I can’t breathe” spoken by George Floyd, the man murdered on May 25, 2020, by police in Minneapolis. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He said he believes a pattern does exist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There has been a long history of problematic dynamics between police and the press in Los Angeles,” he said, especially during incidents of unrest in which police “appear to clearly target journalists.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He cited the 2007 “Mayday Melee,” in which LAPD officers tried to clear protesters at an immigration rally in MacArthur Park. More than 40 people were injured, including nine journalists, and the city paid out $13 million to settle excessive force claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Six years earlier, LAPD agreed to pay $60,000 to settle a case involving seven reporters who were injured by police covering disturbances surrounding the 2000 Democratic National Convention.[aside postID=news_12043548 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/AP25160742848163-2000x1333.jpg']“The [LAPD] culture is really concerning,” Rose said. “Police and the press are both a type of first responder and there should be a level of professionalism and respect. When you culturally target journalists, the rights of the press are chilled and the ability of the public to be informed is harmed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rose noted that \u003ca href=\"https://law.justia.com/codes/california/code-pen/part-4/title-4-7/section-13652/#:~:text=(6)%20Officers%20shall%20minimize%20the,to%20extract%20individuals%20in%20distress.\">California Penal Code Section 13652\u003c/a> was amended in 2021 to require that officers “minimize the possible incidental impact of their use of kinetic energy projectiles and chemical agents on bystanders, medical personnel, journalists, or other unintended targets.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Olmos, the CalMatters journalist who was struck, \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/MrOlmos/status/1932266657139024094\">reported on X \u003c/a>that he saw officers aiming less-lethal munitions at close range, “including at eye level.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked for a response, an LAPD spokesman directed CalMatters to submit questions in writing via email but not to expect an immediate reply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rose said it is somewhat difficult to draw a straight line between more recent episodes and the death of Salzar, but there are enough similarities that after 55 years, his case still rings as a cautionary tale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He was killed by a tear-gas canister fired through an open door, which indicates a sort of recklessness, and that recklessness certainly continues,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rose noted that on Friday, freelance journalist Sean Becker-Carmitchel was struck in the head by a tear-gas round and that “had it been two inches lower, he would have lost an eye.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘The loss of a hero’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Salazar was a columnist for the \u003cem>Los Angeles Times\u003c/em> as well as the news director of a Spanish-language radio station.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Aug. 29, 1970, he was covering a march in East Los Angeles by Latinos against the Vietnam War. As the protest grew more heated, sheriff’s deputies tried to disperse the crowds with tear gas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Salazar ducked into a bar called The Silver Dollar. A short time later, a deputy fired a 10-inch tear gas projectile through the curtained door of the establishment, striking Salazar in the head and killing him. The death was ultimately ruled accidental.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11643081\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11643081\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/LATimes.jpg\" alt=\"The Los Angeles Times building in downtown L.A.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1254\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/LATimes.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/LATimes-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/LATimes-800x523.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/LATimes-1020x666.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/LATimes-1180x771.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/LATimes-960x627.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/LATimes-240x157.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/LATimes-375x245.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/LATimes-520x340.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Los Angeles Times building in downtown L.A. \u003ccite>(Mae Ryan/KPCC)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Retired journalist Frank Sotomayor joined the \u003cem>Times\u003c/em> in 1970, shortly after Salazar’s death. He had become an admirer of Salazar’s after relatives began sending him copies of his columns while he was stationed in Tokyo with the Army.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those columns led him to apply at the \u003cem>Times\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The day I got out of the Army was the day he was killed,” Sotomayor told CalMatters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He was one of the few Latinos in journalism at the time … for the people who knew him, they were just stunned … that anything like this would happen.”[aside postID=news_12043445 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250609-SF-IMMIGRATION-PROTESTS-MD-17-KQED-1.jpg']“To me, it was the loss of a hero that I’d always wanted to meet and never had the opportunity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sotomayor, who helped lead a \u003cem>Times\u003c/em> project on the Latino community and culture that won the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for public service and later worked on a 20th anniversary retrospective about Salazar’s death, noted that there are still questions surrounding the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s still people who believe Ruben was killed on purpose,” he said. “I’ve never made my mind up whether it was on purpose or an accident, as the Sheriff’s Office called it. Why someone would fire a projectile of that type into a business … it seems like it’s beyond a coincidence.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sotomayor noted that the type of tear-gas canister that struck Salazar would not fit the description of a non-lethal projectile today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that doesn’t discount the danger journalists face in trying to cover their communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year was the deadliest year for journalists on record, with at least 124 killed in the line of duty, \u003ca href=\"https://cpj.org/special-reports/2024-is-deadliest-year-for-journalists-in-cpj-history-almost-70-percent-killed-by-israel/#:~:text=All%20of%20the%202024%20killings,See%20our%20methodology%20here.\">according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. \u003c/a>Most died while covering conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine and other parts of the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/justice/2025/06/ruben-salazars-death-journalists-protests/\">originally published on CalMatters\u003c/a> and was republished under the \u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/\">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives\u003c/a> license.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Ruben Salazar died 55 years ago while covering a protest in LA. His case illustrates the dangers journalists face today as police fire “less lethal munitions” into crowds.",
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"title": "Why Reporter Ruben Salazar’s Death 55 Years Ago Still Resonates in LA Protests | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c!-- Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ -->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was originally published by \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/\">CalMatters\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/subscribe-to-calmatters/\">Sign up\u003c/a> for their newsletters.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The specter of law enforcement firing “less-lethal” rounds into crowds of protesters and striking journalists on the streets of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/los-angeles\">Los Angeles\u003c/a> is a haunting echo of the death of journalist \u003ca href=\"https://library.sonoma.edu/research/research-guides/regional-research/notable-north-bay-people/ruben-salazar-1928-1970\">Ruben Salazar while covering a protest more than 50 years ago\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In four days of protests over ICE immigration arrests in the Los Angeles Area, nearly a dozen journalists, including CalMatters investigative reporter Sergio Olmos, were struck by projectiles fired by law enforcement officers, according to data compiled by \u003ca href=\"https://lapressclub.org/about/board/adam-rose-2/\">Adam Rose, chair of the press rights committee \u003c/a>of the Los Angeles Press Club.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most sustained minor bruises, but one, British journalist Nick Stern, was hit in the leg with a projectile, apparently fired by a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy, while covering Friday night’s disturbance in the community of Paramount.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The impact left a 2-inch hole in his leg and required emergency surgery to remove a 40mm projectile, according to media reports.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It hurt so much that I thought they might be firing live rounds,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/08/la-protests-photographer-hit-by-non-lethal-rounds\">he told \u003cem>The Guardian\u003c/em>.\u003c/a> “I’ve been with non-lethal rounds before. They hurt like hell but generally don’t break the skin. But the blood made me think it was a live round.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another journalist, Lauren Tomasi of News9 Australia, was struck by a rubber bullet fired by a Los Angeles Police Department officer while she was broadcasting live during Sunday’s protest outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in Downtown Los Angeles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12043754\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2250px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12043754\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/LAProtestScreengrab01.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2250\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/LAProtestScreengrab01.jpg 2250w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/LAProtestScreengrab01-2000x1778.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/LAProtestScreengrab01-160x142.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/LAProtestScreengrab01-1536x1365.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/LAProtestScreengrab01-2048x1820.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2250px) 100vw, 2250px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">U.S correspondent Lauren Tomasi of 9News in Australia is hit by a projectile fired by LAPD during a live broadcast in downtown Los Angeles on June 8, 2025. \u003ccite>(Screenshot/9News)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department told CalMatters in a statement that the department is reviewing footage of Stern’s injury and “it is not clear at this time whether our department was involved.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The statement said the department is committed to ensuring members of the media “can perform their duties safely while covering events, including protests, civil disobedience and public gatherings.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The statement added that the Tomasi incident “involved another law enforcement agency and not the Sheriff’s Department.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://x.com/9NewsAUS/status/1931885297203347706?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1931885297203347706%7Ctwgr%5E5bb6c7a309df0e8abb6908bca8945f2a5808eb17%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fmedia%2F2025%2Fjun%2F09%2Faustralian-reporter-shot-with-rubber-bullet-while-covering-anti-ice-protests-in-los-angeles\">A video posted on X by News9 Australia\u003c/a> shows a uniformed LAPD officer taking aim and firing in the direction of Tomasi and her crew.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked for comment, an LAPD spokesperson directed CalMatters to \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/LAPDPIO/status/1932200228951892284/photo/1\">a news release posted\u003c/a> on the agency’s X account. It states that police fired more than 600 rounds of “less-than-lethal munitions” Saturday and Sunday while arresting 29 people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The release states that the department will continue to review body-worn footage from the incidents, but makes no mention of the Tomasi case or other journalists who were struck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>News9 reported that the LAPD has launched a formal investigation into the Tomasi incident.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A subsequent release by the LAPD states that its Professional Standards Bureau “will be investigating allegations of excessive force,” but does not mention Tomasi or other media.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A history of problems\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The hazards journalists face covering the news are not new. Throughout the years, dozens of journalists have been injured by police while covering disturbances in and around Los Angeles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rose, the LA Press Club’s journalists’ rights advocate, said he started compiling data on incidents after the violence during the 2020 LA George Floyd protests to try to determine whether there has been a pattern involving police encounters in which journalists are injured.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11987039\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11987039\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/200529-GeorgeFloyd-04-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/200529-GeorgeFloyd-04-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/200529-GeorgeFloyd-04-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/200529-GeorgeFloyd-04-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/200529-GeorgeFloyd-04-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/200529-GeorgeFloyd-04-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/200529-GeorgeFloyd-04-BL-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A demonstrator outside Oakland police headquarters on May 29 2020, carries a sign with the words, “I can’t breathe” spoken by George Floyd, the man murdered on May 25, 2020, by police in Minneapolis. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He said he believes a pattern does exist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There has been a long history of problematic dynamics between police and the press in Los Angeles,” he said, especially during incidents of unrest in which police “appear to clearly target journalists.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He cited the 2007 “Mayday Melee,” in which LAPD officers tried to clear protesters at an immigration rally in MacArthur Park. More than 40 people were injured, including nine journalists, and the city paid out $13 million to settle excessive force claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Six years earlier, LAPD agreed to pay $60,000 to settle a case involving seven reporters who were injured by police covering disturbances surrounding the 2000 Democratic National Convention.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“The [LAPD] culture is really concerning,” Rose said. “Police and the press are both a type of first responder and there should be a level of professionalism and respect. When you culturally target journalists, the rights of the press are chilled and the ability of the public to be informed is harmed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rose noted that \u003ca href=\"https://law.justia.com/codes/california/code-pen/part-4/title-4-7/section-13652/#:~:text=(6)%20Officers%20shall%20minimize%20the,to%20extract%20individuals%20in%20distress.\">California Penal Code Section 13652\u003c/a> was amended in 2021 to require that officers “minimize the possible incidental impact of their use of kinetic energy projectiles and chemical agents on bystanders, medical personnel, journalists, or other unintended targets.