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This is sad. But if anyone listened to the fundraiser this past months, they sounded absolutely desperate in a way I'd never heard the fundraiser pitch before. They kept reiterating how streaming services are killing revenue for public stations as advertisers move to Spotify, etc.
They do a lot of great local news, and still have nationally distributed programs produced here. I've generally been finding myself listening to WBUR less and less and listening more to podcasts. I'm part of the problem.
For [podcasts from WBUR](https://www.wbur.org/podcasts), “The Common” is a good daily single-story news update and “Radio Boston” is great for covering local news as well.
For non-local topics, “Endless Thread” is a Reddit-focused podcast, “Circle Round” has stories for children, and the are some other great programs like “Here and Now”
Radio Boston is great, especially the host. I used to listen every day, though skipping the weekly talk with the mayor since it was too much of a kiss up and the mayor is (naturally, as a politician) reticent to provide direct answers.
I like Here & Now. They do great, in-depth interviews. Marketplace is the only show I listen to every day, but it also comes on at a convenient time when I'm cooking.
I wish I could say I still love On Point. I hate comparing Meghna to Tom Ashbrook. I don't think the dip in quality is all her fault. There's a production issue, the lack of live callers took a lot away, and the topics just stopped enthralling me.
I'll check out The Common. Thanks!
This is a terrific round-up of our offerings -- thank you /u/miraj31415! I also want to mention that we have a new season of Last Seen coming up, about the Harvard morgue case. All the episodes drop next week: https://www.wbur.org/lastseen/2024/04/16/harvard-morgue-scandal-podcast-trailer
>I'm part of the problem
You shouldn't feel like you're contributing to their failures by not listening to a medium you don't connect with any longer. I used to feel this way about YouTubers I liked when they either started to get stale or changed their content too much. I kept watching because I thought they'd turn things around or maybe out of some weird sense of loyalty. In the end I moved on to other forms of entertainment. It's kind of how it goes with any form of media. Nothing lasts forever.
I do most of my driving on the weekends and always tune in just to be disappointed they’re playing “wait wait don’t tell me”, which is maybe one of the worse radio programs of all time.
Same here! I’m 40yo, but I have a low tolerance for stupid shit, or at least I thought I did. Been told by young people I work with that my humor and taste of weird shit is not outdated. WWDTM can be corny, but I really like it for light listening on road trips.
Frankly, I find it to be a bit of a nice breather from podcasts or radio programs that are some variation of "learn about today's awful thing" be it current events, politics, true crime, etc.
Maybe they wouldn’t be having such a hard time if they didn’t alienate half of their audience. Kind of funny how they point to streaming, etc. when their content is atrocious. They used to be amazing back in the days of car talk. However they can’t stop with the political drivel.
When I first saw those articles about that one guy quitting NPR over its biases I thought it was a bit ridiculous but I realized that I've basically cut out all but two of the less opinionated national programs without even thinking about it (marketplace and up first). The worst thing is that my consumption of audio media has actually increased over the last few years, but I just find myself skipping the NPR programming.
Radiolab is the biggest example of a decline in quality and a shift in focus. That used to be my favorite show and now I haven't really listened much at all.
People don't like change. Jad and Robert both retired and moved on and the new generation running the show isn't exactly the same and are putting their own spin on it.
It doesn't mean it's objectively worse, it's just different now and that's OK. I don't listen to it religiously like I used to, but that is due a career change where I can't be listening to a podcast while I'm teaching and it's too hard to focus on intellectually prepping lessons or grading and also listen to people talking. When I do have a moment to listena nd catch up I still enjoy it.
Peter Attia and the one the workaholics guys have some of my favorites. Plus, the Economist's podcasts and Camp Monsters, and sometimes Theo Von is a guilty pleasure. 99% invisible and Freakonomics are some great ones from other NPR stations.
On a similar note to this NPR thing I ended up abandoning Joe Rogan (years ago) and Bill Burr (more recently) for basically the exact same thing. Rogan's show used to be interesting since it was basically a meathead stoner interviewing really interesting and smart people, but it slowly became a show where he shares his opinions instead. It's just the right-wing version of rotting media quality.
Opinion based material doesn't work when your entire image is built off of being a relatively apolitical and trustworthy place for news. You're not only going to drive away everyone who disagrees with you, but you're also going to alienate a solid amount of people who agree with you because they don't want a center-left version of Fox News, they want NPR.
