Colorado Public Radio’s leadership is addressing the organization’s 8% workforce reduction, affecting 15 full and part-time positions across various departments. The layoffs affect CPR’s dedicated podcasting unit and music staff.
Despite consistent revenue growth over the past decade, CPR experienced a revenue drop in fiscal year 2023, reflecting wider trends within the public and commercial media landscape as concerns over a potential economic downturn led to reduced donor and corporate sponsor contributions.
The current fiscal year has seen flat revenue, prompting a strategic reevaluation of priorities and resources to eliminate deficits and secure a sustainable future.
The Audio Innovations Studio, launched in 2019, will also be closed as part of this restructuring. Despite the studio’s success in producing entertaining and award-winning podcasts, CPR will refocus its on-demand audio production around original news content, adding two new podcast producer roles directly within the CPR newsroom.
In the music department, one full-time and three part-time positions will be restructured into one consolidated full-time role.
CPR President and CEO Stewart Vanderwilt said, “This was a painful and difficult decision to come to, but it is necessary to reset the organization financially and position CPR for future success. This is a strategic reduction in workforce to clearly focus our efforts to provide free access to Colorado-focused news across the state, and to do so while being sustainable in the face of changing economic realities. And it is also never easy to say goodbye to talented, hardworking colleagues.”
CPR’s Board of Directors Chair Bradley Greenwald added, “This is a challenging time for media everywhere, but I believe CPR is doing the right thing in focusing on its unique advantage: trustworthy, deeply reported, Colorado news. CPR is Colorado’s largest nonprofit news organization, and we must ensure this valuable public service continues to be freely available well into the future.”