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Olmos, the CalMatters journalist who was struck, \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/MrOlmos/status/1932266657139024094\">reported on X \u003c/a>that he saw officers aiming less-lethal munitions at close range, “including at eye level.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked for a response, an LAPD spokesman directed CalMatters to submit questions in writing via email but not to expect an immediate reply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rose said it is somewhat difficult to draw a straight line between more recent episodes and the death of Salzar, but there are enough similarities that after 55 years, his case still rings as a cautionary tale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He was killed by a tear-gas canister fired through an open door, which indicates a sort of recklessness, and that recklessness certainly continues,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rose noted that on Friday, freelance journalist Sean Becker-Carmitchel was struck in the head by a tear-gas round and that “had it been two inches lower, he would have lost an eye.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘The loss of a hero’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Salazar was a columnist for the \u003cem>Los Angeles Times\u003c/em> as well as the news director of a Spanish-language radio station.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Aug. 29, 1970, he was covering a march in East Los Angeles by Latinos against the Vietnam War. As the protest grew more heated, sheriff’s deputies tried to disperse the crowds with tear gas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Salazar ducked into a bar called The Silver Dollar. A short time later, a deputy fired a 10-inch tear gas projectile through the curtained door of the establishment, striking Salazar in the head and killing him. The death was ultimately ruled accidental.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11643081\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11643081\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/LATimes.jpg\" alt=\"The Los Angeles Times building in downtown L.A.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1254\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/LATimes.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/LATimes-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/LATimes-800x523.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/LATimes-1020x666.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/LATimes-1180x771.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/LATimes-960x627.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/LATimes-240x157.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/LATimes-375x245.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/LATimes-520x340.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Los Angeles Times building in downtown L.A. \u003ccite>(Mae Ryan/KPCC)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Retired journalist Frank Sotomayor joined the \u003cem>Times\u003c/em> in 1970, shortly after Salazar’s death. He had become an admirer of Salazar’s after relatives began sending him copies of his columns while he was stationed in Tokyo with the Army.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those columns led him to apply at the \u003cem>Times\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The day I got out of the Army was the day he was killed,” Sotomayor told CalMatters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He was one of the few Latinos in journalism at the time … for the people who knew him, they were just stunned … that anything like this would happen.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“To me, it was the loss of a hero that I’d always wanted to meet and never had the opportunity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sotomayor, who helped lead a \u003cem>Times\u003c/em> project on the Latino community and culture that won the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for public service and later worked on a 20th anniversary retrospective about Salazar’s death, noted that there are still questions surrounding the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s still people who believe Ruben was killed on purpose,” he said. “I’ve never made my mind up whether it was on purpose or an accident, as the Sheriff’s Office called it. Why someone would fire a projectile of that type into a business … it seems like it’s beyond a coincidence.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sotomayor noted that the type of tear-gas canister that struck Salazar would not fit the description of a non-lethal projectile today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that doesn’t discount the danger journalists face in trying to cover their communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year was the deadliest year for journalists on record, with at least 124 killed in the line of duty, \u003ca href=\"https://cpj.org/special-reports/2024-is-deadliest-year-for-journalists-in-cpj-history-almost-70-percent-killed-by-israel/#:~:text=All%20of%20the%202024%20killings,See%20our%20methodology%20here.\">according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. \u003c/a>Most died while covering conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine and other parts of the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/justice/2025/06/ruben-salazars-death-journalists-protests/\">originally published on CalMatters\u003c/a> and was republished under the \u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/\">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives\u003c/a> license.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Press Democrat, the longtime local newspaper of Santa Rosa and Sonoma County, has been sold to MediaNews Group, a newspaper publisher owned by Alden Global Capital, an investment firm based in Manhattan. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The sale has raised alarms among North Bay journalists and residents, who fear that the company will continue its pattern of buying newspapers and then slashing staff. KQED’s Gabe Meline joins us to discuss the sale and its potential impact on the local media landscape in the North Bay. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Correction: The description of Alden Global Capital has been updated.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC5460423302&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Links\u003c/strong>:\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12038583/santa-rosas-press-democrat-was-just-sold-locals-are-concerned-for-the-papers-future\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Santa Rosa’s Press Democrat Was Just Sold. Locals Are Concerned For the Paper’s Future\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:01:24] Well, Gabe, you live in the North Bay in Santa Rosa. I mean, how would you characterize the role that the press democrat plays in the local news ecosystem out there?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:01:37] I mean, it’s invaluable. The PD is certainly the longest-running and it’s just been especially invested in the local community. It reflects what’s happening in the community, but sort of also creates its own community itself, you know. Its comment section can be a real town square of, you know, local concerns. And, you just the paper of record. Like, you know, there’s the saying that newspapers are the first draft of history. I believe that to be true, and the PD’s archives are the story of Santa Rosa.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:02:26] For people who maybe aren’t familiar, what areas of the North Bay does the press democrat really cover?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:02:34] It’s headquartered in Santa Rosa, but it covers all of Sonoma County. It has expanded into Napa County recently. It also covers a lot of what’s referred to as the North Coast, you know, up into Mendocino County. It was started in 1897 by Ernest Finley, and it’s been in the same family for years, the Finleys and then the Persons owned it up until 1985. Then it was bought by the New York Times, and the New York Times had it until 2012 when they sold it to this company called Halifax, which, you know, really all they did was put it up for sale and tell reporters that they couldn’t wear jeans to work. And then less than a year later, it was bought by Sonoma Media Investments, which is a local ownership group. It was seen when they bought this as like a return to local ownership. Saving the paper from corporate overlords, it was a real feel-good story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:03:38] Which brings us to now and why we’re talking about the paper today, which is because there are some big changes coming to it. I mean, what happened, Gabe? Tell me about the announcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:03:54] The Press Democrat has been sold to Alden Global Capital. Their model is, you know, to buy distressed, troubled companies, sell them for parts, guide them into bankruptcy if need be, with the goal being profit at any cost and not long-term sustainability. Least of all, not journalism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:04:19] I mean, my mind kind of goes to, okay, another local paper maybe not doing so well. I mean do we know anything about why it was sold?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:04:32] The PD has been healthy as for why Sonoma Media Investments sold it. One part of that ownership group, Doug Bosco said to the SF standard that, you know, that the investor group is getting older and that they had been discussing a possible sale and, you know, selling it to another company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:04:53] Was this a surprise or did people at the paper see this coming?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:04:57] The people that I talked to were completely shocked. I mean, I was completely shocked\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hunter Paniagua \u003c/strong>[00:05:01] Pretty disappointed all around, to be quite frank.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:05:04] KQED also spoke to Hunter Paniagua, the staff rep for the union representing the Press Democrat’s editorial staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hunter Paniagua \u003c/strong>[00:05:12] Both disappointed in the way that the SMI owners went about doing business with Media News Group to complete that sale, doing so without notifying us at all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:05:24] Another big shock to the newsroom is that it had been reported and everyone was expecting that the press democrat would be sold to Hearst, which also owns the Chronicle and more than 20 other papers around the country. And Alden was really held up as this boogeyman, like this doomsday scenario. You don’t want to be sold Alden, you don’t wanna be sold the Alden. And then they did it anyway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hunter Paniagua \u003c/strong>[00:05:49] And so not only are we disappointed in that part of it, but also just concerned about what it means to lose local ownership and it being handed over to a group that has the reputation that Media News Group does and Alden Global Capital that runs them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:06:08] Coming up, we’ll hear more about Alden Global Capital and what this sale could mean for readers. Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:06:22] So it sounds like one of the bigger surprises here is who the newspaper was sold to. What do we know about Alden Global Capital MediaNews Group? Who are they?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:06:35] Alden Global Capital, nobody really knows who Alden Global Capital is. The co-founders are Randall Smith and Heath Freeman. They don’t give any interviews, you know, barely any photos of them exist online. In 2011, they started buying up newspapers nationwide and they now own or manage more than 300 other publications around the country. In the Bay Area, their media news group owns the San Jose Mercury News. East Bay Times, formerly the Oakland Tribune and the Marin Independent Journal, and they are notorious for just routing out newspapers. The Oakland Tribune, which was renamed the East Bay Times by Alden Global Capital, they won a Pulitzer in 2017 for their coverage of the Ghost Ship Fire and a week later they laid off 20 people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:07:30] I mean, what has been the reaction from reporters and journalists in the Press Democrat newsroom?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:07:38] I would say a mixture of sadness and anger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Phil Barber \u003c/strong>[00:07:43] Well, we’re stunned collectively as a newsroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:07:46] KQED also talked to a Press Democrat reporter, Phil Barber, who commented on just what a complete surprise this sale was.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Phil Barber \u003c/strong>[00:07:54] We were not told or notified about this at all from our current management. We found out when everybody got an email from the news media group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:08:06] The newsroom also learned about this by email, and the email went to a lot of reporters’ junk inboxes. So a lot people just thought it was a joke until a meeting happened to be called later that day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Phil Barber \u003c/strong>[00:08:19] We were sort of blindsided by it and we have a lot of questions and a lot of uncertainty. Let’s be honest, Alden has a well-established track record of flashing jobs, flashing positions, and roles that are executed in newsrooms. So we’re very worried about that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:08:53] And I mean, has media news groups said anything about what this change is gonna mean for the paper?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:08:59] You know, contacted by KQED, Media NewsGroup said that they were “honored to bring a newspaper of such high quality as the Press Democrat into their company. We appreciate the importance of local news and information to the communities where we publish, and we’re proud to expand our commitment to Northern California and the North Bay.” Someone from MediaNews group visited the Press Democrat and sort of said all the right things. And you know, we’re not out for clicks. We’re out for subscribers. But the reality is, the staff has a contract through August 2026, and then after that, all bets are off. MediaNews Group can implement these changes or any reduction in staffing or cuts, you know, as much as that contract will allow over the next year and change. But, you know after that who knows?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:09:54] I just have to imagine that part of the concern for journalists here is what this is going to mean for readers and people who rely on the Press Democrat for news.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:10:10] You know, Alden’s model, via media newsgroup, their model is shared resources, shared content, share, share, which is, you know, code word for do more with less. There are certain, like, administrative functions at the PD that are gonna be gone. I assume the HR department will be gone, you now, these employees that know the staff intimately well. Um, the copy desk, uh, you know, will probably shift to a shared model and the copy, those are the people that know the difference between Sebastopol road and Sebastopol Avenue. Like, you, they’re the taxi drivers of this community. They, they know how to get things right and they save reporters a lot of headache. As for reporters and especially as for enterprise reporters, investigative reporters with smaller staff, you can do less of it. And there’s just so much to cover up here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:11:08] I mean, as someone who lives out there, Gabe, what big questions and concerns, I guess, do you have about this sale moving forward?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:11:19] Any community which has seen their local newspaper slim down or contract, which is to say like every community in America, is that much more prone to corruption among elected officials, unfair treatment of marginalized people, backroom deals, just an uninformed population. What newspapers do and what the PD has done so well is that they connect the dots of the complicated ways that your community works. And they explain it to you clearly and they tell you when it’s being done poorly or wrong. I was the editor of the local Alt Weekly up here for about five years, and it was my job to criticize the Press Democrat. They made it hard, you know, but the reason that we criticize the press Democrat is because they’re important, is because we want to hold them to a high standard, is because they are necessary for the health of our city.