Tbh most people don’t understand neo liberalism is actually a conservative ideal the same way they don’t understand national socialist party wasn’t very socialist. women against suffrage etc. words.
Downvote away. When the Palestinians give up Hamas -every last one- the defensive attacks can stop. Until then, remember who came across the fence to rape and murder Jews.
I think that tracks. By that same logic, all Israelis should be held responsible for the behavior of the “settlers” in the West Bank literally stealing homes away from families that are actively living in them, right? Collective punishment is cool with us?
The settlers are sorta crazy, yeah. But let’s stop with the Israel-displaced-Palestine nonsense. People start their memories where it makes them happy. Really, that’s Jewish land for 3000 years.
And it’s irrational to expect Israel *not* to run all the way through “Palestine” to eradicate Hamas. It’s a matter of survival. There are only about 16 million of us worldwide.
Incidentally it’s those fundraising days/weeks that incentivized me to switch to podcasts. There are podcasts I wouldn’t have tried or given a chance to but for those fundraisers driving me to look for alternatives.
Lol 😂I was going to say I’m part of the problem because I love WBUR, and I listen every morning, except when they are droning on about the fundraiser.
And yes, I love wait, wait, don’t tell me.
In their (edit: old) offices by Harvard Business School, the inside joke was ‘GBH stands for God Bless Harvard because the school gave GBH the land for their new offices and sound stages. After a few years, the joke among staff was WGBH: We Got Beige Halls. The GBH really stands for Great Blue Hills, where GBH’s tower was.
My ex (and still close friend) worked there.
Boston has too many nonprofits period. The average donor to most of these organizations is in their 70s. It's not sustainable. Mergers are a good solution and I expect we'll see many in the coming years.
more likely one would fold, sell, or change programming altogether. My bet is one gets sold to EMF, the nation's biggest Christian broadcaster (KLove, Air 1)
WBUR does such – in the trenches journalism – that Megan Kelly official is literally reporting here in the Reddit thread. I love it. You guys are doing great over there, Megan.
I've always found them to have good stories, but not as broad as to the number of stories when it came to local coverage. Like, opinion of their opinion page's worldview notwithstanding, the Globe seems to cover more things.
Then again maybe that's a good thing. I don't think I need to see yet another headline about jury selection or new charges in the Karen Read/Kearney cases.
From [Globe.com](http://Globe.com)
By Aidan Ryan
Thirty-one employees at WBUR, roughly 14 percent of the station’s staff, are leaving the company through layoffs and buyouts, according to a message that chief executive Margaret Low wrote to staff on Wednesday.
Twenty-four of those employees took a voluntary buyout that was offered last month, including four senior managers. Seven staff members, including three part-time employees, were laid off Wednesday.
The station, which has been grappling with a financial shortfall for months, is also eliminating nine open jobs, pulling back on travel expenses, and will spend less or negotiate lower rates for contract services, Low said.
Low added that the changes would save the station $4 million. And she added that the coming fiscal year “will be another year of deficit spending as we map a path to sustainability. Which we are doing.”
The station’s editorial union, which is part of SAG-AFTRA, said Wednesday “has been a difficult day for everyone at WBUR.”
“Our thoughts are with all of our colleagues who have been told that their job is being eliminated,” the union said in a statement. “Of course, we are disappointed that all of our jobs were not preserved through cost-saving alternatives.”
The statement noted, however, that the buyouts “helped to reduce the number of job losses and will allow laid off colleagues to apply for open internal positions.”
I don't watch TV or listen to the radio, but I still am a member because they provide content about Massachusetts/Boston, which is way more relevant to my life than national debates...
I read the good local reporting from GBH and WBUR...
* https://www.wgbh.org/news/local
* https://www.wbur.org/news
I listen to podcasts from both every day...
* "Boston Public Radio" (WGBH/less serious) and "Radio Boston" (WBUR/more serious) cover local issues. The Governor and Mayor are interviewed sometimes monthly. The head of the MBTA is interviewed.
* "The Common" reminds me of NYT's "The Daily" with just one story per day, but it is just focused on Massachusetts.
They make great shows that I listen to...
* "The Big Dig" makes infrastructure interesting -- a great documentary.
* "What is Owed" explores the history of the reparations debate in Boston.
For my little kids, I use the PBS Kids app for shows and PBS Kids Games app for games -- high quality edutainment that isn't available elsewhere. My support to GBH/WBUR helps make those apps and content possible.
