Reporting team cut after Indiana lawmakers zero out public media funding

A team of local journalists who cover news across Indiana is being cut.

Staff with Indiana Public Broadcasting News (IPB News) got notification Tuesday that their jobs were being eliminated at the end of the year. It comes after Indiana lawmakers cut all public media funding — nearly $3.7 million per year — out of the recently passed biennial budget.

Officials with the parent organization, Indiana Public Broadcasting Stations, Inc. (IPBS) published a news release Tuesday about the change. IPBS is a collective of 17 public TV and radio stations in Indiana.

"Indiana's public broadcasting stations have proposed strategic changes and reductions for the IPB News statewide reporting collaboration," the release read, in part.

IPB News, a project IPBS manages, started a decade ago. IPBS is a collective of 17 public TV and radio stations in Indiana, including WFYI. Local WFYI reporters are not affected by the proposed IPBS cuts.

"This is an incredibly difficult decision, but with the loss of state funding, individual stations have to make some very difficult decisions to address funding shortfalls and are focused on sustaining services to their local communities," IPBS Executive Director Mark Newman said in the release.

He said the change is "an immediate consequence of state funding cuts."

When asked in an interview with LPM News to confirm that the state news team was being cut, he said he couldn't comment on personnel.

He said the statewide news collaboration will still go on.

"It will be organized and structured in a different way, but what we call IPB News will still exist," he said.

Grant funding that supported the statewide news operation is ending this year. And Newman said state lawmakers' cuts to public media funding means local stations can't afford to pay dues to the IPB News initiative.

"And as a result, we had to make the hard decision," Newman said. "...What do we prioritize? Do we prioritize a statewide news initiative or the survival of local stations who have a whole host of other responsibilities and services that they provide, the folks who live in the viewing and listening areas that they serve."

According to the website for WFYI, IPBS' flagship station, the IPB News team includes managing editor Scott Cameron; daily news editor Henry Zimmerman; digital editor Lauren Chapman; labor and employment reporter Timoria Cunningham; videographer Alan K. Mbathi; health reporter Abigail Ruhman; Statehouse bureau chief Brandon Smith and energy and environment reporter Rebecca Thiele.

"We'd like to be telling the story [of] what's going on around the state, but we are going to be currently handicapped by that, because the state chose to suspend funding public broadcasting in Indiana," Anthony Hunt said.

Hunt is chair of the IPBS board and station manager at WVPE, which includes Elkhart, South Bend and Notre Dame.

The state cuts come as Congress nears a final vote on a bill that would take away more than $1 billion in public media funding.

On a more granular level, the absence left by the statewide reporting team will limit each local station's ability to offer state coverage.

"This is going to put a big hole on what [WVPE gets] from the state, and I'm really sad about that," Hunt said.

The funding and subsequent coverage cuts, he said, will likely lead to a less informed public.

Lindsay Haake is a lobbyist who works for some nonprofits in the state, including the National Association Of Social Workers Indiana Chapter and Citizens Action Coalition.

She's worked with the team to connect them to sources for stories on a variety of topics. She's also been a guest on Indiana Week in Review, hosted by Brandon Smith. She said the change is a "monumental loss."

"I really don't see how we can possibly move forward with this glaring, glaring hole that's been left in the media landscape here in Indiana," she said. "News deserts will get worse. Folks who do not hear about their legislature and the work that's happening, and frankly, the lack of work that's happening in the legislature to address affordability, to address health care, to address consumer issues will continue to get worse. And there were many talented reporters that were working on this team that knew these issues inside and out."

Haake has started a GoFundMe to support the journalists who are losing their jobs.

On Tuesday, the Indiana Senate Democratic Caucus condemned the funding and coverage cuts.

"We said this would happen. And now it's here," Democratic Senate Minority Leader Shelli Yoder said in a statement. "When the supermajority eliminated every dollar of state funding for public broadcasting during session, we told them what the consequences would be: fewer trusted news sources, fewer watchdogs at the Statehouse and fewer local voices telling the stories of all Hoosiers. Now Hoosiers are seeing those consequences unfold in real time."

Maryanne Zeleznik, vice president of news at WVXU in Cincinnati, said in a statement it will be a big loss to listeners.

"Our hearts go out to the Indiana Statehouse reporting staff," Zeleznik said in the statement. "They knock it out of the park every day with their solid, thorough, and engaging reporting. WVXU listeners have regularly benefited from their work in our newscasts and as guests on Cincinnati Edition. I can't imagine having no public media reporting from Indiana. The void will be evident."

Coverage of Southern Indiana is funded, in part, by Samtec Inc., the Hazel & Walter T. Bales Foundation, and the Caesars Foundation of Floyd County.

IPBS is a collective of 17 public TV and radio stations in Indiana, including WFYI.