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Press Democrat, the longtime local newspaper of Santa Rosa and Sonoma County, has been sold to MediaNews Group, a newspaper publisher owned by Alden Global Capital, an investment firm based in Manhattan. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The sale has raised alarms among North Bay journalists and residents, who fear that the company will continue its pattern of buying newspapers and then slashing staff. KQED’s Gabe Meline joins us to discuss the sale and its potential impact on the local media landscape in the North Bay. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Correction: The description of Alden Global Capital has been updated.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC5460423302&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Links\u003c/strong>:\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12038583/santa-rosas-press-democrat-was-just-sold-locals-are-concerned-for-the-papers-future\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Santa Rosa’s Press Democrat Was Just Sold. Locals Are Concerned For the Paper’s Future\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:01:24] Well, Gabe, you live in the North Bay in Santa Rosa. I mean, how would you characterize the role that the press democrat plays in the local news ecosystem out there?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:01:37] I mean, it’s invaluable. The PD is certainly the longest-running and it’s just been especially invested in the local community. It reflects what’s happening in the community, but sort of also creates its own community itself, you know. Its comment section can be a real town square of, you know, local concerns. And, you just the paper of record. Like, you know, there’s the saying that newspapers are the first draft of history. I believe that to be true, and the PD’s archives are the story of Santa Rosa.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:02:26] For people who maybe aren’t familiar, what areas of the North Bay does the press democrat really cover?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:02:34] It’s headquartered in Santa Rosa, but it covers all of Sonoma County. It has expanded into Napa County recently. It also covers a lot of what’s referred to as the North Coast, you know, up into Mendocino County. It was started in 1897 by Ernest Finley, and it’s been in the same family for years, the Finleys and then the Persons owned it up until 1985. Then it was bought by the New York Times, and the New York Times had it until 2012 when they sold it to this company called Halifax, which, you know, really all they did was put it up for sale and tell reporters that they couldn’t wear jeans to work. And then less than a year later, it was bought by Sonoma Media Investments, which is a local ownership group. It was seen when they bought this as like a return to local ownership. Saving the paper from corporate overlords, it was a real feel-good story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:03:38] Which brings us to now and why we’re talking about the paper today, which is because there are some big changes coming to it. I mean, what happened, Gabe? Tell me about the announcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:03:54] The Press Democrat has been sold to Alden Global Capital. Their model is, you know, to buy distressed, troubled companies, sell them for parts, guide them into bankruptcy if need be, with the goal being profit at any cost and not long-term sustainability. Least of all, not journalism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:04:19] I mean, my mind kind of goes to, okay, another local paper maybe not doing so well. I mean do we know anything about why it was sold?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:04:32] The PD has been healthy as for why Sonoma Media Investments sold it. One part of that ownership group, Doug Bosco said to the SF standard that, you know, that the investor group is getting older and that they had been discussing a possible sale and, you know, selling it to another company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:04:53] Was this a surprise or did people at the paper see this coming?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:04:57] The people that I talked to were completely shocked. I mean, I was completely shocked\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hunter Paniagua \u003c/strong>[00:05:01] Pretty disappointed all around, to be quite frank.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:05:04] KQED also spoke to Hunter Paniagua, the staff rep for the union representing the Press Democrat’s editorial staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hunter Paniagua \u003c/strong>[00:05:12] Both disappointed in the way that the SMI owners went about doing business with Media News Group to complete that sale, doing so without notifying us at all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:05:24] Another big shock to the newsroom is that it had been reported and everyone was expecting that the press democrat would be sold to Hearst, which also owns the Chronicle and more than 20 other papers around the country. And Alden was really held up as this boogeyman, like this doomsday scenario. You don’t want to be sold Alden, you don’t wanna be sold the Alden. And then they did it anyway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hunter Paniagua \u003c/strong>[00:05:49] And so not only are we disappointed in that part of it, but also just concerned about what it means to lose local ownership and it being handed over to a group that has the reputation that Media News Group does and Alden Global Capital that runs them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:06:08] Coming up, we’ll hear more about Alden Global Capital and what this sale could mean for readers. Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:06:22] So it sounds like one of the bigger surprises here is who the newspaper was sold to. What do we know about Alden Global Capital MediaNews Group? Who are they?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:06:35] Alden Global Capital, nobody really knows who Alden Global Capital is. The co-founders are Randall Smith and Heath Freeman. They don’t give any interviews, you know, barely any photos of them exist online. In 2011, they started buying up newspapers nationwide and they now own or manage more than 300 other publications around the country. In the Bay Area, their media news group owns the San Jose Mercury News. East Bay Times, formerly the Oakland Tribune and the Marin Independent Journal, and they are notorious for just routing out newspapers. The Oakland Tribune, which was renamed the East Bay Times by Alden Global Capital, they won a Pulitzer in 2017 for their coverage of the Ghost Ship Fire and a week later they laid off 20 people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:07:30] I mean, what has been the reaction from reporters and journalists in the Press Democrat newsroom?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:07:38] I would say a mixture of sadness and anger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Phil Barber \u003c/strong>[00:07:43] Well, we’re stunned collectively as a newsroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:07:46] KQED also talked to a Press Democrat reporter, Phil Barber, who commented on just what a complete surprise this sale was.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Phil Barber \u003c/strong>[00:07:54] We were not told or notified about this at all from our current management. We found out when everybody got an email from the news media group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:08:06] The newsroom also learned about this by email, and the email went to a lot of reporters’ junk inboxes. So a lot people just thought it was a joke until a meeting happened to be called later that day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Phil Barber \u003c/strong>[00:08:19] We were sort of blindsided by it and we have a lot of questions and a lot of uncertainty. Let’s be honest, Alden has a well-established track record of flashing jobs, flashing positions, and roles that are executed in newsrooms. So we’re very worried about that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:08:53] And I mean, has media news groups said anything about what this change is gonna mean for the paper?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:08:59] You know, contacted by KQED, Media NewsGroup said that they were “honored to bring a newspaper of such high quality as the Press Democrat into their company. We appreciate the importance of local news and information to the communities where we publish, and we’re proud to expand our commitment to Northern California and the North Bay.” Someone from MediaNews group visited the Press Democrat and sort of said all the right things. And you know, we’re not out for clicks. We’re out for subscribers. But the reality is, the staff has a contract through August 2026, and then after that, all bets are off. MediaNews Group can implement these changes or any reduction in staffing or cuts, you know, as much as that contract will allow over the next year and change. But, you know after that who knows?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:09:54] I just have to imagine that part of the concern for journalists here is what this is going to mean for readers and people who rely on the Press Democrat for news.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:10:10] You know, Alden’s model, via media newsgroup, their model is shared resources, shared content, share, share, which is, you know, code word for do more with less. There are certain, like, administrative functions at the PD that are gonna be gone. I assume the HR department will be gone, you now, these employees that know the staff intimately well. Um, the copy desk, uh, you know, will probably shift to a shared model and the copy, those are the people that know the difference between Sebastopol road and Sebastopol Avenue. Like, you, they’re the taxi drivers of this community. They, they know how to get things right and they save reporters a lot of headache. As for reporters and especially as for enterprise reporters, investigative reporters with smaller staff, you can do less of it. And there’s just so much to cover up here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:11:08] I mean, as someone who lives out there, Gabe, what big questions and concerns, I guess, do you have about this sale moving forward?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:11:19] Any community which has seen their local newspaper slim down or contract, which is to say like every community in America, is that much more prone to corruption among elected officials, unfair treatment of marginalized people, backroom deals, just an uninformed population. What newspapers do and what the PD has done so well is that they connect the dots of the complicated ways that your community works. And they explain it to you clearly and they tell you when it’s being done poorly or wrong. I was the editor of the local Alt Weekly up here for about five years, and it was my job to criticize the Press Democrat. They made it hard, you know, but the reason that we criticize the press Democrat is because they’re important, is because we want to hold them to a high standard, is because they are necessary for the health of our city.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Santa Rosa’s Press Democrat Was Just Sold. Locals Are Concerned For the Paper’s Future",
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"content": "\u003cp>North Bay journalists and elected officials are concerned for the future of Santa Rosa’s\u003cem> Press Democrat\u003c/em> after it was \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12038462/santa-rosa-press-democrat-sold-to-nations-largest-private-newspaper-group\">sold to the nation’s largest private newspaper operator\u003c/a> this week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The newspaper’s ownership picture had been in flux for weeks amid negotiations to sell to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12035646/press-democrat-union-waives-contract-leaving-newspapers-sale-imminent\">media conglomerate Hearst\u003c/a>, but instead, MediaNews Group swooped in and bought the paper, the company announced Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>MediaNews Group, a subsidiary of investment firm Alden Global Capital, owns more than 100 newspapers across the country, including \u003cem>The Mercury News\u003c/em>, \u003cem>East Bay Times\u003c/em>, \u003cem>The Orange County Register\u003c/em> and the \u003cem>Boston Herald\u003c/em>, but it has earned a reputation among journalists for buying distressed papers and gutting staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This week’s deal was for all of Sonoma Media Investments (SMI), a locally based ownership group that also included the \u003cem>Petaluma Argus-Courier\u003c/em> and the \u003cem>Sonoma Index-Tribune\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hunter Paniagua, a staff representative with the Pacific Media Workers Guild, the union representing the \u003cem>Press Democrat’s \u003c/em>editorial staff, said he was disappointed in the lack of transparency around the sale. Employees learned about the change in ownership through an email sent on Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[We’re] disappointed in the way that the SMI owners went about doing business with MediaNews Group to complete that sale, doing so without notifying us at all after we had spent months talking with them about the potential sale to Hearst,” he said. “Not only are we disappointed in that part of it, but also just concerned about what it means to lose local ownership.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003cem>Press Democrat\u003c/em> has been owned locally since 2012. As more local papers like it are sold to media conglomerates, elected leaders want to put in some guardrails to protect local ownership.[aside postID=news_12035646 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240411_PRESSDEMOCRATFILE_GC-3-KQED-1020x680.jpg']This year, Assemblymember Alex Lee (D–Milpitas) introduced a bill known as the Keep News Independent Act, which aims to increase transparency around the sale of newspapers. \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB611\">AB 611 \u003c/a>would require local media outlets to provide at least 120 days’ notice to staff and subscribers before a transaction is made.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Local media outlets are embedded in our communities, reporting on local issues that matter most to people,” Lee said in a statement to KQED. “The notice will give newsroom staff and local communities the opportunity and time to approach the owners with alternatives to keep the outlet independently owned.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Santa Rosa paper earned a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for its coverage of the Sonoma County wildfires. It previously won a Pulitzer for photography in 1997.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sonoma County Supervisor Chris Coursey, a former \u003cem>Press Democrat\u003c/em> staffer, said a newspaper’s quality depends on its access to resources. He said he has seen the newspaper shrink in its size and scope over the years as people move away from traditional media and toward internet publications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When the current owners bought the paper … it was seen as a good thing because local ownership generally means better local interest in the paper, better respect for the news, for local news,” he said. “Unfortunately, the reputation of Alden is that they don’t have a good reputation for building up newsrooms — in fact, the reputation is the opposite.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Press Democrat\u003c/em> reporter Phil Barber \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12038462/santa-rosa-press-democrat-sold-to-nations-largest-private-newspaper-group\">told KQED\u003c/a> that while his newsroom was “stunned” by the sale, staffers were told all jobs at the newspaper were secure and that they would be allowed to maintain current union contracts. The union’s current contract is valid through next August.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, Coursey said he hopes that MediaNews Group’s reputation will not dictate how it treats future employees, but that he and other readers will remain alert.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People expect good local coverage from the \u003cem>Press Democrat\u003c/em>,” he said. “I think we can all be hopeful, but we’re all going to be watching very closely.