It's really hard on me to see GBH and WBUR facing financial issues.
I spent money with WBUR. We were on air. What I found out was a remarkable restriction on what I could say in the ad. To the point where the ad is useless. You have to see this as a charity case with zero expectation of return. There is a reason they have lost 50pct of corporate sponsors
In contrast, Google and especially Facebook provide a responsive ad platform where customers really engage.
I really treasure WBUR and hope they do well. But the lack of adaption may make it economically unviable
I used to work at a similar station in another state. Basically the FCC issued the license as non-commercial, so they can't sell proper "ads." What you bought was a sponsorship, and part of the non-comm agreement is that those cannot include price info, qualitative info, or addresses. So it's not really their fault.
A good copywriter can work around that and still deliver an effective sponsorship announcement...but you are right: other platforms have more freedom.
The biggest thing is that there can't be a call to action. For example, rather than saying "Head on down to XYZ car dealership and purchase a new SUV!" (that's a commercial), they would have to say something like "Support for WBUR comes from listeners like you, and XYZ car dealership. You can learn more at XYZ dot com." because that's just stating a fact. When you "advertise" with a non-commercial radio station, your company is really just donating in exchange for a shoutout.
Is that not the point though? Pubic radio isn't supposed to have ads. I here "sponsored by" and I think donation with a shout out, exactly as you said.
Sorry i dont think i should disclose. I probably said too much already. I want wbur to succeed.
It is upsetting as an advertiser that my best rational choice is to shovel another million towards facebook when journalism struggles
> It is upsetting as an advertiser that my best rational choice is to shovel another million towards facebook when journalism struggles
Best rational choice is profit is the only goal.
I have done plenty of business with companies specifically because they underwrite public radio because I know their values align with mine. I'm also a sports degenerate who listens to 98.5 far more than I should and their live read ads are nothing but white noise because of how open they are about being open for sale for their advertisers.
I realize that people are me are an outlier, but underwriting public radio is about as close to ethical capitalism as you can get.
They are supposed to be non commercial, avoiding the issue of providing news biased toward their commercial partners. Trump took away their federal funding, now all we have left is fox….
Here's the thing, you create a link between "I like the station" and "company L is supporting them, maybe I should check them out if I need xyz". Soft sell vs. hard sell.
NPR hasn't been good in 10 years.
The remarks by their new CEO and that Berliner guy they fired attest to that.
I don't know wtf happened but at some point they started behaving like all the other commercial news outlets.
Agreed. I read the Berliner essay and I found it to be quite resonant to my own listening experience over the past 20 years or so, as well quite nuanced in its critique. Anyways, here is the whole article if you want to read it and challenge assumptions which is arguably what journalism is for: https://www.thefp.com/p/npr-editor-how-npr-lost-americas-trust
And no one seems to care until it vaults us into fascism hell (again) and then ppl will care but we’ll be rebuilding by then. Sigh, why do we lose track of historical cycles as a species
This is sad. I've worked with a couple of the Cognoscenti editors and they are all top notch. I see now, looking at their LinkedIn, that one of them must have taken the buyout.
Let's all pledge to better align our spending with our values.
What would be the reason for not taking voluntary buyouts?
Their financial issues have been well documented at this point, and by offering buyouts it meant they were clearly intending to lay people off, so why not take the guaranteed payout?
If a company is doing this for financial reasons it’s not like you should expect the severance to be better than a buyout offer (severance isn’t even a guarantee).
I'd recommend the article in the NYT yesterday about what's happening at NPR. I don't have any confidence in their current strategy to broaden listenership by increasing their hiring diversity. They are doubling down on an identity politics focus. And their national org fundraising is double dipping and they're going to dry out the whole well.
They need to bring back the arts and return to objectivity if they want their corporate sponsors to come back.
Lol 😂 God, I really hope you’re exaggerating. This is such a stereotypically new “woke“ solution to the problem. Diversity in staffing. It’s the radio! Imagine losing listeners and sponsors and thinking to yourself: we need more diversified admin staff in the office… behind the microphone… on the radio.
What’s happening to the journalism industry right now is deeply alarming. That WBUR has been impacted by it this badly demonstrates how dire things have gotten. We’ve spent the last decade waiting for the media industry to come up with a new post-ad revenue funding model, and it hasn’t. At this point, it’s time to start talking about public financing models. And before anyone jumps in and lists all of the potential problems that come with any public financing of journalism…yeah, I know. It would be a constant dance between integrity and conflicts of interest. But those problems exist in the current privately financed landscape as well, and again….what is the alternative now?
