Jarvis: NPR affiliates ‘are as doomed as newspapers’

Politico
Keach Hagey writes that new NPR CEO Gary Knell’s experience in fundraising and public media signals that the public media organization believes funding will be its key challenge in the coming years. Although NPR itself would not be seriously damaged if direct federal funding were eliminated — the money comes through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — local stations rely much more on that money. “The bottom line on the stations is they are as doomed as newspapers,” says Jeff Jarvis, who believes that NPR should give up its federal funding. “Some stations have tremendous local value … But most of the stations are there primarily for their broadcast tower and their value is distribution for national programming. And that’s going to decline markedly.” Craig Curtis, program director for KPCC in southern California, tells Hagey that about 5 percent of the station’s funds comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. “While I wouldn’t throw that money back in the pot, it wouldn’t be devastating for us to lose it.” || Related: Does new NPR CEO Gary Knell deliver what member stations want?