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>North Bay journalists and elected officials are concerned for the future of Santa Rosa’s\u003cem> Press Democrat\u003c/em> after it was \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12038462/santa-rosa-press-democrat-sold-to-nations-largest-private-newspaper-group\">sold to the nation’s largest private newspaper operator\u003c/a> this week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The newspaper’s ownership picture had been in flux for weeks amid negotiations to sell to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12035646/press-democrat-union-waives-contract-leaving-newspapers-sale-imminent\">media conglomerate Hearst\u003c/a>, but instead, MediaNews Group swooped in and bought the paper, the company announced Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>MediaNews Group, a subsidiary of investment firm Alden Global Capital, owns more than 100 newspapers across the country, including \u003cem>The Mercury News\u003c/em>, \u003cem>East Bay Times\u003c/em>, \u003cem>The Orange County Register\u003c/em> and the \u003cem>Boston Herald\u003c/em>, but it has earned a reputation among journalists for buying distressed papers and gutting staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This week’s deal was for all of Sonoma Media Investments (SMI), a locally based ownership group that also included the \u003cem>Petaluma Argus-Courier\u003c/em> and the \u003cem>Sonoma Index-Tribune\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hunter Paniagua, a staff representative with the Pacific Media Workers Guild, the union representing the \u003cem>Press Democrat’s \u003c/em>editorial staff, said he was disappointed in the lack of transparency around the sale. Employees learned about the change in ownership through an email sent on Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[We’re] disappointed in the way that the SMI owners went about doing business with MediaNews Group to complete that sale, doing so without notifying us at all after we had spent months talking with them about the potential sale to Hearst,” he said. “Not only are we disappointed in that part of it, but also just concerned about what it means to lose local ownership.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003cem>Press Democrat\u003c/em> has been owned locally since 2012. As more local papers like it are sold to media conglomerates, elected leaders want to put in some guardrails to protect local ownership.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>This year, Assemblymember Alex Lee (D–Milpitas) introduced a bill known as the Keep News Independent Act, which aims to increase transparency around the sale of newspapers. \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB611\">AB 611 \u003c/a>would require local media outlets to provide at least 120 days’ notice to staff and subscribers before a transaction is made.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Local media outlets are embedded in our communities, reporting on local issues that matter most to people,” Lee said in a statement to KQED. “The notice will give newsroom staff and local communities the opportunity and time to approach the owners with alternatives to keep the outlet independently owned.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Santa Rosa paper earned a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for its coverage of the Sonoma County wildfires. It previously won a Pulitzer for photography in 1997.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sonoma County Supervisor Chris Coursey, a former \u003cem>Press Democrat\u003c/em> staffer, said a newspaper’s quality depends on its access to resources. He said he has seen the newspaper shrink in its size and scope over the years as people move away from traditional media and toward internet publications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When the current owners bought the paper … it was seen as a good thing because local ownership generally means better local interest in the paper, better respect for the news, for local news,” he said. “Unfortunately, the reputation of Alden is that they don’t have a good reputation for building up newsrooms — in fact, the reputation is the opposite.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Press Democrat\u003c/em> reporter Phil Barber \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12038462/santa-rosa-press-democrat-sold-to-nations-largest-private-newspaper-group\">told KQED\u003c/a> that while his newsroom was “stunned” by the sale, staffers were told all jobs at the newspaper were secure and that they would be allowed to maintain current union contracts. The union’s current contract is valid through next August.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, Coursey said he hopes that MediaNews Group’s reputation will not dictate how it treats future employees, but that he and other readers will remain alert.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People expect good local coverage from the \u003cem>Press Democrat\u003c/em>,” he said. “I think we can all be hopeful, but we’re all going to be watching very closely.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "press-democrat-union-waives-contract-leaving-newspapers-sale-imminent",
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"content": "\u003cp>The union representing editorial staffers at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/santa-rosa\">Santa Rosa\u003c/a> Press Democrat voted Friday to waive their current contract in the newspaper’s sale to media conglomerate Hearst, clearing the last major hurdle in a deal that would take the paper back out of local ownership.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By voting to approve the memorandum of understanding, union members agreed to waive their current contract — which would otherwise last through August 2026 — as soon as the sale is finalized, reporter Phil Barber said, adding that members were stuck between two less-than-ideal options.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were put in a very difficult position by our current and future owners, and we wound up with a couple of very imperfect outcomes,” Barber said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agreement also stipulates that union members cannot file a legal injunction to block the deal with Hearst Corporation, which owns the San Francisco Chronicle and many other outlets across the country. Barber said the union was considering doing so in earlier negotiations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although the outcome of Friday’s vote was decisive, Barber described uncertainty and frustration among union members. Journalists also feel that the current ownership under Sonoma Media Investments did not sufficiently fight to ensure the union’s contract would be recognized under Hearst.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12035730\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12035730\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240411_PRESSDEMOCRATFILE_GC-1-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240411_PRESSDEMOCRATFILE_GC-1-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240411_PRESSDEMOCRATFILE_GC-1-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240411_PRESSDEMOCRATFILE_GC-1-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240411_PRESSDEMOCRATFILE_GC-1-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240411_PRESSDEMOCRATFILE_GC-1-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240411_PRESSDEMOCRATFILE_GC-1-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Press Democrat’s former printing facility in Rohnert Park on April 11, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Union members were told by leadership at the Press Democrat that if they rejected the memorandum of understanding, Hearst would pull out of the deal, forcing the owners to consider other bids that would be less sympathetic to the union’s demands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among them was Alden Global Capital, a hedge fund that has earned a sour reputation among journalists for buying distressed newspapers and gutting their ranks. A group of Santa Rosa business leaders also put in an offer to buy the Press Democrat. That group includes the publisher of NorthBay biz, a magazine covering Sonoma, Napa and Marin counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Barber said it’s unclear whether Hearst would have actually pulled out of the deal or whether it was simply a negotiation tactic to move the sale through with fewer roadblocks from the union.[aside postID=news_12035299 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/17306665486_9d1bff4693_k-1180x787.jpg']“We don’t know if it was a tangible threat, or if it was a bluff, or somewhere in between the two,” Barber said. “We were put in the position of being the adults in the room and making the logical decision that wasn’t going to blow up the Press Democrat and our other publications, and in the end, we may not have had much real choice but to sign this agreement.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Forty-five newsroom employees at the Press Democrat are represented by the Pacific Media Workers Guild, which also oversees units at the Chronicle. An acquisition by Hearst would include not just the Press Democrat but also other outlets under Sonoma Media Investments, such as the Petaluma Argus-Courier and Sonoma Index-Tribune.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sonoma Media Investments also made concessions as part of the memorandum of understanding, according to a guild representative, which includes a payout to all union members and a requirement that Hearst offer employment to everyone at their current salaries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Press Democrat has been under local ownership since 2012, when real estate developer Darius Anderson and several business partners \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/79576/santa-rosa-press-democrat-sold\">purchased it from newspaper chain Halifax Media Group,\u003c/a> which had owned it for less than a year after buying it from the New York Times Company. The potential acquisition by Hearst, first reported by the San Francisco Standard in February, could be in the low eight figures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12035732\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12035732\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240411_PRESSDEMOCRATFILE_GC-4-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240411_PRESSDEMOCRATFILE_GC-4-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240411_PRESSDEMOCRATFILE_GC-4-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240411_PRESSDEMOCRATFILE_GC-4-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240411_PRESSDEMOCRATFILE_GC-4-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240411_PRESSDEMOCRATFILE_GC-4-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240411_PRESSDEMOCRATFILE_GC-4-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Press Democrat’s former printing facility in Rohnert Park on April 11, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Anderson and Hearst did not immediately respond to requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Barber said it’s not the first time the union has made sacrifices for the sake of a smooth transfer of ownership. When Sonoma Media Investments initially purchased the Press Democrat, union members took wage cuts and gave up their pensions to secure a new local owner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, Barber said it’s “disappointing” that the owners did not fight harder to secure protections for them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Union members are concerned that ownership by a large media conglomerate would alienate community members in the North Bay, who they say trust the Press Democrat in large part because of its historic local ownership.[aside postID=news_12034860 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS16535_IMG_0443.JPG-1020x680.jpg']“Our community has felt that their needs were really being looked after because we had local ownership,” Barber said. “We’re all sacrificing something as we lose local ownership. It’s also sort of the reality of today’s newspaper world.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hearst also recently acquired the Austin American-Statesman in Texas, where part of the deal included not recognizing the union’s existing contract. Barber said journalists at the Press Democrat were in conversation with reporters in Austin to learn more about what may be in store for them under Hearst ownership.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Union members at the American-Statesman are currently in contract negotiations with Hearst.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the corporation does not have to recognize the Press Democrat’s current contract, it will still be obligated to recognize the union itself. Barber said the union hopes Hearst will bargain in good faith when it comes to negotiating a new contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the end, our members voted to make yet another sacrifice in order to preserve strong, local journalism in our community,” the union said in a statement. “We look forward to working with Hearst to negotiate a fair contract that provides our local journalists with the wages and working conditions we need to continue our excellent work and to serve our readers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The vote by union journalists in the North Bay clears the last major hurdle in a sale to San Francisco Chronicle owner, Hearst. Union members say their options were less than ideal.",
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"title": "Press Democrat Union Waives Contract, Leaving Newspaper’s Sale Imminent | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The union representing editorial staffers at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/santa-rosa\">Santa Rosa\u003c/a> Press Democrat voted Friday to waive their current contract in the newspaper’s sale to media conglomerate Hearst, clearing the last major hurdle in a deal that would take the paper back out of local ownership.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By voting to approve the memorandum of understanding, union members agreed to waive their current contract — which would otherwise last through August 2026 — as soon as the sale is finalized, reporter Phil Barber said, adding that members were stuck between two less-than-ideal options.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were put in a very difficult position by our current and future owners, and we wound up with a couple of very imperfect outcomes,” Barber said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agreement also stipulates that union members cannot file a legal injunction to block the deal with Hearst Corporation, which owns the San Francisco Chronicle and many other outlets across the country. Barber said the union was considering doing so in earlier negotiations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although the outcome of Friday’s vote was decisive, Barber described uncertainty and frustration among union members. Journalists also feel that the current ownership under Sonoma Media Investments did not sufficiently fight to ensure the union’s contract would be recognized under Hearst.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12035730\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12035730\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240411_PRESSDEMOCRATFILE_GC-1-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240411_PRESSDEMOCRATFILE_GC-1-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240411_PRESSDEMOCRATFILE_GC-1-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240411_PRESSDEMOCRATFILE_GC-1-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240411_PRESSDEMOCRATFILE_GC-1-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240411_PRESSDEMOCRATFILE_GC-1-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240411_PRESSDEMOCRATFILE_GC-1-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Press Democrat’s former printing facility in Rohnert Park on April 11, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Union members were told by leadership at the Press Democrat that if they rejected the memorandum of understanding, Hearst would pull out of the deal, forcing the owners to consider other bids that would be less sympathetic to the union’s demands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among them was Alden Global Capital, a hedge fund that has earned a sour reputation among journalists for buying distressed newspapers and gutting their ranks. A group of Santa Rosa business leaders also put in an offer to buy the Press Democrat. That group includes the publisher of NorthBay biz, a magazine covering Sonoma, Napa and Marin counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Barber said it’s unclear whether Hearst would have actually pulled out of the deal or whether it was simply a negotiation tactic to move the sale through with fewer roadblocks from the union.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“We don’t know if it was a tangible threat, or if it was a bluff, or somewhere in between the two,” Barber said. “We were put in the position of being the adults in the room and making the logical decision that wasn’t going to blow up the Press Democrat and our other publications, and in the end, we may not have had much real choice but to sign this agreement.