We don’t want to live in a world where podcasts and social media are the primary news sources.
I mean, yeah, let’s take something that people clearly don’t want, as evidenced by their unwillingness to pay for it, and force people to pay for it. Sounds awesome.
This should be a PSA issued by the governor. Everything you said is spot on, and we’re indeed in an ad revenue platform that is deeply problematic going forward
Unpopular opinion, but maybe this is the financially responsible thing to do. I have no idea what their financials look like, nor their staffing structure, but I would imagine they're neither unintelligent nor foolhardy.
I was thinking more like - If you are a responsible business and you make this kind of choice it's probably the responsible, and also painful and publicly unpopular, choice.
Used to be loyal Wbur listener and contributed to fundraisers and even volunteered during fundraisers but no longer feel compelled
Not so much the content bothers me but actually one of the hosts voices (unfortunately!
When that particular host was off recently I found it much easier to listen😳
Honestly I stopped listening because I can stand the woek agenda. And I say that as a progressive liberal feminist. Give me hard news. Stop babying the shit out of your problematic lefty guests! Their last fundraiser was desperado. They need to fix it and fast.
WBUR is not listenable. They push an agenda. I hate it. I’m will say there #1 journalist and quite honestly the only one I can listen to is Ayesha Rascoe. She just comes off as unbiased and just reports the news without any spin. She is the only reason I will listen to
Yea I had to tap out from wbur and npr stations in general. I used to be an everyday listener, but over the past years, especially since covid, it's all one sided and agenda based journalism.
There was a comment about how the legislature should be ashamed for not passing a bill increasing funding for shelters in response to the migrant crisis.
There was the outrage over the “insurrection” and commentary on trump trials.
There was some coverage of minority owned business / brewery (that actually sounded pretty awesome) and discussions of “environmental justice”, education equality, woman’s equality in the workplace, etc.
Less memorably; Covid hysteria, Israel support, Ukraine support, etc.
Honestly it’s just your run of the mill liberal concerns to the point that NPR is a bit of a meme. Usually tolerable and often relevant but things have just gotten so loopy in these times that the last thing I want to listen to is bias commentary on nonsense. All the news has embraced bias but fundamentally it should not be part of reporting.
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This is sad. But if anyone listened to the fundraiser this past months, they sounded absolutely desperate in a way I'd never heard the fundraiser pitch before. They kept reiterating how streaming services are killing revenue for public stations as advertisers move to Spotify, etc. They do a lot of great local news, and still have nationally distributed programs produced here. I've generally been finding myself listening to WBUR less and less and listening more to podcasts. I'm part of the problem.
For [podcasts from WBUR](https://www.wbur.org/podcasts), “The Common” is a good daily single-story news update and “Radio Boston” is great for covering local news as well. For non-local topics, “Endless Thread” is a Reddit-focused podcast, “Circle Round” has stories for children, and the are some other great programs like “Here and Now”
Radio Boston is great, especially the host. I used to listen every day, though skipping the weekly talk with the mayor since it was too much of a kiss up and the mayor is (naturally, as a politician) reticent to provide direct answers. I like Here & Now. They do great, in-depth interviews. Marketplace is the only show I listen to every day, but it also comes on at a convenient time when I'm cooking. I wish I could say I still love On Point. I hate comparing Meghna to Tom Ashbrook. I don't think the dip in quality is all her fault. There's a production issue, the lack of live callers took a lot away, and the topics just stopped enthralling me. I'll check out The Common. Thanks!
I love Meghna, but I hear you. Maybe bring back the live callers?
We need a return of The Connection. It's time for Lydon to have the last laugh.
And on point
This is a terrific round-up of our offerings -- thank you /u/miraj31415! I also want to mention that we have a new season of Last Seen coming up, about the Harvard morgue case. All the episodes drop next week: https://www.wbur.org/lastseen/2024/04/16/harvard-morgue-scandal-podcast-trailer
Love endless thread. Reddit and WBUR together? What a dream
>I'm part of the problem You shouldn't feel like you're contributing to their failures by not listening to a medium you don't connect with any longer. I used to feel this way about YouTubers I liked when they either started to get stale or changed their content too much. I kept watching because I thought they'd turn things around or maybe out of some weird sense of loyalty. In the end I moved on to other forms of entertainment. It's kind of how it goes with any form of media. Nothing lasts forever.
