网曝黑料 is one of the hundreds of public broadcasters across the U.S. that will face cuts after the U.S. House of Representatives approved over $1 billion in cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting on Friday.
The NPR and PBS affiliate headquartered near Ohio State University's campus in Columbus will lose out on $2 million in federal funds, totaling about 13% of its total budget.
网曝黑料 General Manager Anthony Padgett spoke to 网曝黑料 reporter George Shillcock about what this will mean for the organization.
(Note: Neither Padgett nor any 网曝黑料 official or senior editor reviewed this story or questions before the interview or publication.)
George Shillcock: Can I first get your reaction? We had the final vote in Congress last night on the funding cuts to NPR and PBS.
Anthony Padgett: We did. It was unfolding over the last couple of weeks as everyone knows and has been watching. It's one of the things that we remained hopeful, although last night's decision wasn't unexpected. It's still a hit. It's something that obviously weighs very heavy on us, and it's something we feel very deeply. It's frustrating to say the least. As many, I've had a range of emotions. I think that's a fair human response, and we're all humans going through this.
I will say one of the things that I've been extremely encouraged by, you mentioned the people here at 网曝黑料, and I think broader about our public media industry and our public media colleagues. And one of the comments that I shared with the group recently was they asked how we were feeling. And my response was basically, 'I don't know how I'm feeling, but I know how I'm not feeling. And how I'm not feeling is alone. I don't feel alone.'
And looking at the team that we have here at 网曝黑料, I know that we're gonna keep doing the work that matters to central Ohio. And I know as a system, public media is gonna keep doing what matters to our country. And that's something that I stand by and something that I'm very proud of.
George Shillcock: Let's kind of walk through the consequences of this. Obviously, 网曝黑料 is gonna lose some $2 million, I believe, right? About 13% of this year's budget by comparison. Walk me through the consequences of losing this funding.
Anthony Padgett: Well, obviously it's going to have an impact to some of the programs and services that we provide. We haven't fully identified what those impacts are going to be. We've been doing some scenarios and some studies about what we could look at repositioning resources or realigning things within the organization. Our top priority is to obviously continue providing those services and connecting our community, being there for our community as we always have been. We're dedicated to doing that, but it's definitely going to look different and it's definitely going be a little different as we move forward. But I don't know what the full impact of those are going to be yet.
George Shillcock: You just said you don't know the full impact, but could this affect whole departments or could there be smaller cuts across different departments at 网曝黑料?
Anthony Padgett: We're looking at a couple of different things. Obviously, one of the things that we want to be able to do is preserve the resources we need to provide the services that we offer, but we are having to look at it from a couple different directions. And a part of that is us really understanding what Columbus needs. And the way we're approaching this is not necessarily looking at what 网曝黑料 is today, but understanding what 网曝黑料 is today. (Not only) what we bring to the community, but really leaning into what our community needs are as we move into the future. And how do we use this as an opportunity to position the organization to meet those needs more fully.
George Shillcock: I can obviously go count. I have our booklet at my table, but how much staff does 网曝黑料 have?
Anthony Padgett: Currently we have about 62 full-time employees.
George Shillcock: Is there a risk of any positions being cut?
Anthony Padgett: That's definitely something that we're going to have to evaluate.
George Shillcock: Right now, I didn't know this fully about the Ohio budget, but I understand we also lost funding from the state of Ohio, right?
Anthony Padgett: We did.
George Shillcock: Are there other funding sources being explored right now to fill the gap?
Anthony Padgett: Absolutely 100%. We鈥檙e looking at revenue generation opportunities across the board not just related to fundraising and donors, kind of what we鈥檝e always leaned on and continue to lean on now more than ever. But we鈥檙e also looking at innovative ideas for generating revenue for earned income or utility space usage or things along those lines.
George Shillcock: Last two questions. Our last membership drive, at least on the radio side, was pretty successful. A lot of people kind of thought that that was kind of a response, given what we were seeing in Washington and those conversations. Do you think that energy's gonna keep up?
Anthony Padgett: First of all, I wouldn't disagree that that was the response. I feel like that was what we count on and that's our community standing with us. We've always counted on our community standing with us even when we had federal funding and now that we don't, we continue to rely on that even more so and we would expect continued support from that and ask for it as well. At the same time, we understand that there's a lot of things that are changing right now. But we value what we do and I think that what you just described speaks to the value that people see and what we do and how we serve our community the services we provide.
George Shillcock: We've kind of hit on this in the conversation, but last question, what's your message to the central Ohio community?
Anthony Padgett: Right now. I think for me one of the things would be 网曝黑料 is here. We've been here, we're gonna continue to be here, and we're going to continue to serve our community in meaningful ways. And for us, it's about connecting our community with each other, with information, with news, with content, talking about the stories that we have here in central Ohio and helping share those stories you know locally and with a wider reach. And we're gonna continue to do that.
George Shillcock: Thanks Anthony.
Anthony Padgett: Thank you.
