Vermont Public Cuts 13 Staffers, Cites Loss of Federal Funds 

Vermont Public, the state's largest news media organization, cut more than 10 percent of its staff on Wednesday in the wake of federal lawmakers' decision to claw back federal funding from NPR, PBS and local affiliates nationwide.

The Colchester-based nonprofit laid off 13 of its 100 or so employees, CEO Vijay Singh said, including one full-time news reporter. It also eliminated a pair of vacant positions and reduced two full-time positions to part-time posts. Vermont Public's newsroom first reported the reductions.

The cuts will save about $1.5 million per year, Singh said, and will help address a $2 million annual budget shortfall that was created by the loss of taxpayer funds. Vermont Public has also pursued other types of savings — and has been soliciting its listeners and viewers for contributions to offset the federal cuts.
"Thousands of people" have made financial contributions to Vermont Public in response to the Congressional cuts, the station said. Singh said the drives helped bring in about $1 million in new local support, but it is not enough to offset what was an ongoing deficit.

The fundraising drives have "certainly helped us to avoid other cuts," Singh said in an interview on Wednesday afternoon. But, he added, "we are trying to anticipate the year ahead and don’t want to overestimate the generosity of Vermont."

Singh would not specify which employees were let go, but he said the organization has not eliminated any programs outright. Cuts were spread across almost every department, he said. Terminated employees have been offered severance packages, which Singh declined to detail.

Public media affiliates around the country have been announcing similar reductions since Congress canceled $1.1 billion in funds that had previously been allocated to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which distributes the money to NPR, PBS and local member stations.

Congress put public media in its crosshairs as news organizations in the U.S. were already navigating choppy business conditions. Vermont Public, in a statement on Wednesday, cited "skyrocketing healthcare costs, changes to the fundraising landscape, economic uncertainty and evolving media habits of our audience" as other ongoing financial pressures.

Vermont Public was formed in 2021 as the result of a merger between Vermont Public Radio and Vermont PBS, creating a statewide multimedia giant that had more than $90 million in combined assets and a roughly $20 million annual budget. The combined organization has struggled to balance its budget the past two years and has tapped its investment funds to fill the gaps, Singh said.

"Looking at our budget in the long-term, I don’t know how long we would have been able to maintain our staff size," the CEO said.

Following the rescission vote by Congress, members of Vermont Public’s executive team took pay cuts as part of a broader effort to reduce expenses. Singh described the cuts as meaningful in size but declined to provide specifics.

At least eight top employees had salaries exceeding $125,000 last year, according to the organization's public tax filings. Singh was hired last October, replacing Scott Finn, who earned more than $250,000 in total compensation during the fiscal year that ended in June 2024.
The U.S. has been hemorrhaging professional journalists for decades. In Vermont, industry employment has dropped from 1,446 people in 2000 to just 358 in 2023, according to the University of Vermont's Center for Community News.

Singh said Vermont Public, like other media outlets, won't be able to cut its way to stability. But the sudden loss of federal support has made the organization's efforts to innovate more difficult.

"Realistically," Singh said, "the work ahead of us is figuring out what can we maintain and what will we have to stop doing."