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Forty-five newsroom employees at the Press Democrat are represented by the Pacific Media Workers Guild, which also oversees units at the Chronicle. An acquisition by Hearst would include not just the Press Democrat but also other outlets under Sonoma Media Investments, such as the Petaluma Argus-Courier and Sonoma Index-Tribune.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sonoma Media Investments also made concessions as part of the memorandum of understanding, according to a guild representative, which includes a payout to all union members and a requirement that Hearst offer employment to everyone at their current salaries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Press Democrat has been under local ownership since 2012, when real estate developer Darius Anderson and several business partners \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/79576/santa-rosa-press-democrat-sold\">purchased it from newspaper chain Halifax Media Group,\u003c/a> which had owned it for less than a year after buying it from the New York Times Company. The potential acquisition by Hearst, first reported by the San Francisco Standard in February, could be in the low eight figures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12035732\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12035732\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240411_PRESSDEMOCRATFILE_GC-4-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240411_PRESSDEMOCRATFILE_GC-4-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240411_PRESSDEMOCRATFILE_GC-4-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240411_PRESSDEMOCRATFILE_GC-4-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240411_PRESSDEMOCRATFILE_GC-4-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240411_PRESSDEMOCRATFILE_GC-4-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20240411_PRESSDEMOCRATFILE_GC-4-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Press Democrat’s former printing facility in Rohnert Park on April 11, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Anderson and Hearst did not immediately respond to requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Barber said it’s not the first time the union has made sacrifices for the sake of a smooth transfer of ownership. When Sonoma Media Investments initially purchased the Press Democrat, union members took wage cuts and gave up their pensions to secure a new local owner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, Barber said it’s “disappointing” that the owners did not fight harder to secure protections for them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Union members are concerned that ownership by a large media conglomerate would alienate community members in the North Bay, who they say trust the Press Democrat in large part because of its historic local ownership.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Our community has felt that their needs were really being looked after because we had local ownership,” Barber said. “We’re all sacrificing something as we lose local ownership. It’s also sort of the reality of today’s newspaper world.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hearst also recently acquired the Austin American-Statesman in Texas, where part of the deal included not recognizing the union’s existing contract. Barber said journalists at the Press Democrat were in conversation with reporters in Austin to learn more about what may be in store for them under Hearst ownership.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Union members at the American-Statesman are currently in contract negotiations with Hearst.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the corporation does not have to recognize the Press Democrat’s current contract, it will still be obligated to recognize the union itself. Barber said the union hopes Hearst will bargain in good faith when it comes to negotiating a new contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the end, our members voted to make yet another sacrifice in order to preserve strong, local journalism in our community,” the union said in a statement. “We look forward to working with Hearst to negotiate a fair contract that provides our local journalists with the wages and working conditions we need to continue our excellent work and to serve our readers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "kqed-cuts-34-positions-amid-budget-shortfall",
"title": "KQED Cuts 34 Positions Amid Budget Shortfall",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated, 2:25 p.m. Thursday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED, one of the nation’s largest public media organizations, announced Thursday it’s laying off 19 people as part of an 8% overall reduction in staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>President and CEO Michael Isip said the company is eliminating 34 positions. In addition to the employees being laid off, 11 accepted an early retirement or voluntary departure offer and four vacant positions will not be filled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Isip also said KQED would sunset its arts and culture podcast, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/podcasts/rightnowish\">\u003cem>Rightnowish\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. Other budget reductions include eliminating on-air television pledge drives beginning in October.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The staff cuts were organization-wide, Isip said, impacting television and radio broadcasting operations, membership, live events, audience intelligence, corporate sponsorship development, human resources, digital video and podcasts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our top objective was to protect our public service,” Isip said. “Then we looked at the impact on operations, and then we wanted to minimize the scale of any layoffs that we needed to make for staff.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Altogether, Isip said the budget reductions are expected to save the company $4.5 million in annual expenses. KQED is running an $8 million deficit in fiscal year 2024, which ends September 30.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The station’s most recent on-air pledge drive generated $500,000 more than its $1.1 million target. However, Isip said that alone wasn’t sufficient to reverse the trajectory of sustained expenses outpacing projected revenues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The budget cuts would enable the media outlet to “rightsize” its deficit, Isip said. He said the company anticipates reaching a balanced budget by fiscal 2027.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Really, what we’re focused on is the next couple of years,” he said. “We found permanent savings. … and based on our revenue projections, the deficit should continue to decrease over the next three years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the many cuts announced was a decision to shift KQED’s television master control to a centralized hub service called CentralCast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union representing KQED master control employees who face layoffs, the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians, is challenging that move as a violation of its contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The transfer of this work done by our engineering members for well over six decades would decimate our engineering bargaining unit,” Carrie Biggs-Adams, president of NABET Local 51, \u003ca href=\"https://files.constantcontact.com/3ab100a1201/0cd39cfa-f46f-4dc0-9724-b466932037dc.pdf\">wrote in a letter (PDF)\u003c/a> to KQED management earlier this week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Molly Lacob, KQED’s deputy general counsel, said the company is “aware of their challenge, and we look forward to working with them on a resolution.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Representatives for the other employee union at KQED — the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists — did not return a request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11987176,news_11832855 label='Related Coverage']Peter Cavagnaro, a KQED spokesperson, said nine of the employees to be laid off have worked for the organization for fewer than six years. The other 10 had worked for the company for seven or more years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/jrodriguez\">Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez\u003c/a>, a politics reporter at KQED and board president of the Society of Professional Journalists’ Northern California chapter, confirmed Wednesday that he was one of the 11 employees who accepted a buyout, which he said was an opportunity to reflect on his 12-year tenure in journalism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Different people have different levels of stamina for [the job],” he said. “The pace has gotten me to the point where I just needed a little time to rest, and that might mean a month or two. That might mean a year. Who knows?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fitzgerald Rodriguez first became engaged in journalism in middle school when he was named co-editor of the school paper, the Penguin Press. His father had recently died, and he said he was struggling in school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But seeing a purpose behind learning, seeing a purpose behind writing, seeing a purpose behind meeting people in your community really gave me a purpose in school,” Fitzgerald Rodriguez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Rightnowish\u003c/em> host \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/ogpenn\">Pendarvis Harshaw\u003c/a> said he will continue to work for KQED within its arts department. At least one other member of the show’s three-person team will be laid off. The show’s last episode will be on July 18.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The podcast has won several awards, including the 2021 Black Podcast Award for \u003ca href=\"https://blackpodawards.com/our-nominees-and-winners/category-winners/our-best-filmtv-podcast-award-winners/\">Best Film and Television Podcast and\u003c/a> the 2020 Black Podcast Award for \u003ca href=\"https://blackpodawards.com/our-nominees-and-winners/category-winners/our-best-culture-podcast-award-winners/#:~:text=2020%20Winner%20Best%20Culture%20Podcast,the%20place%20we%20call%20home.\">Best Culture Podcast\u003c/a>, and in 2023, it was \u003ca href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kqed_kqed-is-proud-to-announce-that-two-of-our-activity-7113219820174643200-HQ1q/?trk=public_profile_like_view\">named a finalist\u003c/a> in the 2nd Annual Signal Awards’ Individual Episodes category.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harshaw began the show in 2019, transforming what was then a photo series on Twitter into a radio show, which later morphed into a podcast. Last fall, he and the team launched a special series, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13934874/hyphy-kids-got-trauma\">\u003cem>Hyphy Kids Got Trauma\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, an introspective examination of a Bay Area youth culture that swelled into a national hip-hop phenomenon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said it prompted people to interact with KQED, and by extension, public media, in ways they hadn’t previously.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People really engaged with me and said that they felt seen and heard about the pain that they experienced during the hyphy movement,” Harshaw said. “We talk about diversifying public media. That is part of it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=arts_13934874]But Harshaw said the deep reporting that went into the series wasn’t always possible to sustain with a weekly show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not easy to convince people — young folks of color, young Black folks — to listen to your public media station,” Harshaw said. “It’s difficult to bring people into a place where they feel like they’ve been told not to go for so long.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jen Chien, KQED’s director of podcasts, said the show’s audience numbers have seen “an overall downward trend.” The decision to end it is “not a judgment on the quality of the show, or of the capacity or talents of the team that makes it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s about making strategic decisions during a time of financial distress,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked whether canceling \u003cem>Rightnowish\u003c/em> reflected a retreat from KQED’s commitment to representing diverse voices, Isip defended the decision. He pointed to the company’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/pressroom/12194/kqed-acquires-the-snap-judgment-and-spooked-podcasts\">$1.9 million acquisition last year\u003c/a> of \u003ca href=\"https://snapjudgment.org/\">\u003cem>Snap Judgment\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, which produces the podcasts \u003cem>Snap Judgment\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Spooked\u003c/em>, as evidence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The reality is, we’re investing in productions that will drive audience and growth,” Isip said, “and [Rightnowish] wasn’t hitting our goals.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an effort to drive digital growth, Isip said the company recently launched the KQED Studios Fund, a $10 million initiative to grow podcasts and online video production that will focus on “stories and programs rooted in the Bay Area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As KQED looks for ways to monetize its digital content, Isip said the local news outlet is entering “uncharted territory.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re still serving our broadcast audiences, which gives us some financial stability, and that gives us a time to experiment and expand into these digital platforms,” Isip said. “It’s not an all-or-nothing proposition for us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other budget cuts include automating overnight radio master control, reducing the maximum amount of paid time off employees can build up and shrinking daytime security staffing by one officer. The company will also not renew its leases for its satellite office and signage in downtown San José, a decision Isip said would not impact the outlet’s South Bay news coverage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The budget reductions come as the station has completed a major \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/campaign21/463/c21-new-horizons\">$140 million expansion, which \u003c/a>included a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/pressroom/11576/kqed-plan-for-opening\">$94 million renovation of its headquarters\u003c/a> in San Francisco and a $45 million investment in its programming and services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s the second round of layoffs within four years. The public media nonprofit \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11832855/kqed-announces-layoffs-blames-coronavirus-pandemic-for-budget-shortfall\">laid off 20 employees in 2020\u003c/a> amid a decline in corporate sponsorship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED’s staff cuts announced Thursday were the latest to hit public media outlets across the country. On Wednesday, GBH in Boston \u003ca href=\"https://www.wgbh.org/news/local/2024-05-22/gbh-cuts-staff-and-programming\">announced it would lay off 31 employees\u003c/a>. That follows similar news from \u003ca href=\"https://www.wbez.org/stories/chicago-public-media-lays-off-14-staffers/451b3f28-338c-45bc-98c2-742a7106ecf2\">WBEZ in Chicago\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://current.org/2024/03/american-public-media-restructures-apm-studios-eliminates-positions/\">American Public Media\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.wbur.org/news/2024/04/24/wbur-cuts-buyouts-layoffs-jobs-boston-media\">WBUR\u003c/a> in Boston, \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2024-05-09/laist-layoffs-buyouts-scpr\">KPCC\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2024-01-10/kcrw-greater-la-podcast-ending-steve-chiotakis-buyouts-staffing\">KCRW\u003c/a> in Southern California and \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpr.org/2024/03/11/colorado-public-radios-ceo-explains-why-the-company-is-laying-off-15-people/\">Colorado Public Radio\u003c/a>, among \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/media/2024/02/23/wamu-layoffs-dcist-shutdown/\">others\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was reported and written by KQED senior editor Erin Baldassari and edited by KQED’s Dan Brekke. Under KQED’s standard practices for reporting on itself, no member of KQED management or its news executives reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Out of more than 370 employees, KQED is eliminating 30 positions, and four vacant positions will remain unfilled. In total, the reductions represent 8% of staff.