A Former NPR Host's New Podcast Series About Layoffs, More Detail on KQED, and a Freelance Isn't Free Panel We All Need to Watch

PLUS: An Update on The Squeeze

Hello Audio Beauties!

Thanks to all of you who wrote to me after Tuesday’s issue regarding KQED’s upcoming layoffs. Some of you hinted that layoffs may be on the horizon at other public radio stations. I encourage anyone with information about this to reach out to me at skyepillsatwork@gmail (I’m also available to meet on Signal and WhatsApp). I can’t do this work without your help.

Speaking of which, I’m currently working on a story about a glitch that’s popped up in podcast transcripts produced by the popular editing platform Descript — in fact, I was hoping to publish that piece today but I’m still waiting for a company spokesperson to answer a few final questions. In the meantime, if you’re a Descript user, and you’ve encountered something buggy in your transcript hit reply on this email and let me know.

For today:

• A bit more color behind the reasons for KQED’s upcoming layoffs and steps executives took in an effort to cut expenses;

• A new show I’m really excited to tell you about;

• A video I hope you’ll watch.

First though, I have an update on what’s happening with this newsletter! (In case you’re new here, last fall I put The Squeeze on temporary hold and halted payments from paid subscribers.) The good news is that I can now see a point on the horizon when I should be able to publish more regularly; the bad news is that that point won’t come until mid-September. Between now and then, I will squeeze in writing when I can, but not on a regular cadence. Thank you for bearing with me.

In the meantime, I am releasing my hold on all paid subscribers’ credit cards, and ending my paid subscriber program. I want to thank my paid subscribers for supporting my work financially and apologize for absolutely sucking at providing extra perks.

Finally, sometime this summer, I plan to find a new home for The Squeeze. There are a number of reasons for this (which I may write about in a future newsletter), but for now, Casey Newton’s essay “Why Platformer is Leaving Substack” sums it up.

Alright, let’s hit the agenda.

More Detail Regarding KQED’s Upcoming Layoffs

On Tuesday, I asked readers to get in touch if they had information about whether KQED leadership had considered alternatives to layoffs. In response, a current employee of the station forwarded me an internal memo from last September in which CEO Michel Isip wrote that the station had experienced “declines in audiences across our distribution platforms,” which had “impacted acquisition of new members as well as membership and corporate sponsorship revenue.” As a result, he explained the the station would

implement three non-staffing related cost-saving measures to keep overall expenses in better alignment with projected FY24 revenue. The following actions will result in approximately $1.8M in expense savings.

1. A decrease of our 403(b) employer match from 5.5% to 3%, which is still in line with other nonprofits;

2. Two office closures for all non-essential staff on select, non-peak work times during the end-of-year 4th of July holiday seasons;

3. Reduction in compensation for the Executive Management Team (EMT)

Of course, $1.8M in not insignificant, but it would be helpful to know what percentage of that number came from reducing executive level salaries, versus the matching program and office closures (both of which have a greater impact on non-executives). Keeping the executive pay reductions a secret strikes me weirdly withholdy, especially when the station’s financial dealings will eventually become public information anyway — and when non-transparency makes the announcement feel a bit hollow? That said, I’m pleased that executives did something in advance of the layoffs; you don’t often see it.

Interestingly, in a FAQ which accompanied the letter, an additional reason for the actions taken by leadership is mentioned (emphasis mine):

Q: Why are these reductions happening?

A: We are taking proactive steps to offset higher than expected budget deficit due to a rapid and steeper than predicted decline in broadcast audiences. Further, the digital audience growth we projected to achieve to help offset anticipated broadcast audiences has been slower than needed to develop.  

Longtime fans of this newsletter know that I’m a bit hung up on public radio’s obsession with “digital audience growth.” (When the newly-minted CNN CEO Mark Thompson emailed his staff that “only legacy media organizations use the word ‘digital,’” he took the words straight out of my mouth.) So if anyone out there has more information about KQED’s digital strategy, I’m all ears.

