WNYC, which has greater than one million weekly listeners for its AM and FM stations, has gone by important workers turnover within the final 12 months. Fourteen journalists have resigned or been terminated from a workers of greater than 150 editorial staff. In April, the station laid off 4 individuals who labored within the newsroom.
SAG-AFTRA filed an unfair labor follow criticism with the Nationwide Labor Relations Board, accusing WNYC of retaliating in opposition to a store steward who was among the many staff laid off. A spokeswoman for the station mentioned that WNYC “by no means has and by no means will make a personnel choice based mostly on retaliation.”
Office morale has been low, mentioned a dozen present and former workers members, most of whom spoke for this text on situation of anonymity to debate inner points.
“I didn’t need to go away,” Jim O’Grady, a reporter who left WNYC final month after 11 years, mentioned in an interview. “However I felt like I needed to, as a result of for essentially the most half it’s now not a spot of collaboration, collegiality and mutual respect.”
When Ms. Cooper began at WNYC in 2020, after 5 years because the editor in chief of The San Francisco Chronicle, she stepped right into a risky office. The station was nonetheless reeling from a interval in 2017 internally known as “The Troubles,” when the veteran hosts Leonard Lopate and Jonathan Schwartz have been fired for violating office conduct requirements, and one other longtime host, John Hockenberry, was accused of sexual harassment months after his retirement.
Goli Sheikholeslami, WNYC’s chief government, mentioned in an interview that the current turnover resulted from a “mandatory but additionally very thrilling transformation” because the station tries to broaden its viewers and make WNYC extra of a “multi-platform” outlet.
When there are modifications, Ms. Cooper mentioned, “Some individuals are going to be psyched, some individuals are going to attend and see, and a few individuals are going to be scared.”