Media Bistro is reporting on layoffs of 65 people—7% of their staff—at NPR.

(Note: see update and corrections following the quote.)

Lots of folks at NPR are nervous today, as the rumor mill speaks of layoffs. One engineer in NY has already been laid off, we hear.

>UPDATE: Also, an editor/producer and a reporter in L.A.

>UPDATE: 34 people laid off in the News division alone…Linda Wertheimer and Noah Adams among them. Plus rural affairs correspondent Howard Berkes, who is also the most knowledgeable and active AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) union steward at NPR.

On-Air Fund Raising & Promotion is getting cuts

An engineering supervisor is gone, too.

>UPDATE: They’ve been calling people in all morning. The meetings will end at 2:30pm, followed by an all staff meeting at 4pm.

>UPDATE: The final number of cuts will be 65.

>Although every single department is said to have cuts, rumor is that Digital Media will not take any cuts, since it is underfunded to begin with (compared to other divisions).

>”It’s a horrible, horrible day. I think everyone knew it was coming, but no one is prepared for this,” said one.

>Other casualties: Kim Masters. Ketzel Levine. An arts editor here in Washington.

The full press release.

UPDATE: This early information was mostly true, but didn’t get a lot of the details right, including exactly which NPR staffers were affected. Notably, Linda Wertheimer, Noah Adams, and Howard Berkes have not been laid off. NPR itself has the official scoop.

Anthony Hecht is The Stranger's Chief Technology Officer. He owns no monkeys.

37 replies on “NPR Layoffs”

  11. Holy cow… I just made my first ever donation to NPR because I feel like I start every other sentence with “There was this story on NPR the other day…” And now they’ve gone and fired two of my favorite voices? One of my friends from college is an NPR producer in LA. Hope she still has a job.

  18. Linda Wertheimer can’t be right. I think of all the NPR staff, she would be one of the 8 or so who are absolutely safe from layoffs like this.

  21. Why not take the opportunity to get rid of that eternally long “A Prairie Home Companion” show and its incredibly boring host Garrison Keillor? They ruin the weekend for me, just seem to play nonstop right after “Rick Steves” on Saturday and keep going until the weekend’s done. Yuck.

  25. Um, ever care to think that Linda & Noah might be the highest paid people at NPR? Dumping them might equal 6 other people.

    Never understood why Cokie was ever given a microphone. She is everything America is not supposed to be. (SilverSpooned & ignorant)

  27. I hope Linda and Noah won’t be gone.

    OTOH, I never was a fan of Day to Day. It never seemed nearly as informative as the morning and afternoon news shows.

  30. this is why you don’t donate to npr folks.

    the local shows su-huck ass. and now we’ll have more of them, ’cause the noonday news Day to Day is cut.

    looks like they fired everyone under the age of 50. weird, as you think they’d want to pull us in…..

  32. MediaBistro did not bother to try to verify the information it posted about NPR lay-offs. I have not been laid-off and others named in the posting are also still on-the-job.

    Please remove this posting from your blog.

    Howard Berkes
    National Public Radio

  35. If people are going to donate to public radio, it may be time to start donating directly to the national NPR organization instead of giving to KUOW.

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