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated, 2:25 p.m. Thursday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED, one of the nation’s largest public media organizations, announced Thursday it’s laying off 19 people as part of an 8% overall reduction in staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>President and CEO Michael Isip said the company is eliminating 34 positions. In addition to the employees being laid off, 11 accepted an early retirement or voluntary departure offer and four vacant positions will not be filled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Isip also said KQED would sunset its arts and culture podcast, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/podcasts/rightnowish\">\u003cem>Rightnowish\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. Other budget reductions include eliminating on-air television pledge drives beginning in October.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The staff cuts were organization-wide, Isip said, impacting television and radio broadcasting operations, membership, live events, audience intelligence, corporate sponsorship development, human resources, digital video and podcasts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our top objective was to protect our public service,” Isip said. “Then we looked at the impact on operations, and then we wanted to minimize the scale of any layoffs that we needed to make for staff.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Altogether, Isip said the budget reductions are expected to save the company $4.5 million in annual expenses. KQED is running an $8 million deficit in fiscal year 2024, which ends September 30.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The station’s most recent on-air pledge drive generated $500,000 more than its $1.1 million target. However, Isip said that alone wasn’t sufficient to reverse the trajectory of sustained expenses outpacing projected revenues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The budget cuts would enable the media outlet to “rightsize” its deficit, Isip said. He said the company anticipates reaching a balanced budget by fiscal 2027.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Really, what we’re focused on is the next couple of years,” he said. “We found permanent savings. … and based on our revenue projections, the deficit should continue to decrease over the next three years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the many cuts announced was a decision to shift KQED’s television master control to a centralized hub service called CentralCast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union representing KQED master control employees who face layoffs, the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians, is challenging that move as a violation of its contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The transfer of this work done by our engineering members for well over six decades would decimate our engineering bargaining unit,” Carrie Biggs-Adams, president of NABET Local 51, \u003ca href=\"https://files.constantcontact.com/3ab100a1201/0cd39cfa-f46f-4dc0-9724-b466932037dc.pdf\">wrote in a letter (PDF)\u003c/a> to KQED management earlier this week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Molly Lacob, KQED’s deputy general counsel, said the company is “aware of their challenge, and we look forward to working with them on a resolution.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Representatives for the other employee union at KQED — the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists — did not return a request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Peter Cavagnaro, a KQED spokesperson, said nine of the employees to be laid off have worked for the organization for fewer than six years. The other 10 had worked for the company for seven or more years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/jrodriguez\">Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez\u003c/a>, a politics reporter at KQED and board president of the Society of Professional Journalists’ Northern California chapter, confirmed Wednesday that he was one of the 11 employees who accepted a buyout, which he said was an opportunity to reflect on his 12-year tenure in journalism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Different people have different levels of stamina for [the job],” he said. “The pace has gotten me to the point where I just needed a little time to rest, and that might mean a month or two. That might mean a year. Who knows?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fitzgerald Rodriguez first became engaged in journalism in middle school when he was named co-editor of the school paper, the Penguin Press. His father had recently died, and he said he was struggling in school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But seeing a purpose behind learning, seeing a purpose behind writing, seeing a purpose behind meeting people in your community really gave me a purpose in school,” Fitzgerald Rodriguez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Rightnowish\u003c/em> host \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/ogpenn\">Pendarvis Harshaw\u003c/a> said he will continue to work for KQED within its arts department. At least one other member of the show’s three-person team will be laid off. The show’s last episode will be on July 18.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The podcast has won several awards, including the 2021 Black Podcast Award for \u003ca href=\"https://blackpodawards.com/our-nominees-and-winners/category-winners/our-best-filmtv-podcast-award-winners/\">Best Film and Television Podcast and\u003c/a> the 2020 Black Podcast Award for \u003ca href=\"https://blackpodawards.com/our-nominees-and-winners/category-winners/our-best-culture-podcast-award-winners/#:~:text=2020%20Winner%20Best%20Culture%20Podcast,the%20place%20we%20call%20home.\">Best Culture Podcast\u003c/a>, and in 2023, it was \u003ca href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kqed_kqed-is-proud-to-announce-that-two-of-our-activity-7113219820174643200-HQ1q/?trk=public_profile_like_view\">named a finalist\u003c/a> in the 2nd Annual Signal Awards’ Individual Episodes category.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harshaw began the show in 2019, transforming what was then a photo series on Twitter into a radio show, which later morphed into a podcast. Last fall, he and the team launched a special series, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13934874/hyphy-kids-got-trauma\">\u003cem>Hyphy Kids Got Trauma\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, an introspective examination of a Bay Area youth culture that swelled into a national hip-hop phenomenon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said it prompted people to interact with KQED, and by extension, public media, in ways they hadn’t previously.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People really engaged with me and said that they felt seen and heard about the pain that they experienced during the hyphy movement,” Harshaw said. “We talk about diversifying public media. That is part of it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But Harshaw said the deep reporting that went into the series wasn’t always possible to sustain with a weekly show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not easy to convince people — young folks of color, young Black folks — to listen to your public media station,” Harshaw said. “It’s difficult to bring people into a place where they feel like they’ve been told not to go for so long.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jen Chien, KQED’s director of podcasts, said the show’s audience numbers have seen “an overall downward trend.” The decision to end it is “not a judgment on the quality of the show, or of the capacity or talents of the team that makes it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s about making strategic decisions during a time of financial distress,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked whether canceling \u003cem>Rightnowish\u003c/em> reflected a retreat from KQED’s commitment to representing diverse voices, Isip defended the decision. He pointed to the company’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/pressroom/12194/kqed-acquires-the-snap-judgment-and-spooked-podcasts\">$1.9 million acquisition last year\u003c/a> of \u003ca href=\"https://snapjudgment.org/\">\u003cem>Snap Judgment\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, which produces the podcasts \u003cem>Snap Judgment\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Spooked\u003c/em>, as evidence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The reality is, we’re investing in productions that will drive audience and growth,” Isip said, “and [Rightnowish] wasn’t hitting our goals.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an effort to drive digital growth, Isip said the company recently launched the KQED Studios Fund, a $10 million initiative to grow podcasts and online video production that will focus on “stories and programs rooted in the Bay Area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As KQED looks for ways to monetize its digital content, Isip said the local news outlet is entering “uncharted territory.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re still serving our broadcast audiences, which gives us some financial stability, and that gives us a time to experiment and expand into these digital platforms,” Isip said. “It’s not an all-or-nothing proposition for us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other budget cuts include automating overnight radio master control, reducing the maximum amount of paid time off employees can build up and shrinking daytime security staffing by one officer. The company will also not renew its leases for its satellite office and signage in downtown San José, a decision Isip said would not impact the outlet’s South Bay news coverage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The budget reductions come as the station has completed a major \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/campaign21/463/c21-new-horizons\">$140 million expansion, which \u003c/a>included a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/pressroom/11576/kqed-plan-for-opening\">$94 million renovation of its headquarters\u003c/a> in San Francisco and a $45 million investment in its programming and services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s the second round of layoffs within four years. The public media nonprofit \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11832855/kqed-announces-layoffs-blames-coronavirus-pandemic-for-budget-shortfall\">laid off 20 employees in 2020\u003c/a> amid a decline in corporate sponsorship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED’s staff cuts announced Thursday were the latest to hit public media outlets across the country. On Wednesday, GBH in Boston \u003ca href=\"https://www.wgbh.org/news/local/2024-05-22/gbh-cuts-staff-and-programming\">announced it would lay off 31 employees\u003c/a>. That follows similar news from \u003ca href=\"https://www.wbez.org/stories/chicago-public-media-lays-off-14-staffers/451b3f28-338c-45bc-98c2-742a7106ecf2\">WBEZ in Chicago\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://current.org/2024/03/american-public-media-restructures-apm-studios-eliminates-positions/\">American Public Media\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.wbur.org/news/2024/04/24/wbur-cuts-buyouts-layoffs-jobs-boston-media\">WBUR\u003c/a> in Boston, \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2024-05-09/laist-layoffs-buyouts-scpr\">KPCC\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2024-01-10/kcrw-greater-la-podcast-ending-steve-chiotakis-buyouts-staffing\">KCRW\u003c/a> in Southern California and \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpr.org/2024/03/11/colorado-public-radios-ceo-explains-why-the-company-is-laying-off-15-people/\">Colorado Public Radio\u003c/a>, among \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/media/2024/02/23/wamu-layoffs-dcist-shutdown/\">others\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was reported and written by KQED senior editor Erin Baldassari and edited by KQED’s Dan Brekke. Under KQED’s standard practices for reporting on itself, no member of KQED management or its news executives reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Here’s Why KQED Is Latest Public Media Outlet to Face Layoffs",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 5:15 p.m. Tuesday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This week, KQED is expected to announce it will lay off as many as 25 employees as part of its \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11832855/kqed-announces-layoffs-blames-coronavirus-pandemic-for-budget-shortfall\">second round of staff cuts\u003c/a> within four years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The layoffs follow voluntary departure offers that at least nine employees accepted and will be coupled with yet-to-be-announced reductions in discretionary spending and services, according to KQED President and CEO Michael Isip.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Simply put, the cuts are the result of rapidly rising costs, especially in the area of salaries and benefits, at the same time that revenue from individuals, corporate sponsors and other sources has declined.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s painful,” he said. “The people of KQED are what make this organization so special. And when you lose colleagues, it not only impacts your day-to-day work, but it impacts overall morale.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED says it currently employs 387 people, including 15 on limited-term contracts. Counting temporary workers and interns, the total is 525.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Underlying the decision to shrink its workforce are factors unique to KQED and some common to public media outlets across the country. KQED’s layoff announcement follows similar news from \u003ca href=\"https://www.wbez.org/stories/chicago-public-media-lays-off-14-staffers/451b3f28-338c-45bc-98c2-742a7106ecf2\">WBEZ in Chicago\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://current.org/2024/03/american-public-media-restructures-apm-studios-eliminates-positions/\">American Public Media\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.wbur.org/news/2024/04/24/wbur-cuts-buyouts-layoffs-jobs-boston-media\">WBUR\u003c/a> in Boston, \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2024-05-09/laist-layoffs-buyouts-scpr\">KPCC\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2024-01-10/kcrw-greater-la-podcast-ending-steve-chiotakis-buyouts-staffing\">KCRW\u003c/a> in Southern California and \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpr.org/2024/03/11/colorado-public-radios-ceo-explains-why-the-company-is-laying-off-15-people/\">Colorado Public Radio\u003c/a>, among \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/media/2024/02/23/wamu-layoffs-dcist-shutdown/\">others\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cuts stem, in part, from a bet about future revenue that KQED made in 2013, when it launched its \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/campaign21/463/c21-new-horizons\">Campaign 21\u003c/a> — a $140 million initiative that raised funds for a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/pressroom/11576/kqed-plan-for-opening\">$94 million renovation\u003c/a> of its San Francisco headquarters and for a $45 million investment in digital production, distribution and local news and education services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Isip said the company has no debt associated with the renovation and that the building’s $1.5 million annual maintenance cost “is not a significant driver” of costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of the increase in expenses, Isip said, came from KQED adding 54 new positions funded by the campaign into its operating budget. That was done with the expectation that as content expanded, revenues would grow to cover the added spending.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED financial reports show that in the company’s 2014 fiscal year, revenue and expenses were virtually identical, each at about $67 million. Revenues rose by about 35% between 2014 and fiscal year 2023, the most recent year for which publicly accessible data is available. But expenses grew even faster during that period, jumping 50%. (KQED’s fiscal year runs from October 1 through September 30.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The idea at the time was: Grow service. Transform digital. It will grow our audience, and it will grow financial support,” Isip said. “Our revenue has been positive. … But that’s just not matching the expenses.