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LAist faces a budget shortfall in the next 2 years between $4-5 million

We’re seeing saturation of information going on and plenty of free product to chose from. Unfortunately IMHO, good integrity based journalism is getting kicked in the shorts.
Maybe so, but a lot of exceedingly biased advocates who cloak themselves in the veneer of journalism are getting exactly what they deserve. Either deliver a fair and balanced product to your audience, or make sure you are preaching to your own personal choir, but you can't do both.
 
Maybe so, but a lot of exceedingly biased advocates who cloak themselves in the veneer of journalism are getting exactly what they deserve. Either deliver a fair and balanced product to your audience, or make sure you are preaching to your own personal choir, but you can't do both.

Who is the judge of what is ''fair & balanced?''

Nobody is LAist or KPCC is complaining about this situation. They're simply reacting and adjusting to the budgetary realities, the same way commercial music stations are.
 
The market. These are matket responses to market conditions. I join them in not complaining about it.

What we see is that people want content, news and otherwise, for free. The LA Times has a paywall, and they've been laying off staff as well.

The other complaint from radio listeners is the number of commercials on music stations. If listeners don't want commercials, there's non-commercial radio. But if people don't donate to non-commercial radio, there's no choice other than cut back on expenses and staffing.
 
What we see is that people want content, news and otherwise, for free. The LA Times has a paywall, and they've been laying off staff as well.

The other complaint from radio listeners is the number of commercials on music stations. If listeners don't want commercials, there's non-commercial radio. But if people don't donate to non-commercial radio, there's no choice other than cut back on expenses and staffing.
Again, no complaints. Market working as intended.

We used to pay for the LA Times. Their news coverage has always been subpar, but we paid for the decent sports page. When that went away about 20 years ago, we stopped subscribing period. Virtually nothing worth paying for. As you can see, we are not the only ones.
 
But my point is that the cutbacks have nothing to do with bias or anything like that, because they're affecting everyone, including those who don't do news.
With logic like that the cuts will just keep on coming.

At some point self-awareness on the part of these organizations will kick in, but not for a good while yet. In the meantime, keep rockin' in the free world.
 
Just announced: A new CEO for LAist:


The previous one is retiring.
My recommendation for her first task is to carefully review and revise the budget (See my detailed analysis of their financials at the top of this thread).
 
My recommendation for her first task is to carefully review and revise the budget (See my detailed analysis of their financials at the top of this thread).

Here's what you said:
Total Support from Public decreased $37.6 to $34.1 million from FY 2022 to 2023, a very large decrease of over 9%, BUT as the article says, most of the decrease came from underwriting and "campaign support" (whatever that is).
BTW That follows similar drops in underwriting at other public stations. In other words, the members still renew.

When I saw her resume, I think what she brings is a connection to the LA business community, which is something they will need to improve underwriting. She seems to be a traditional sales person, which is what this station needs.
 
Here's what you said:

BTW That follows similar drops in underwriting at other public stations. In other words, the members still renew.

When I saw her resume, I think what she brings is a connection to the LA business community, which is something they will need to improve underwriting. She seems to be a traditional sales person, which is what this station needs.
Very stealthy editing there. I clearly identified the problem as being one of out-of-control costs, not revenue.
 
I clearly identified the problem as being one of out-of-control costs, not revenue.

Sorry I missed that. Yes you did:
Expenses up by $6.0 million from $37.6 million last year, a whopping 16% increase, in a year in which they must have known there would be at least some revenue challenges.

I would bet that, coming from the commercial media world, she isn't used to seeing budgets that big for a company that doesn't own a TV station.

I wonder if these layoffs were done with the expectation of her being hired as CEO.

My take is that it's fine to increase expenses when revenues are going up. Since revenues aren't going up, then it's time to cut costs. Which is what they're doing. I would think she'd want to work on the revenue side, since that's what her salary will be based on.
 
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