Public media cuts costing 4 Indiana stations at least half their revenue

Indianapolis Star

24-07-2025

Four of Indiana's smaller stations will lose at least half their revenue after Congress approved a $1.1 billion spending cut last week and the state zeroed out its funding earlier this year.
Northern Indiana's Lakeshore Public Media, Ball State Public Media, WVUB and PBS in Vincennes, and Tri-State Public Media in Evansville will be hardest hit by the cuts, according to a WFYI analysis and station messaging.
Hoosier public media leaders told IndyStar the loss of government support has created immediate, gaping holes in revenue they fear could force them to cut local coverage, drop national programs or potentially close some stations.
"You can't just lose a third of your budget and say, 'Well, we're just going to go on as normal,'" said Jennifer Miller Kelley, president and general manager of PBS Michiana - WNIT.
Federal and state money accounts for a smaller percentage of larger stations' revenue. For example, federal support is 12% of WFYI's budget and 1% of NPR's.
Hoosier stations combined will lose nearly $9.4 million in federal dollars. Seven of Indiana's 10 public media markets will lose more than $1 million. That's in addition to $7.4 million lost in state funding.
"They'll obviously be entering into a period of austerity, cutting back on some of the services that they currently offer," said Mark Newman, executive director of Indiana's network of public broadcasting stations. "It's a challenging time, but they're focused on mission and ensuring that they continue to produce content and provide services of a high quality."
Despite millions lost, public media leaders said they will be attempting to preserve local coverage by finding efficiencies and prioritizing coverage.
Leaders like Shelli Harmon-Baker, the news director and host at WVPE in Elkhart, said it's not an option to lose local coverage. Her team will work harder, despite the cuts, to keep up because, she said, local news is critically necessary in her rural community.
"We're going to work harder and smarter," she said. "We are going to make the very best with what we have, as long as I've got a breath in me and I'm working here, darn it."
In line with President Donald Trump's demands, U.S. Congress cut $1.1 billion in public media spending last week, and Indiana's Republican supermajority stripped $7.4 million from Indiana Public Broadcasting earlier this year.
Local stations have had little time to prepare for massive budget cuts.
"You don't sleep a lot, and you pull out your hair," Miller Kelley said regarding remedying budget cuts. "We have been looking at everything we can do to maintain the quality of content that our audience has come to rely on."
Without a ramp-down period, she, said it feels like stations are "going off a cliff financially." They hardly have time to plan their budget, she said, since federal funding was previously expected this fall. Her station lost about a third of its revenue, totaling $1.3 million.
Miller Kelley said she expected public media would need to fight for support during the next 2028-2029 federal funding cycle. She didn't expect Congress to claw back dollars it had already allocated.
"Anything that would've been wound down just has to be stopped, halted, like screeching stop, hit the brakes," she said, "which does a disservice certainly to the community and is a disservice to those of us who are trying to plan what the future looks like."
According to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which disperses federal dollars, here's what Indiana's public media stations received in fiscal year 2024:
Stations have been working to find efficiencies and consolidate operations following state cuts, Newman said. Now, with federal cuts, he said some stations will be digging into their reserves, and all outlets will be looking to cut back, including in personnel.
A statewide reporting team was told earlier this month that they will be laid off at the end of the year.
"I don't think anything is off the table," Newman said when asked about station consolidation. "It would be a prudent business decision to explore how our stations might share services in a broader way."
Miller Kelley said her station is sorting through local and national programming, community outreach programs and other spending. There is no way to move forward without answering really hard questions, she said, such as whether they will reduce local coverage, drop national programs or reduce the number of the families their programs support.
For Travis Pope, the president and general manager of WBOI in Fort Wayne, losing money means deciding whether they pay for gas to send a reporter in the field. He said they now need to be choosier about what stories they can cover and weigh whether they need to send a reporter on an hour round-trip to an under-covered community.
"You're telling me you have to do more, you have to cover more, you have to be in more places, and you have less money to do it," Pope said, recounting a conversation with a community member. "And that is absolutely right. That is the equation."
All three public media leaders said the cuts are also an opportunity to work harder and continue coverage that their communities find valuable. They are still figuring out what that looks like financially.
Harmon-Baker said she and her three reporters are motivated to work harder.
"What's important right now is to continue to bring local news, continue to do the very best job we can so that we can keep informing people," she said.
Stations must now turn to philanthropic support and their listeners to make up hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars. Leaders and fundraising experts alike say it's unlikely they can make up everything they lost.
"Asking the community to, within one year, make up a $1.3 million deficit and then do that again next year and the year after that and the year after that," Miller Kelley said, "it's a big ask, especially when we need to make up that difference in just a couple of months."
"Rage giving" is a common response to contentious or unpopular cuts, and Newman said supporters have increased donations as a result. Still, he said, those surges are not sustainable long term.
Indiana's 17 stations join the 1,500 across the country looking for grants and large donations to sustain their operations. Private philanthropy is rarely able to make up the gap, a nonprofit expert said.
"Those will not be offset dollar by dollar at all," said Patrick Rooney, a professor emeritus of philanthropic studies at Indiana University in Indianapolis.
Some stations may find monetary support as applicants for national pots of money, Rooney said, but most, and likely all, funding will come from local and regional entities. Those national funding rounds will also become increasingly competitive.
Rural America, especially, does not have the infrastructure that urban cities have to pump philanthropic money into charitable causes, he said.
A smaller population means fewer individual donors, organizations and businesses that can contribute large sums. Small nonprofits also tend not to have the staff or expertise needed to organize a mailer campaign, write competitive proposals or approach prospective funders, he said.
"Some of the charities that may need the help the most are probably the least prepared to put on an organized campaign and go out and raise that money," Rooney said. "That's not to say they'll all be unsuccessful; it's just to say they're at a disadvantage."
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