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"KQED's Revenues and Expenses\" aria-label=\"Interactive line chart\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-nlJEv\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/nlJEv/2/\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;\" height=\"520\" data-external=\"1\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company ended the past two fiscal years with deficits: nearly $3 million in 2022 and $10.5 million in 2023. Isip said KQED is anticipating a third year of deficits in 2024. This year’s initial budget forecasted the shortfall at around $6 million, but a review at midyear showed the gap had grown by another $2 million. Isip said that forced the company to pivot to permanent staff reductions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Unless we were to do something, the deficit would continue to grow,” he said. “We’ve been able to tap our reserves to fill the gap and give us a little bit of time, and that’s just not a sustainable approach.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least one member of the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians-Communications Workers of America (NABET-CWA) Local 51 Chapter accepted the buyout, chapter President Carrie Biggs-Adams said. As of last week, the union was negotiating on behalf of a second member, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other union representing KQED employees, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), declined to comment for this story, citing “the ongoing, sensitive nature of the conversations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Biggs-Adams blasted KQED’s leadership for recent programming decisions, including the elimination last year of the station’s only television news show, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11953890/kqed-newsroom-finale-saying-goodbye\">KQED Newsroom\u003c/a>. She characterized the move as short-sighted because, she said, television news is one area that has remained profitable for other stations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“KQED doesn’t know who they are,” Biggs-Adams said. “They really have lost, to my mind, their mission.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Isip defended the decision, saying viewership for the show had dropped to around 15,000 viewers a week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Honestly, nobody feels as bad about it as I do,” about cutting the show, he said, noting that he came to KQED as the executive producer of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/pressroom/category/thisweekinnortherncalifornia\">This Week in Northern California\u003c/a>, the television news show that predated KQED Newsroom. “But the reality is … we need to make some choices. And when we make choices, we look to the audience and see where they’re going for their news and information. And more and more of them are shifting to digital platforms.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Local news outlets across the country are facing similar choices, said UC Berkeley School of Journalism Dean Geeta Anand. The news industry has been in flux for the past 40 years — first as a response to the emergence of the Internet and, more recently, as social media and artificial intelligence have entered the fray.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With changes in technology, so, too, have come “changes in how people consume journalism, changes in how the journalism industry gets its revenue, and also changes in how people are able to find and access journalism,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have to take risks and make your best bets on things,” Anand said. “Hindsight is 20/20, so maybe some decisions [KQED] made didn’t turn out to be the right ones, but we’re all just figuring out how to chart a course.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>National Public Radio, of which KQED is a member station, has seen its weekly listenership decline from 60 million in 2020 to 42 million in 2024 — a roughly 30% drop, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/24/business/media/npr-uri-berliner-diversity.html\">according to internal NPR data reported by the \u003cem>New York Times\u003c/em>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">KQED saw a similar reduction in weekly listeners, which fell from more than 734,000 in June 2021 to just over 546,000 last month — a 26% decline, according to Nielsen Audio,\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>which tracks broadcast and streaming listenership. The station’s market share was 7.1% last month, a decrease from the 8.7% share held in June 2021 but an increase from last May, when the share dropped to 4.5%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the changes in listening habits can be traced to the pandemic, said Mike Janssen, digital editor at Current, a trade publication that covers public broadcasting. When more people began working from home, fewer people commuted in their cars, where they typically listened to the radio.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our routines changed, and a decline started in radio listening — not just for public radio but radio overall — that has not bounced back,” Janssen said. “There’s been a bit of a return, but it isn’t back to pre-2020 levels. And public radio is taking a brunt of this pretty badly, as well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11832855/kqed-announces-layoffs-blames-coronavirus-pandemic-for-budget-shortfall\">KQED laid off 20 employees in 2020\u003c/a>, a roughly 5.5% reduction in staff, amid a steep decline in corporate sponsorship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fiscal year 2021, KQED received a federal Paycheck Protection Program loan of $8.2 million and saw revenues rebound as more listeners began tuning in for coverage of the presidential election, KQED spokesperson Peter Cavagnaro said. Fundraising revenue benefited from higher donations, and KQED ended the year with a $22 million budget surplus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We had nearly $60 million in contributions that year,” Cavagnaro said, “a number we have not since matched.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED membership peaked that same year at just over 250,000 before falling to 233,000 last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"KQED Membership\" aria-label=\"Stacked Bars\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-n5AEY\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/n5AEY/2/\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;\" height=\"401\" data-external=\"1\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Historically, public radio stations have relied on their on-air pledge drives to fund operations. As listership declines, Janssen said, “Then what’s going to replace that?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everyone knows that they need to work harder to monetize digital platforms, but that’s a big lift,” Janssen said. “There aren’t easy answers about how to do that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2024/05/07/americans-changing-relationship-with-local-news/\">Pew Research Center survey\u003c/a> released earlier this month found that people’s consumption of local news has shifted online, with 48% of respondents reporting they accessed their local news online or through social media, up from 37% in 2018. Roughly 9% said they got their local news from a radio station, a number that was virtually unchanged from 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As consumption habits change, public radio stations are struggling to keep up, said Tim Eby, who was the general manager of St. Louis Public Radio until 2020 and \u003ca href=\"https://timjeby.substack.com/p/three-things-on-a-public-radio-major?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2\">continues to write\u003c/a> about trends in public media.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Part of the problem, he said, is a tension between trying to reach new audiences while still maintaining public radio’s core listenership.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s one of the big challenges public radio is facing right now,” Eby said. “It is really creating some tension in terms of both the best way to reach audiences as well as the best way to operate from an efficiency standpoint.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='Related Coverage' tag='layoffs']Isip said KQED is devoting increased resources to its digital efforts, including expanding the company’s product team, which is responsible for developing its website, apps and other digital services. But, he acknowledged that, like other public radio stations, KQED is still struggling to find ways to monetize its digital content or convert digital readers and social media viewers into paying members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the Pew Research Center’s 2024 survey, just 15% of consumers said they paid for a local news outlet subscription in the past year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everyone’s just trying to figure out what the monetization approach will be, and we’re just in it right now,” Isip said. “We’re sort of in this transition from a declining but still profitable broadcast model to this emerging digital environment where we don’t really know what the potential is for financial support.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Story updated to include current number of KQED employees. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was reported and written by KQED senior editor Erin Baldassari and edited by KQED’s Dan Brekke, who contributed additional reporting. Under KQED’s standard practices for reporting on itself, no member of KQED management or its news executives reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 5:15 p.m. Tuesday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This week, KQED is expected to announce it will lay off as many as 25 employees as part of its \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11832855/kqed-announces-layoffs-blames-coronavirus-pandemic-for-budget-shortfall\">second round of staff cuts\u003c/a> within four years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The layoffs follow voluntary departure offers that at least nine employees accepted and will be coupled with yet-to-be-announced reductions in discretionary spending and services, according to KQED President and CEO Michael Isip.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Simply put, the cuts are the result of rapidly rising costs, especially in the area of salaries and benefits, at the same time that revenue from individuals, corporate sponsors and other sources has declined.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s painful,” he said. “The people of KQED are what make this organization so special. And when you lose colleagues, it not only impacts your day-to-day work, but it impacts overall morale.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED says it currently employs 387 people, including 15 on limited-term contracts. Counting temporary workers and interns, the total is 525.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Underlying the decision to shrink its workforce are factors unique to KQED and some common to public media outlets across the country. KQED’s layoff announcement follows similar news from \u003ca href=\"https://www.wbez.org/stories/chicago-public-media-lays-off-14-staffers/451b3f28-338c-45bc-98c2-742a7106ecf2\">WBEZ in Chicago\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://current.org/2024/03/american-public-media-restructures-apm-studios-eliminates-positions/\">American Public Media\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.wbur.org/news/2024/04/24/wbur-cuts-buyouts-layoffs-jobs-boston-media\">WBUR\u003c/a> in Boston, \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2024-05-09/laist-layoffs-buyouts-scpr\">KPCC\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2024-01-10/kcrw-greater-la-podcast-ending-steve-chiotakis-buyouts-staffing\">KCRW\u003c/a> in Southern California and \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpr.org/2024/03/11/colorado-public-radios-ceo-explains-why-the-company-is-laying-off-15-people/\">Colorado Public Radio\u003c/a>, among \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/media/2024/02/23/wamu-layoffs-dcist-shutdown/\">others\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cuts stem, in part, from a bet about future revenue that KQED made in 2013, when it launched its \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/campaign21/463/c21-new-horizons\">Campaign 21\u003c/a> — a $140 million initiative that raised funds for a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/pressroom/11576/kqed-plan-for-opening\">$94 million renovation\u003c/a> of its San Francisco headquarters and for a $45 million investment in digital production, distribution and local news and education services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Isip said the company has no debt associated with the renovation and that the building’s $1.5 million annual maintenance cost “is not a significant driver” of costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of the increase in expenses, Isip said, came from KQED adding 54 new positions funded by the campaign into its operating budget. That was done with the expectation that as content expanded, revenues would grow to cover the added spending.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED financial reports show that in the company’s 2014 fiscal year, revenue and expenses were virtually identical, each at about $67 million. Revenues rose by about 35% between 2014 and fiscal year 2023, the most recent year for which publicly accessible data is available. But expenses grew even faster during that period, jumping 50%. (KQED’s fiscal year runs from October 1 through September 30.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The idea at the time was: Grow service. Transform digital. It will grow our audience, and it will grow financial support,” Isip said. “Our revenue has been positive. … But that’s just not matching the expenses.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"KQED's Revenues and Expenses\" aria-label=\"Interactive line chart\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-nlJEv\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/nlJEv/2/\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;\" height=\"520\" data-external=\"1\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company ended the past two fiscal years with deficits: nearly $3 million in 2022 and $10.5 million in 2023. Isip said KQED is anticipating a third year of deficits in 2024. This year’s initial budget forecasted the shortfall at around $6 million, but a review at midyear showed the gap had grown by another $2 million. Isip said that forced the company to pivot to permanent staff reductions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Unless we were to do something, the deficit would continue to grow,” he said. “We’ve been able to tap our reserves to fill the gap and give us a little bit of time, and that’s just not a sustainable approach.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least one member of the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians-Communications Workers of America (NABET-CWA) Local 51 Chapter accepted the buyout, chapter President Carrie Biggs-Adams said. As of last week, the union was negotiating on behalf of a second member, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other union representing KQED employees, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), declined to comment for this story, citing “the ongoing, sensitive nature of the conversations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Biggs-Adams blasted KQED’s leadership for recent programming decisions, including the elimination last year of the station’s only television news show, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11953890/kqed-newsroom-finale-saying-goodbye\">KQED Newsroom\u003c/a>. She characterized the move as short-sighted because, she said, television news is one area that has remained profitable for other stations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“KQED doesn’t know who they are,” Biggs-Adams said. “They really have lost, to my mind, their mission.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Isip defended the decision, saying viewership for the show had dropped to around 15,000 viewers a week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Honestly, nobody feels as bad about it as I do,” about cutting the show, he said, noting that he came to KQED as the executive producer of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/pressroom/category/thisweekinnortherncalifornia\">This Week in Northern California\u003c/a>, the television news show that predated KQED Newsroom. “But the reality is … we need to make some choices. And when we make choices, we look to the audience and see where they’re going for their news and information. And more and more of them are shifting to digital platforms.