NPR Cuts 7% Of Staff, Cancels Two Shows

Tighter Belt

NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO is laying off 64 workers, about 7% of its staff, and cancelling two shows, "DAY TO DAY" and "NEWS AND NOTES." The cuts were revealed TODAY after rumors about the shows' cancellations bounced around the Net in the last week. The network faces a $23 million shortfall in the present fiscal year; the two cancelled shows were produced at NPR's CULVER CITY, CA studio facility, where about half the location's 60 jobs will be lost but the facility will remain open.

The network also received bad news from the JOAN KROC estate, from which the late widow of MCDONALD'S founder RAY KROC bequeathed $230 million to NPR in 2003: the WASHINGTON POST reports that the estate informed the network that it would not provide NPR with income this year after spinning off $10 million in revenue in 2007. A decline in investment value and legal restrictions caused the suspension of the revenue stream for this fiscal year.

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