Facing a projected $3 million budget deficit, Santa Monica public radio station KCRW-FM (89.9) is preparing to reduce staff amid a difficult media environment.
On Friday, the popular station began offering voluntary buyouts to dozens of employees throughout its organization. Staff members have until Dec. 18 to decide whether to accept a separation package.
KCRW is known for its local programs — including the music show “Morning Becomes Eclectic,” Madeleine Brand’s topical “Press Play,” and the weekly political series “Left, Right & Center” — along with national offerings from NPR.
Like other Los Angeles-area media outlets, KCRW has suffered from a pullback in film studio advertising during the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes, which stretched from May until early November. KCRW, which has an annual operating budget of about $23 million, relies on member contributions and corporate sponsorships, including studios looking to promote their movies and television shows.
KCRW, which employs about 155 people, hopes to reduce its headcount through the voluntary buyouts, station president Jennifer Ferro told The Times.
The station doesn’t have a target number for its headcount reduction. Instead, managers first plan to see how many people volunteer to leave, Ferro said. The KCRW buyouts were offered to a large group, including managers, production engineers, technical directors and content producers.
“This is our attempt to try to avoid layoffs,” Ferro said Friday. “The biggest reason we’re doing this is because the studio dollars that we normally get every year just dried up or were postponed because of the strikes.”
Earlier this year, KCRW station managers had anticipated a deficit of about $1.8 million, which it planned to cover with funds with its reserves. But as the year progressed, the projected gap swelled to nearly $3 million, in large part because of the length of strikes.
Last summer’s “for your consideration” advertisements to promote contenders for major award shows all but vanished. The annual Emmy Awards show was bumped from September to Jan. 15.
Writers Guild of America members with support from SAG-AFTRA picket outside Paramount Pictures in June.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
In addition, public radio outlets nationwide have also experienced a decline in listeners, a trend that accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic when people’s routines were interrupted and some commutes were replaced by working from home.
In 2020, KCRW reduced its staff by about 24 people through buyouts.
The Santa Monica station isn’t the only local outlet that has had staff reductions.
Last summer, Pasadena-based public radio station LAist reduced its staff by 10%, or 21 positions, citing a revenue shortfall, including a projected loss of studio advertising. The station’s call letters are KPCC-FM (89.3).
A budget deficit prompted the Los Angeles Times to cut more than 70 positions in June, including much of its audio production staff. A week ago, The Times cut more than a dozen more people, including nine staff members of the Los Angeles Times Studios, including two managers and an audio engineer.
KCRW 89.9 radio station on the Santa Monica College campus in June 2014.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
It’s been a bruising year for the media industry with some 20,324 cuts so far — the most since 2020 when there were more than 30,000 media jobs lost, according to a report this week by Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
The Walt Disney Co. reduced its workforce by 8,000 this year. This week, Swedish audio giant Spotify announced it was laying off 17% of its global workforce, marking the third round of cuts this year as it tries to reduce costs amid an economic slowdown.
The bleeding has been extensive for journalism outlets. Among digital, print and broadcast news outlets, there have been 2,682 job eliminations this year, surpassing the surpassing the 1,808 announced in 2022 and 1,511 announced in all of 2021, according to the Challenger, Gray & Christmas report.