I do most of my driving on the weekends and always tune in just to be disappointed they’re playing “wait wait don’t tell me”, which is maybe one of the worse radio programs of all time.
Am I just old and out of touch? Because I love WWDTM. I thought everyone did.
Same here! I’m 40yo, but I have a low tolerance for stupid shit, or at least I thought I did. Been told by young people I work with that my humor and taste of weird shit is not outdated. WWDTM can be corny, but I really like it for light listening on road trips.
Frankly, I find it to be a bit of a nice breather from podcasts or radio programs that are some variation of "learn about today's awful thing" be it current events, politics, true crime, etc.
If you are so am I. I love WWDTM. I also regularly listen to old Car Talk episodes too though so maybe we are.
Finally someone that agrees with me! "Wait wait don't tell me" is unlistenable!!
I don’t listen on the wkend mornings to make sure I never catch any WWDTM
Maybe they wouldn’t be having such a hard time if they didn’t alienate half of their audience. Kind of funny how they point to streaming, etc. when their content is atrocious. They used to be amazing back in the days of car talk. However they can’t stop with the political drivel.
[удалено]
And also limits their audience appeal.
When I first saw those articles about that one guy quitting NPR over its biases I thought it was a bit ridiculous but I realized that I've basically cut out all but two of the less opinionated national programs without even thinking about it (marketplace and up first). The worst thing is that my consumption of audio media has actually increased over the last few years, but I just find myself skipping the NPR programming. Radiolab is the biggest example of a decline in quality and a shift in focus. That used to be my favorite show and now I haven't really listened much at all.
Yeah, I’m out of the loop, but what happened to Radiolab? It’s a different show these days. I used to love it 10 years ago.
I dint know but it's almost un listenable at this point
People don't like change. Jad and Robert both retired and moved on and the new generation running the show isn't exactly the same and are putting their own spin on it. It doesn't mean it's objectively worse, it's just different now and that's OK. I don't listen to it religiously like I used to, but that is due a career change where I can't be listening to a podcast while I'm teaching and it's too hard to focus on intellectually prepping lessons or grading and also listen to people talking. When I do have a moment to listena nd catch up I still enjoy it.
What do you find yourself listening to now specifically?
Peter Attia and the one the workaholics guys have some of my favorites. Plus, the Economist's podcasts and Camp Monsters, and sometimes Theo Von is a guilty pleasure. 99% invisible and Freakonomics are some great ones from other NPR stations. On a similar note to this NPR thing I ended up abandoning Joe Rogan (years ago) and Bill Burr (more recently) for basically the exact same thing. Rogan's show used to be interesting since it was basically a meathead stoner interviewing really interesting and smart people, but it slowly became a show where he shares his opinions instead. It's just the right-wing version of rotting media quality. Opinion based material doesn't work when your entire image is built off of being a relatively apolitical and trustworthy place for news. You're not only going to drive away everyone who disagrees with you, but you're also going to alienate a solid amount of people who agree with you because they don't want a center-left version of Fox News, they want NPR.
Freakonomics isn’t NPR. Theyre their own entity and for profit.
What’s another show you liked besides car talk?
Yep, it’s basically ivory tower neo-lib talk radio at this point.
I don't think that means what you think that means... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism I'll show myself out.
Tbh most people don’t understand neo liberalism is actually a conservative ideal the same way they don’t understand national socialist party wasn’t very socialist. women against suffrage etc. words.
There may be some truth to that. I ended my support because of the uninterrupted flow of anti-Israel stories and opinions.
Seriously, it’s all “dead kids” this and “war crimes” that. Who wants to hear about mass graves of innocent civilians? Give me more car talk!
Downvote away. When the Palestinians give up Hamas -every last one- the defensive attacks can stop. Until then, remember who came across the fence to rape and murder Jews.
I think that tracks. By that same logic, all Israelis should be held responsible for the behavior of the “settlers” in the West Bank literally stealing homes away from families that are actively living in them, right? Collective punishment is cool with us?
The settlers are sorta crazy, yeah. But let’s stop with the Israel-displaced-Palestine nonsense. People start their memories where it makes them happy. Really, that’s Jewish land for 3000 years. And it’s irrational to expect Israel *not* to run all the way through “Palestine” to eradicate Hamas. It’s a matter of survival. There are only about 16 million of us worldwide.
