NPR Sees Advertising Revenue Fall, Considers Cuts
NPR Sees Advertising Revenue Fall, Considers Cuts
National Public Radio has seen a sharp downturn in corporate "underwriting," and the decline has spurred talk within the organization of an annual operating deficit and staff and program cuts, the Washington Post reports.
Halfway through its fiscal year and six months into Gary Knell's tenure as its new CEO, the organization is running, as it has in three of the past four years, a deficit and covering expenses by dipping into its endowment. Through March, NPR was running a $2.6 million deficit, over and above what its endowment covers, and the growing gap between revenues and expenses makes it likely that the organization will end its fiscal year in September in the red, a spokeswoman told the Post.
Still, the situation may not be as dire as it was in 2008, when a $23 million shortfall led to the dismissal of sixty-four employees, about 7 percent of the organization's workforce at the time, and the cancelation of two daily programs.
While all its traditional sources of funding are under pressure and the need to reduce expenses is critical, the organization has seen a significant drop in corporate sponsorships, which pumped some $50 million into the organization in 2011, even as its ratings growth has slowed. What concerns Knell the most, however, is the impact on the organization's endowment. "NPR has been withdrawing from the bank and we can't keep doing that," he told the Post. "We have to be at break-even or be in a positive position on an annual basis, or I can tell you at some point we're going to have to turn the lights off."
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