Anyhoo, when I reached out to KQED for additional context on all of the above, spokesperson Peter Cavagnaro responded in email that the station was “still evaluating the response to the voluntary offers we received and their impact on our budget” and that he would “have more context to offer about cuts we’ll be making and the budget later this month.” Cavagnaro did not address a request for additional detail regarding executive-level salary reductions.

I appreciate the reader who wrote in to say that making a comparison to KQED’s renovation expenses might not be fair, as capital campaigns often leverage entirely separate modes of financing and funding, and I agree with this broadly speaking. However this particular campaign was a bit more nuanced, as it raised a total of $140 million for various efforts including the new HQ (which cost $94 million), but was also put toward hiring additional staff, public programming, new digital tools, educational opportunities, etc. The same reader also pointed out that interest rates were low when the project broke ground, and KQED was not alone in investing in real estate at that time, all of which is true!

As always, I welcome your input.

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A New Podcast I Think You Might Like

I haven’t been this excited to tell you about a podcast since Laura Meyer released the extremely meta Shameless Acquisition Target (read my interview with Laura here). This time, it’s a new project from Yowei Shaw, who was laid off from NPR when the station canceled the popular show she co-hosted, Invisibilia. Now she’s independently launching Proxy, where she’ll connect guests who have had experiences that left them with “big emotional questions,” to “the proxies they need,” i.e. people who are in a unique position to relate, perhaps because they’ve gone through something similar or bring a unique expertise to the table.

But here’s why I’m so specifically interested in it for readers of this newsletter:

Shaw is kicking off her show with a three-part series that dives into her own experience being laid off from NPR and examines why the experience of being let go can have such an emotional impact, even when people know it’s not their fault. Based on the many conversations I’ve had with people in our industry who have lost jobs, I believe this series is sorely needed!

“More than a few people told me not to make this series because I don’t want to be ‘layoff girl,’ as one friend said. But we need to talk about layoffs, the mental health and emotional toll, and the stigma,” Yowei wrote to me in an email. The three-parter follows Shaw’s attempt to heal from her own experience by reporting on her feelings about it, and culminates after she connects a couple dealing with the aftermath of layoffs with an HR rep who answers their burning questions (“Do you get training on how to be human in these conversations?”one of them asks).

Yowei emphasizes that Proxy is “not an advice show and definitely not therapy”; instead, Proxy offers listeners “a space for people to confront, commiserate and even find the comedy (or cringe) through frank conversation.”

All three episodes of Shaw’s series arrive in feeds on May 22nd, but you can listen to the trailer for Proxy right now.

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Please! Watch! This! Video!

I recently made the painful decision to kill a story I had reported on for nearly two months, which suuuuucks — but I can still point you to an excellent AIR Media panel I was planning to link to within the piece, in which two contract producers share what happened when their employers didn’t pay them on time (it’s common AF). The group also explains New York City’s Freelance Isn’t Free Act, which protects the rights of independent contract workers and will become applicable throughout the state of New York on August 28th of this year.

Similar protections have passed — or are on their way to passing — in other U.S. cities and states (including Chicago and the podcast-making hub of L.A., etc.), so if you freelance, or if you hire contract workers, I strongly urge you to watch this. Yes, it’s long, but pop in a pair of earbuds; treat it like a podcast.

And if you are a contract worker who got stiffed by your employer, hit reply on this email and tell me about it; I may try to find another way into this story.

That’s it for me this week — 

Have a great weekend and take of yourselves out there!

Skye

Postscript

If you are looking for opportunities in audio, are you subscribed to Talia Augustidis’s newsletter All Hear (jump to May’s issue here)? Every month Talia links to new opportunities that are worth a look. You can also go straight to The Everything List for Audio Opportunities, a 184-page Google doc where Talia lists just about every opportunity that’s ever been publicly announced. Get after it!