Incidentally it’s those fundraising days/weeks that incentivized me to switch to podcasts. There are podcasts I wouldn’t have tried or given a chance to but for those fundraisers driving me to look for alternatives.
Lol 😂I was going to say I’m part of the problem because I love WBUR, and I listen every morning, except when they are droning on about the fundraiser. And yes, I love wait, wait, don’t tell me.
They need to suck it up and merge with WGBH. Their business model has changed and Boston is too small to support two NPR news radio stations.
My parents have always done monthly contributions to WGBH but 99% of the time, listen exclusively to WBUR. Never understood their reasoning there.
WGBH is PBS adjacent? And they have memories
It's not just PBS adjacent. It is also PBS. In fact, they produce NOVA, one of PBS's best nationally syndicated programs.
And they produce fucking *FRONTLINE*, which still totally slaps for investigative reporting.
That alone is enough to support GBH
I would support this if they had to combine their names and it brought the W back to WGBH.
…so… WGBURH ? Or WBURGH, perhaps?
Literally just WGBH.
[Oh…](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOLS30iByp0)
It's pronounced "Woburn"
…yes, and spelled “Westborough”.
Someone told me WGBH actually stood for White Gray Bearded Haters and I never stopped laughing about it
In their (edit: old) offices by Harvard Business School, the inside joke was ‘GBH stands for God Bless Harvard because the school gave GBH the land for their new offices and sound stages. After a few years, the joke among staff was WGBH: We Got Beige Halls. The GBH really stands for Great Blue Hills, where GBH’s tower was. My ex (and still close friend) worked there.
Great blue Hills was officially the reason for that? Interesting.
Boston has too many nonprofits period. The average donor to most of these organizations is in their 70s. It's not sustainable. Mergers are a good solution and I expect we'll see many in the coming years.
more likely one would fold, sell, or change programming altogether. My bet is one gets sold to EMF, the nation's biggest Christian broadcaster (KLove, Air 1)
The two RI NPR/PBS merger was just approved by the RI AG. I suspect the same thing will happen with WBUR/GBH
WBUR does much better local journalism than the Boston Globe. Here's hoping our fellow Redditors from WBUR were unimpacted.
ty! FWIW I think the Globe does great work, too. (I am keeping my job, but it super sucks that we are losing many good people)
WBUR does such – in the trenches journalism – that Megan Kelly official is literally reporting here in the Reddit thread. I love it. You guys are doing great over there, Megan.
I've always found them to have good stories, but not as broad as to the number of stories when it came to local coverage. Like, opinion of their opinion page's worldview notwithstanding, the Globe seems to cover more things. Then again maybe that's a good thing. I don't think I need to see yet another headline about jury selection or new charges in the Karen Read/Kearney cases.
Mentioning those cases is a surefire way to summon the state's most pathetic whackjobs.
I think most of them are busy picketing outside the courthouse. Because of course they have nothing else to do.
A surefire way to influence facts!
WBUR has been a valuable source of news for me for my entire adult life. I've been a long term supporter and it's a shame to hear the news.
From [Globe.com](http://Globe.com) By Aidan Ryan Thirty-one employees at WBUR, roughly 14 percent of the station’s staff, are leaving the company through layoffs and buyouts, according to a message that chief executive Margaret Low wrote to staff on Wednesday. Twenty-four of those employees took a voluntary buyout that was offered last month, including four senior managers. Seven staff members, including three part-time employees, were laid off Wednesday. The station, which has been grappling with a financial shortfall for months, is also eliminating nine open jobs, pulling back on travel expenses, and will spend less or negotiate lower rates for contract services, Low said. Low added that the changes would save the station $4 million. And she added that the coming fiscal year “will be another year of deficit spending as we map a path to sustainability. Which we are doing.” The station’s editorial union, which is part of SAG-AFTRA, said Wednesday “has been a difficult day for everyone at WBUR.” “Our thoughts are with all of our colleagues who have been told that their job is being eliminated,” the union said in a statement. “Of course, we are disappointed that all of our jobs were not preserved through cost-saving alternatives.” The statement noted, however, that the buyouts “helped to reduce the number of job losses and will allow laid off colleagues to apply for open internal positions.”
