By Tom Ozimek
Contributing Writer
National Public Radio is cutting newsroom positions and restructuring its editorial operations as the public broadcaster adjusts to reduced federal support after President Donald Trump’s order to end taxpayer funding for NPR and PBS over what he said was biased news coverage.
NPR CEO Katherine Maher was cited in a Monday NPR report as saying the organization faces an $8 million budget gap, largely due to the elimination of federal subsidies. These subsidies had supported member stations, which in turn pay programming fees to NPR to carry various flagship shows, contributing to its annual operating budget of about $300 million.
Maher said NPR expects to receive roughly $15 million less in station fees this year while also anticipating softer corporate sponsorship revenue. She added that a previous 10% staffing cut ordered by her predecessor focused on supporting roles such as legal, but that the current budget crunch means the newsroom now faces the axe.
“We have made every effort to preserve the core capacity and strengths of what makes NPR different and distinct,” Maher said. “This is never an easy choice to make, to have to cut anywhere near the newsroom.”
The network is offering voluntary buyouts to about 300 employees, primarily in newsroom reporting and editing roles. NPR executives cited in the report said they expect the actual number of departures to be significantly smaller, with the organization aiming for about 30 buyouts. If too few employees accept the offers by May 26, there could be targeted layoffs.
NPR currently has 425 newsroom employees, according to editor-in-chief Thomas Evans, who said that the cuts are deeper than he would wish.
“We have to change this organization. We have to think about this audience. We have to think about how they are consuming us,” Evans said, remarking on the challenges of a changing media environment, which includes declining advertising revenue and audience fragmentation.
“More quality over quantity. Less content for the sake of content. I want to focus our newsroom on ‘capital-J journalism.’”
The cuts come on the heels of Trump’s May 1 executive order directing the halt of direct and indirect federal funding for NPR and the Public Broadcasting Service, which the president accused of promoting “biased and partisan news coverage.”
Federal Funding Cuts
Trump’s order instructed federal agencies to identify and terminate funding arrangements with NPR and PBS wherever legally possible.
“Americans have the right to expect that if their tax dollars fund public broadcasting at all, they fund only fair, accurate, unbiased and nonpartisan news coverage,” Trump said in the order. “No media outlet has a constitutional right to taxpayer subsidies.”
Although NPR receives only about 1% of its budget directly from federal sources, the network depends heavily on fees paid by more than 240 member stations, many of which rely on federal funding to operate.
Maher said donor support following Congress’ decision last year to claw back $1.1 billion previously allocated for public broadcasting helped cushion the financial blow.
“The extraordinary generosity of donors across the nation has really mitigated some of the hardest impacts of the loss of federal funding,” Maher said, vowing to use the additional financial runway provided by the donations, which included a pair of private gifts totaling $113 million, to get to “a place where we are sustainable for the future.”
The changes, as outlined by NPR executives, include merging several newsroom desks, overhauling NPR’s digital platforms and app, and placing greater emphasis on enterprise and investigative reporting rather than incremental daily coverage.
The funding debate has unfolded alongside mounting Republican criticism of public broadcasters. Earlier this year, the House Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency called Maher and PBS CEO Paula Kerger to testify over allegations of ideological bias in coverage.
Republicans cited NPR’s past dismissal of reporting related to Hunter Biden’s laptop and coverage involving transgender issues and race. During the March hearing, Maher acknowledged that NPR’s handling of the Hunter Biden laptop story had been a mistake, while defending the organization’s commitment to nonpartisan journalism.
Jackson Richman and Mark Tapscott contributed to this report.