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Local news outlets across the country are facing similar choices, said UC Berkeley School of Journalism Dean Geeta Anand. The news industry has been in flux for the past 40 years — first as a response to the emergence of the Internet and, more recently, as social media and artificial intelligence have entered the fray.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With changes in technology, so, too, have come “changes in how people consume journalism, changes in how the journalism industry gets its revenue, and also changes in how people are able to find and access journalism,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have to take risks and make your best bets on things,” Anand said. “Hindsight is 20/20, so maybe some decisions [KQED] made didn’t turn out to be the right ones, but we’re all just figuring out how to chart a course.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>National Public Radio, of which KQED is a member station, has seen its weekly listenership decline from 60 million in 2020 to 42 million in 2024 — a roughly 30% drop, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/24/business/media/npr-uri-berliner-diversity.html\">according to internal NPR data reported by the \u003cem>New York Times\u003c/em>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">KQED saw a similar reduction in weekly listeners, which fell from more than 734,000 in June 2021 to just over 546,000 last month — a 26% decline, according to Nielsen Audio,\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>which tracks broadcast and streaming listenership. The station’s market share was 7.1% last month, a decrease from the 8.7% share held in June 2021 but an increase from last May, when the share dropped to 4.5%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the changes in listening habits can be traced to the pandemic, said Mike Janssen, digital editor at Current, a trade publication that covers public broadcasting. When more people began working from home, fewer people commuted in their cars, where they typically listened to the radio.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our routines changed, and a decline started in radio listening — not just for public radio but radio overall — that has not bounced back,” Janssen said. “There’s been a bit of a return, but it isn’t back to pre-2020 levels. And public radio is taking a brunt of this pretty badly, as well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11832855/kqed-announces-layoffs-blames-coronavirus-pandemic-for-budget-shortfall\">KQED laid off 20 employees in 2020\u003c/a>, a roughly 5.5% reduction in staff, amid a steep decline in corporate sponsorship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fiscal year 2021, KQED received a federal Paycheck Protection Program loan of $8.2 million and saw revenues rebound as more listeners began tuning in for coverage of the presidential election, KQED spokesperson Peter Cavagnaro said. Fundraising revenue benefited from higher donations, and KQED ended the year with a $22 million budget surplus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We had nearly $60 million in contributions that year,” Cavagnaro said, “a number we have not since matched.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED membership peaked that same year at just over 250,000 before falling to 233,000 last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"KQED Membership\" aria-label=\"Stacked Bars\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-n5AEY\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/n5AEY/2/\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;\" height=\"401\" data-external=\"1\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Historically, public radio stations have relied on their on-air pledge drives to fund operations. As listership declines, Janssen said, “Then what’s going to replace that?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everyone knows that they need to work harder to monetize digital platforms, but that’s a big lift,” Janssen said. “There aren’t easy answers about how to do that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2024/05/07/americans-changing-relationship-with-local-news/\">Pew Research Center survey\u003c/a> released earlier this month found that people’s consumption of local news has shifted online, with 48% of respondents reporting they accessed their local news online or through social media, up from 37% in 2018. Roughly 9% said they got their local news from a radio station, a number that was virtually unchanged from 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As consumption habits change, public radio stations are struggling to keep up, said Tim Eby, who was the general manager of St. Louis Public Radio until 2020 and \u003ca href=\"https://timjeby.substack.com/p/three-things-on-a-public-radio-major?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2\">continues to write\u003c/a> about trends in public media.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Part of the problem, he said, is a tension between trying to reach new audiences while still maintaining public radio’s core listenership.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s one of the big challenges public radio is facing right now,” Eby said. “It is really creating some tension in terms of both the best way to reach audiences as well as the best way to operate from an efficiency standpoint.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Isip said KQED is devoting increased resources to its digital efforts, including expanding the company’s product team, which is responsible for developing its website, apps and other digital services. But, he acknowledged that, like other public radio stations, KQED is still struggling to find ways to monetize its digital content or convert digital readers and social media viewers into paying members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the Pew Research Center’s 2024 survey, just 15% of consumers said they paid for a local news outlet subscription in the past year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everyone’s just trying to figure out what the monetization approach will be, and we’re just in it right now,” Isip said. “We’re sort of in this transition from a declining but still profitable broadcast model to this emerging digital environment where we don’t really know what the potential is for financial support.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Story updated to include current number of KQED employees. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was reported and written by KQED senior editor Erin Baldassari and edited by KQED’s Dan Brekke, who contributed additional reporting. Under KQED’s standard practices for reporting on itself, no member of KQED management or its news executives reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>San Francisco leaders are throwing their support behind the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11945533/sf-based-internet-archive-is-fighting-a-ruling-that-could-change-the-future-of-digital-libraries\">threatened Internet Archive\u003c/a>, a free digital library headquartered in San Francisco’s Richmond District.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday \u003ca href=\"https://sfgov.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=11893345&GUID=990E482D-3EAE-4A80-ABE9-5836644B34E3\">unanimously approved a resolution (PDF)\u003c/a> in support of the archive, which is fighting a \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/03/26/1166101459/internet-archive-lawsuit-books-library-publishers\">federal ruling from late March\u003c/a>, when U.S. District Court Judge John G. Koeltl of the Southern District of New York sided with publishers who sued the nonprofit for copyright violation. The resolution next heads to Mayor London Breed for approval. Then, Chan said, it will be referred to the state Legislature and the U.S. Congress for support.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At a time when we are seeing an increase in censorship and book bans across the country, we must move to preserve free access to information,” Supervisor Connie Chan, who authored the resolution and represents the Richmond District, said in a press release. “I am proud to stand with the Internet Archive, our Richmond District neighbor, and digital libraries throughout the United States.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Founded in 1996, the Internet Archive is a nonprofit digital library and archive that preserves books, music, film, webpages and many more media artifacts and makes them publicly available for free. It holds nearly 41 million books and counting, and lends those as e-books on a one-to-one basis referred to as “controlled digital lending.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in 2020, when in-person libraries were largely closed due to the pandemic, the archive removed waitlists for its e-books so more people could access them. It ended that practice in June of the same year, but by then, four of the largest publishing houses had sued the Internet Archive for copyright infringement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Penguin Random House and Wiley argued that the archive’s so-called Open Library ignores licensing fees that libraries are supposed to pay publishers for texts that are not in the public domain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The publishers \u003ca href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.537900/gov.uscourts.nysd.537900.1.1.pdf\">specifically complained about 127 books not under public domain (PDF)\u003c/a> that are stored and offered freely on the archive, by authors such as Sylvia Plath, Jon Krakauer, Toni Morrison, Malcolm Gladwell, C.S. Lewis and J.D. Salinger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because libraries had already paid licensing fees for the print books that the archive scans as part of the Open Library project, the nonprofit argued its one-to-one lending system constitutes fair use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Koeltl agreed with the publishers. “IA’s fair use defense rests on the notion that lawfully acquiring a copyrighted print book entitles the recipient to make an unauthorized copy and distribute it in place of the print book, so long as it does not simultaneously lend the print book,” Koeltl \u003ca href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.537900/gov.uscourts.nysd.537900.188.0.pdf\">said in his ruling (PDF)\u003c/a>. “But no case or legal principle supports that notion. Every authority points the other direction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Internet Archive is now appealing that case with a boost from local leaders and community members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11945533 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/RS64115_012_KQED_InternetArchiveOffices_03242023-qut-1020x680.jpg']“It’s a sad day that we have to be here to talk about the importance of maintaining access to information through libraries,” Brewster Kahle, founder and digital librarian of the Internet Archive, said in the press announcement. “We must stand firm in our commitment to providing Universal Access to All Knowledge.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supporters of the Internet Archive held a rally on the steps of its San Francisco-based library and museum on April 8. The archive also operates a warehouse in the city of Richmond where millions of books donated by libraries and individuals are stored.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chan’s resolution recognized “the irreplaceable public value of libraries, including online libraries like the Internet Archive, and the essential rights of all libraries to own, preserve, and lend both digital and print books to the residents of San Francisco and the wider public.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>San Francisco leaders are throwing their support behind the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11945533/sf-based-internet-archive-is-fighting-a-ruling-that-could-change-the-future-of-digital-libraries\">threatened Internet Archive\u003c/a>, a free digital library headquartered in San Francisco’s Richmond District.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday \u003ca href=\"https://sfgov.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=11893345&GUID=990E482D-3EAE-4A80-ABE9-5836644B34E3\">unanimously approved a resolution (PDF)\u003c/a> in support of the archive, which is fighting a \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/03/26/1166101459/internet-archive-lawsuit-books-library-publishers\">federal ruling from late March\u003c/a>, when U.S. District Court Judge John G. Koeltl of the Southern District of New York sided with publishers who sued the nonprofit for copyright violation. The resolution next heads to Mayor London Breed for approval. Then, Chan said, it will be referred to the state Legislature and the U.S. Congress for support.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At a time when we are seeing an increase in censorship and book bans across the country, we must move to preserve free access to information,” Supervisor Connie Chan, who authored the resolution and represents the Richmond District, said in a press release. “I am proud to stand with the Internet Archive, our Richmond District neighbor, and digital libraries throughout the United States.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Founded in 1996, the Internet Archive is a nonprofit digital library and archive that preserves books, music, film, webpages and many more media artifacts and makes them publicly available for free. It holds nearly 41 million books and counting, and lends those as e-books on a one-to-one basis referred to as “controlled digital lending.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in 2020, when in-person libraries were largely closed due to the pandemic, the archive removed waitlists for its e-books so more people could access them. It ended that practice in June of the same year, but by then, four of the largest publishing houses had sued the Internet Archive for copyright infringement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“It’s a sad day that we have to be here to talk about the importance of maintaining access to information through libraries,” Brewster Kahle, founder and digital librarian of the Internet Archive, said in the press announcement. “We must stand firm in our commitment to providing Universal Access to All Knowledge.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supporters of the Internet Archive held a rally on the steps of its San Francisco-based library and museum on April 8. The archive also operates a warehouse in the city of Richmond where millions of books donated by libraries and individuals are stored.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chan’s resolution recognized “the irreplaceable public value of libraries, including online libraries like the Internet Archive, and the essential rights of all libraries to own, preserve, and lend both digital and print books to the residents of San Francisco and the wider public.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
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"marketplace": {
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
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"mindshift": {
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"order": 12
},
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"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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},
"perspectives": {
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"order": 14
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"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
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"politicalbreakdown": {
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"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Political-Breakdown-2024-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"order": 5
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"possible": {
"id": "possible",
"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Possible-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"source": "Possible"
},
"link": "/radio/program/possible",
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/730YpdUSNlMyPQwNnyjp4k"
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},
"pri-the-world": {
"id": "pri-the-world",
"title": "PRI's The World: Latest Edition",
"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 2pm-3pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/News--Politics-Podcasts/PRIs-The-World-p24/",
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},
"radiolab": {
"id": "radiolab",
"title": "Radiolab",
"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
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