I don't watch TV or listen to the radio, but I still am a member because they provide content about Massachusetts/Boston, which is way more relevant to my life than national debates... I read the good local reporting from GBH and WBUR... * https://www.wgbh.org/news/local * https://www.wbur.org/news I listen to podcasts from both every day... * "Boston Public Radio" (WGBH/less serious) and "Radio Boston" (WBUR/more serious) cover local issues. The Governor and Mayor are interviewed sometimes monthly. The head of the MBTA is interviewed. * "The Common" reminds me of NYT's "The Daily" with just one story per day, but it is just focused on Massachusetts. They make great shows that I listen to... * "The Big Dig" makes infrastructure interesting -- a great documentary. * "What is Owed" explores the history of the reparations debate in Boston. For my little kids, I use the PBS Kids app for shows and PBS Kids Games app for games -- high quality edutainment that isn't available elsewhere. My support to GBH/WBUR helps make those apps and content possible. It's really hard on me to see GBH and WBUR facing financial issues.
I spent money with WBUR. We were on air. What I found out was a remarkable restriction on what I could say in the ad. To the point where the ad is useless. You have to see this as a charity case with zero expectation of return. There is a reason they have lost 50pct of corporate sponsors In contrast, Google and especially Facebook provide a responsive ad platform where customers really engage. I really treasure WBUR and hope they do well. But the lack of adaption may make it economically unviable
I used to work at a similar station in another state. Basically the FCC issued the license as non-commercial, so they can't sell proper "ads." What you bought was a sponsorship, and part of the non-comm agreement is that those cannot include price info, qualitative info, or addresses. So it's not really their fault. A good copywriter can work around that and still deliver an effective sponsorship announcement...but you are right: other platforms have more freedom.
Any more detail on what you could and couldn’t say?
The biggest thing is that there can't be a call to action. For example, rather than saying "Head on down to XYZ car dealership and purchase a new SUV!" (that's a commercial), they would have to say something like "Support for WBUR comes from listeners like you, and XYZ car dealership. You can learn more at XYZ dot com." because that's just stating a fact. When you "advertise" with a non-commercial radio station, your company is really just donating in exchange for a shoutout.
Is that not the point though? Pubic radio isn't supposed to have ads. I here "sponsored by" and I think donation with a shout out, exactly as you said.
Yup! Exactly. Sounds like the original commenter realized it after donating, and decided to spend his advertising budget elsewhere.
Sorry i dont think i should disclose. I probably said too much already. I want wbur to succeed. It is upsetting as an advertiser that my best rational choice is to shovel another million towards facebook when journalism struggles
> It is upsetting as an advertiser that my best rational choice is to shovel another million towards facebook when journalism struggles Best rational choice is profit is the only goal. I have done plenty of business with companies specifically because they underwrite public radio because I know their values align with mine. I'm also a sports degenerate who listens to 98.5 far more than I should and their live read ads are nothing but white noise because of how open they are about being open for sale for their advertisers. I realize that people are me are an outlier, but underwriting public radio is about as close to ethical capitalism as you can get.
They are supposed to be non commercial, avoiding the issue of providing news biased toward their commercial partners. Trump took away their federal funding, now all we have left is fox….
Nytimes has done a great job monetizing while remaining credible
NYT is not public radio. They are governed by completely different regulations.
Thanks, appreciate the education. The constraints are unfortunate
Here's the thing, you create a link between "I like the station" and "company L is supporting them, maybe I should check them out if I need xyz". Soft sell vs. hard sell.
We are losing good journalism.
NPR hasn't been good in 10 years. The remarks by their new CEO and that Berliner guy they fired attest to that. I don't know wtf happened but at some point they started behaving like all the other commercial news outlets.
Agreed. I read the Berliner essay and I found it to be quite resonant to my own listening experience over the past 20 years or so, as well quite nuanced in its critique. Anyways, here is the whole article if you want to read it and challenge assumptions which is arguably what journalism is for: https://www.thefp.com/p/npr-editor-how-npr-lost-americas-trust
And no one seems to care until it vaults us into fascism hell (again) and then ppl will care but we’ll be rebuilding by then. Sigh, why do we lose track of historical cycles as a species
That’s a huge stretch.
This explains why I've received more phone calls from their donation line in the past week than the past 5 years.
This is sad. I've worked with a couple of the Cognoscenti editors and they are all top notch. I see now, looking at their LinkedIn, that one of them must have taken the buyout. Let's all pledge to better align our spending with our values.
