LAist cuts staff by 5%, citing ongoing budget strain and potential federal funding loss

LAist laid off eight employees Tuesday as it contends with ongoing financial challenges, including President Donald Trump’s recent order to eliminate federal funding for public media.

It’s the third round of staff reductions in three years at Los Angeles’ largest NPR station and amounts to a 5% staff reduction. Since 2023, LAist has slashed 61 positions through buyouts and terminations.

The multiplatform news and information organization that broadcasts at 89.3-FM receives $1.7 million — or about 4% — of its $40 million budget from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, an independent nonprofit chartered by Congress that partially funds NPR and PBS.

Because CPB has already distributed most of this year’s funds, the Trump order would likely be felt in 2026, when a new two-year funding cycle will begin.

Since last year, however, LAist has been grappling with a projected budget shortfall of $4 million to $5 million because of declines in advertising, digital monetization issues and overall cost increases. It relies on member contributions for the lion’s share of its operating revenue, along with philanthropic and corporate support.

The organization dipped into its management reserve fund this year to stay on budget, but those reserves “have been depleted to ensure continued operations,” LAist President and Chief Executive Alejandra Santamaria said in an email to staff Tuesday. “Given the additional risk of losing another $1.7 million annually from our CPB grant, it is unfortunately time to make difficult changes.”

Trump and other Republicans have long sought to defund NPR and PBS, arguing that their programming has a liberal bias that should disqualify them from taxpayer support. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting distributes more than $500 million in taxpayer dollars annually to more than 1,000 public radio and TV stations across the country.

Trump also said he was removing three of CPB’s five board members, which would erase the quorum necessary for the board to take any actions. Former President Joe Biden appointed two, and the third was a Trump appointee whom Biden reappointed.

CPB has sued the president, alleging he lacks the authority to make such changes.

NPR vowed to resist the Trump administration’s assault on public media, calling it “an affront to the First Amendment rights of NPR and locally owned and operated stations throughout America to produce and air programming that meets the needs of their communities.”

The LAist layoffs follow similar retrenching at other local media organizations.

Last year, KCRW — the Santa Monica-based NPR member station broadcasting at 89.9-FM — lost 12 staffers through buyouts and canceled a daily news program, “Greater L.A.” Under the Trump order, it stands to lose $1.3 million from a $24 million budget.

The Los Angeles Times has laid off 129 newsroom staffers over the past 17 months, including 14 employees who were terminated last week; another 40 staffers accepted buyouts early this year. Adweek reported that The Times lost $50 million last year along with 10% of its subscribers who canceled their subscriptions after owner Patrick Soon-Shiong’s decision to withhold the paper’s endorsement of Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.

It is unclear how the latest round of layoffs will affect coverage at LAist, which has intensified its focus on local news and information in recent years as The Times and other local news organizations have lost revenue and cut staff.

“We’re saddened and extremely disappointed to learn that eight of our LAist colleagues are losing their jobs today, including at least four full-time members of the SAG-AFTRA bargaining unit,” LAist reporter Cato Hernández, shop steward for journalists, producers and hosts represented by SAG-AFTRA, said in a statement.

Hernández said the employees who lost their jobs this week worked in LAist’s podcast division, social media and photography, and include journalists “who brought acclaim to the organization through multiple awards this year — some of whom were actively working to bring new stories to our audience when they learned they were being laid off today.”

Hernandez continued: “The loss is truly devastating, not just for us, but for all Southern Californians who depend on LAist to keep them informed and connected to their community.”

Megan Garvey, LAist senior vice president for news and editor in chief, said the organization’s leadership did “everything we could to protect our ability to do original journalism in our newsroom.” She added that no reporters or newscast staff were affected.

“As hard as these changes are, I feel confident in our editorial team's ability to continue our core public service mission,” Garvey said.

Disclosure: This story was reported and written by freelance reporter Elaine Woo and edited by senior editors Dana Littlefield and Matt Ballinger.

Under LAist's protocol for reporting on itself, no corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.