— Jeff Ward, Lehigh Valley News Briefs. (“Notes from Underground” is Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s fictional memoir of an embittered, reclusive chap who ruminates on suffering and goodness. I know the type. He’d have been a great blogger.)
Revenue shortfalls, email breach, big operating loss … PBS 39’s July board of directors meeting was a litany of woes, all in Bethlehem near ArtsQuest, the capital of fun.
Some new board members were welcomed. Good move, perhaps. The board needs people who will take hard looks at what is happening and not listen to the old guard that ran an $8.66 million deficit in fiscal 2023.
Running down what happened, in brief:
The Content and Education Committee didn’t have data because the employee who provides it is no longer there.
Somebody discussed a “great new content” strategy. I can’t tell if this means a “great new strategy for content” or a “great new-content strategy,” which would be a “great strategy for new content.”
People don’t speak in hyphens, but they do like jargon.
So it’s a new strategy, either way, but whether it’s about content or new content, who knows? Who cares? When millions of dollars are being lost, does it matter? It’s all a crock anyway.
Then the public media gem, “community engagement.” People who work at Lehigh Valley Public Media (the corporate name, aka LVPM) go places to meet people. That’s nice.
The Technology Committee reported on an email breach. Somebody “co-opted” an employee’s email.
Often when that happens, organizations put out a news release to warn the public. I didn’t see one in this case.
The employee email was used to “target other companies,” but caused “no significant damage.”
Then, a comment on “a better LVPM.” I doubt anybody would suggest there be a worse LVPM, but it could happen.
Some items about a line of credit from the Finance Committee. When LVPM’s public endowment goes up, “We will use the excess over $80 million to pay down our line of credit.”
They’re also looking ahead to the 2025-26 budget.
Then we get to reality.
Year-to-date revenue is “well short” of forecasts, an employee said. I’m not naming employees much. Three of the top four officers are gone, so it could be that the person having to report this dire news is no more responsible than the waiter who brings you a burnt souffle.
Expenses have been cut, but “the revenue was the big miss.” The operating loss is running a lot more than expected.
Some welcome bluntness: “Almost every category came under budget.” That’s for revenue.
Weekly meetings are being held with the revenue team to “review what’s in the pipeline.”
This is sad: The financial side is making sure all are “aware of what their goals are.”
Were there no goals before? Who was monitoring all this? How often did the board receive interim reports?
They want to use the production studio more, to make money (this is a public, not-for-profit outfit).
Then the big kicker: PBS 39 seeks a potential state grant from a big pot of money. Your money.
That is the outrage. They’ve been burning money, they’re losing money, some don’t know their revenue goals, everything is coming up short … and they want more of your money!
They screwed up, and they want the taxpayers to cover them.
Then there is talk of “realignment” and “transformation.”
Those terms are often bureaucratic jargon for, “We don’t know what we’re doing or what to do.” Here, maybe it does mean “realignment” and “transformation,” which means … ?
There is a contingency plan to cut expenses. The staff is already down from about 80 to 58.
Then some more jargon, talk of ways to “flatten the organization out” and “make sure we have the right positions in the organization.” That latter item is always a good idea. I wish I had thought of that, I could have earned a doctorate.
All the while, the board still listens to the man who steered the ship to an $8.66 million deficit in fiscal 2023.
There was some talk of using the $80 million endowment — public money — for operating losses, and of cutting the operating budget in fiscal 2025.
There was talk of “how to be here for the next 50 years.”
Why?
The one good bit of news: PBS 39 will save $10,000 annually on trash hauling.
Good idea. It’s time to get rid of some waste over there.
****
Contact the board.
Contact the federal Inspector General for Public Broadcasting and ask for an operations audit, by sending email to OIGemail@cpb.org or going to their website.
Contact anybody you know in government, particularly state government, and ask them to beware of a public media outlet that wants to use your money to cover its … mistakes.
Lehigh Valley News Briefs 