Less than two months after losing millions of dollars in previously allocated federal funding, Houston Public Media is eliminating nine staff positions in an effort to cut costs.
Six full-time employees were informed Tuesday that their positions are being eliminated, according to Joshua Adams, the associate vice president and general manager for Houston Public Media. He said three other vacant positions will not be filled as the news outlet tries to make up a projected $3.7 million budget deficit for fiscal year 2026.
“Today is a tough day, because we had to say goodbye to colleagues,” Adams said. “And that hurts.”
In July, at the request of President Donald Trump, Congress approved a rollback of $9 billion in previously allocated funds. The rescission package included $1.1 billion for the Corporation of Public Broadcasting, which provides federal funding to PBS, NPR and their member stations around the country, including Houston Public Media.
The Houston station is losing $2.2 million annually – or nearly 10% of its annual operating budget – for the next two years.
When Congress voted to claw back the funding, largely along partisan lines, Houston Public Media launched a $4.4 million resiliency fund campaign. As of last week, Adams said that campaign had generated about $1.67 million in donations.
“Two things can be true,” Adams said. “We can be off to an incredible start and thankful for the momentum, and we can have a long way to go to raise the amount of money we need to bridge that gap.”
The station will save about $1 million from the layoffs, which come in response to the rescission and other projected revenue losses, according to Adams. He said they also trimmed about $600,000 in expenses earlier this year when it eliminated 17 temporary and contract positions.
The full-time jobs that were cut Tuesday were in creative services, business operations and sound board operations.
Amidst the cuts, Houston Public Media has continued to fill vacant positions in its newsroom.
“This reorganization is structured to try to keep us doing the great work that we’re doing to serve the community,” Adams said.
Disclosure: This story was written and reported by Houston Public Media Senior Digital Producer Adam Zuvanich. It was edited by Executive Producer Tom Magnarelli. No corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.
