June 24, 2026
— Jeff Ward, Lehigh Valley News Briefs
Lehigh Valley Public Media, a boondoggle that has run deficits of $19 million over the last three years, has added two vice presidents.
Two desks were filled but the question of why this money pit exists remains unanswered.
LVPM is an $80 million bank account in search of relevance. That money came from the auction of public airwaves.
The two new officers are Emma Patti, vice president of content, and Chris Johannessen, vice president of product. The latter title sounds like something from an industrial farm.
Emma Patti was most recently managing editor at The Baltimore Banner, a non-profit digital news service. The Banner’s reporting on Baltimore’s drug problems won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting.
Here’s her role in typical public-media jargon: “At LVPM, Emma will lead content strategy across the organization” followed by more fluff.
This is how they communicate. Perhaps we’ve found one of the problems for an organization whose role is to communicate?
Alrighty.
The content job was advertised earlier at $150,000 to $180,000 annually.
Vice President of Product Johannessen is a Lehigh Valley resident who has held jobs at McKinsey & Co., eBay, Omnicom, NBC Universal and General Electric, according to LVPM’s statement.
They should have brought in McKinsey, a consulting firm, years ago to check on the reckless spending.
Lehigh Valley Public Media is based in south Bethlehem. It operates Channel 39 along with WLVR FM, Lehigh University’s former radio station, and a digital news outlet.
The station has been burning money for years. The staff is 28, as of today, down from about 80.
Last year, a now-former member of the board of directors suggested the operation not seek to raise more money “when we’re not sure who we are.”
Chief Executive Hasanna Birdsong replied, “I have to be working toward tangible evidence of the story we’re building towards.”
I don’t know what that means, but they still ask for donations. They always ask for money. They are a fund-raising and spendthrift outfit in the pursuit of … of … … more money to waste?
To what end? Does it matter? Nobody is paying attention anyway, except one old irritating blogger.
If I’d said something like the above quotations at a work meeting, I’ve have been mocked at the least, blamed for wasting people’s time and perhaps fired. I obviously picked the wrong places to work.
Meanwhile millions of dollars disappear. I’ve asked multiple people in authority for an operations audit and nobody will do it.
Let’s take that $80 million, give me a nominal 5% finder’s fee ($4 million), and invest the rest in open space.
Until then, Boondoggle On!
Lehigh Valley News Briefs 
I am waiting for a rebuttal to better understand this discussion and am still waiting!
LikeLike
Here is a paragraph from their December meeting minutes:
It was noted that the November and December monthly budgets were approved by the Executive Committee. Ms. Yee noted that the November and December budgets were approved with the expectation that a strategic plan in alignment with the Board’s approved vision and related full year FY26 budget would
be approved at today’s meeting. Mr. Campos noted that looking back over the previous five years more than $40 million was drawn from the investment account and only strong market performance has maintained the balance. Mr. Keim acknowledged that the Board approved the radio and news initiatives, however, performance in both areas fell well short of expectations. Ms. Yee further noted that we need to move quicker going forward to course correct when initiatives are not performing as anticipated.
The original is at
Click to access d06de336fb_BOD%20Meeting%20Minutes%2012.01.25.pdf
LikeLike
Is there anything community members can do about this money pit? They don’t return my emails either. If public money is being wasted on nonsense they should have to answer to the public and not just ignore us.
LikeLike
We can try to prevent them from getting more public money from the cities and counties.
Earlier I notified the councils of Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton of the fiscal follows, and Northampton County and Lehigh County.
When their plan included trying to get money from the state, I contacted the state Rep they were trying to enlist.
He didn’t respond but the plan didn’t go anywhere.
They have about $80 million. That’s enough to subsist on.
It’s an outrage.
LikeLike