Cascade PBS today announced restructuring plans after Congress’s complete defunding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) in July. The media outlet—which serves all of western and central Washington, along with British Columbia—has lost $3.5 million from its annual budget, beginning immediately.
“This unprecedented federal decision has had devastating effects on more than 300 public television and radio outlets across the country, and we’re not immune here at home,” said Cascade PBS president and CEO Rob Dunlop.
In light of the loss, Cascade PBS will eliminate 16 positions across its marketing, creative, and editorial departments, representing a 12% reduction in staff.
“These are painful cuts to make,” Dunlop said. “It has an impact both on our community and on the staff who’ve served this region with passion. Their work has earned well-deserved industry recognition, and we’re grateful for their dedication and achievements.”
Cascade PBS will support the affected team members with severance services during this transition, including benefits that go beyond organization policy and those outlined in the collective bargaining agreement.
Cascade PBS will focus going forward on its award-winning streaming offerings and the video programming that supporters have relied on for 70 years. It will continue producing local series—Mossback’s Northwest, The Nosh, Nick on the Rocks, Out & Back, and Art by Northwest—and expand its news show, The Newsfeed, to five days a week. It will cease production of long-form written journalism.
In recent weeks, supporters of Cascade PBS have responded to the loss of federal funding with new and additional gifts to the outlet. “We are so grateful to our remarkable Cascade PBS community that has rallied to provide a financial lifeline for the near term,” Dunlop said. The organization, however, cannot count on emergency donations as a sustainable form of support in the long run, he said.
Additional cuts to public television and radio stations include the loss of services provided by CPB, such as music licensing and shared infrastructure, as well as additional grant funding for programming initiatives. Stations across the country cannot depend on federal funding returning, even if Congress changes hands.
“This is a tremendous loss all around—for our public media team here in the Northwest and for public media across the U.S.,” he said. “Despite the sudden shuttering of CPB, our commitment remains steadfast: to serve our community, informing and inspiring with the highest-quality national and local programming across news, science, history, culture, the arts, and global drama.”