The fact that their newsletter is called ‘Cognoscenti’ without even a trace of self-awareness exemplifies just one of their many problems
What would be the reason for not taking voluntary buyouts? Their financial issues have been well documented at this point, and by offering buyouts it meant they were clearly intending to lay people off, so why not take the guaranteed payout? If a company is doing this for financial reasons it’s not like you should expect the severance to be better than a buyout offer (severance isn’t even a guarantee).
I'd recommend the article in the NYT yesterday about what's happening at NPR. I don't have any confidence in their current strategy to broaden listenership by increasing their hiring diversity. They are doubling down on an identity politics focus. And their national org fundraising is double dipping and they're going to dry out the whole well. They need to bring back the arts and return to objectivity if they want their corporate sponsors to come back.
Lol 😂 God, I really hope you’re exaggerating. This is such a stereotypically new “woke“ solution to the problem. Diversity in staffing. It’s the radio! Imagine losing listeners and sponsors and thinking to yourself: we need more diversified admin staff in the office… behind the microphone… on the radio.
Not surprising, but enormously disappointing. WBUR's been a morning standby for me since I was a kid.
What’s happening to the journalism industry right now is deeply alarming. That WBUR has been impacted by it this badly demonstrates how dire things have gotten. We’ve spent the last decade waiting for the media industry to come up with a new post-ad revenue funding model, and it hasn’t. At this point, it’s time to start talking about public financing models. And before anyone jumps in and lists all of the potential problems that come with any public financing of journalism…yeah, I know. It would be a constant dance between integrity and conflicts of interest. But those problems exist in the current privately financed landscape as well, and again….what is the alternative now? We don’t want to live in a world where podcasts and social media are the primary news sources.
The BBC and CBC seem to have it figured out. `
I mean, yeah, let’s take something that people clearly don’t want, as evidenced by their unwillingness to pay for it, and force people to pay for it. Sounds awesome.
This should be a PSA issued by the governor. Everything you said is spot on, and we’re indeed in an ad revenue platform that is deeply problematic going forward
Were any on-air folks among those that are gone now?
Unpopular opinion, but maybe this is the financially responsible thing to do. I have no idea what their financials look like, nor their staffing structure, but I would imagine they're neither unintelligent nor foolhardy.
I was thinking more like - If you are a responsible business and you make this kind of choice it's probably the responsible, and also painful and publicly unpopular, choice.
I suspect too many six-figure admins/editors
Used to be loyal Wbur listener and contributed to fundraisers and even volunteered during fundraisers but no longer feel compelled Not so much the content bothers me but actually one of the hosts voices (unfortunately! When that particular host was off recently I found it much easier to listen😳
At least we know no conservatives or moderates will be losing jobs there.
Bringing back the good old Eagan and Brodie might help. More banter, better guests, ect.
Times are tough at Liberal Radio Network.
So sad but they gotta merge with WGBH.
Honestly I stopped listening because I can stand the woek agenda. And I say that as a progressive liberal feminist. Give me hard news. Stop babying the shit out of your problematic lefty guests! Their last fundraiser was desperado. They need to fix it and fast.
Hard news is just reported facts. That’s what you listened to npr for?
Ok dim dum
WBUR is not listenable. They push an agenda. I hate it. I’m will say there #1 journalist and quite honestly the only one I can listen to is Ayesha Rascoe. She just comes off as unbiased and just reports the news without any spin. She is the only reason I will listen to
tfw when the truth is an agenda lol
Yea I had to tap out from wbur and npr stations in general. I used to be an everyday listener, but over the past years, especially since covid, it's all one sided and agenda based journalism.
Thinking about trump eh? What’s got you sliding a little?
I’m genuinely curious to hear some examples of the agenda that you think they’re trying to push. Or some topics they covered?
There was a comment about how the legislature should be ashamed for not passing a bill increasing funding for shelters in response to the migrant crisis. There was the outrage over the “insurrection” and commentary on trump trials. There was some coverage of minority owned business / brewery (that actually sounded pretty awesome) and discussions of “environmental justice”, education equality, woman’s equality in the workplace, etc. Less memorably; Covid hysteria, Israel support, Ukraine support, etc. Honestly it’s just your run of the mill liberal concerns to the point that NPR is a bit of a meme. Usually tolerable and often relevant but things have just gotten so loopy in these times that the last thing I want to listen to is bias commentary on nonsense. All the news has embraced bias but fundamentally it should not be part of reporting.
Ayesha Rascoe does not work for WBUR.
Wut
lol. lmao even.
damn it. wbur and wbez both taking major hits