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LNP, WITF parent company lays off 10% of workforce

  • By Lisa Scheid/LNP | LancasterOnline
The WITF Public Media Center is on Lindle Road at Keckler Road in Swatara Township, Dauphin County on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024.

 Blaine Shahan / LNP | LancasterOnline

The WITF Public Media Center is on Lindle Road at Keckler Road in Swatara Township, Dauphin County on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024.

Pennon laid off about 24 employees across LNP | LancasterOnline and WITF on Thursday.

Ron Hetrick, president and CEO of Pennon, said a cut of 10% of the company’s employees is part of a restructuring that stemmed from the donation of LNP Media Group to WITF last year.

Hetrick said the goal is to make the organization more effective and efficient as it focuses on developing its digital operations. He said the company remains committed to serving the community through its digital, broadcast and print products.

Tom Murse, vice president of journalism at WITF and executive editor of LNP | LancasterOnline, said 11 members of the combined news teams were laid off. He declined to discuss compensation, salaries or payroll of staff.

Ben Wasserstein, the Capitol bureau chief for WITF, confirmed that he was one of the news staffers laid off. He declined to discuss the layoff on the record. WITF was one of just two radio stations statewide to staff the Capitol with a full-time reporter. Pittsburgh public radio station WESA is the only other station will a full-time reporter there.

“We’re evaluating the Pennsylvania Public Radio network to see where, or whether, it fits into the broader media landscape in Harrisburg,” Murse said in an email. “We’ve spent considerable time over the past year listening to news leaders at the affiliates we serve across the state, and we take their concerns and suggestions seriously. I am absolutely confident in our newsroom’s ability to continue covering elections the way it always has.”

Hetrick declined to say what positions were cut or whether upper management received pay cuts as part of the restructuring. The layoffs include non-newsroom personnel, as well. Employees contacted for this story declined to discuss the situation.

Employees said Hetrick held a private, off-the-record virtual meeting with staff Thursday afternoon. No employees contacted for this story were willing to discuss the meeting on the record. Neither LNP Media Group nor WITF newsrooms are unionized.

Last July, the Steinman family gave the for-profit LNP Media Group to the nonprofit media company with the hope that the donation to the public broadcaster could find a new model of sustainability for the newspaper company.

In a recent tax return, The Steinman Foundation reported that in 2023 it gave $5 million to the Steinman Institute for Civic Engagement, which is set up under Pennon. Neither Steinman nor WITF had revealed how much the donation was.

Hetrick said the intent of the deal with Steinman has been to find a sustainable model and that it did not include maintaining the status quo.

But when the deal was announced in May 2023 the company leadership said no changes in staffing, printing frequency or coverage focus would be made in the immediate future when LNP Media Group began operating under WITF.

“Our expectation is WITF has agreed they will continue to publish a seven-day a week newspaper with focus on Lancaster County for at least next five years and operate a newsroom the same size or larger for next five years,” Robert Krasne, chairman and CEO of Steinman Communications, which used to own LNP Media Group.  told LNP | LancasterOnline at the time. 

The launch of Pennon, the nonprofit that oversees LNP | LancasterOnline and WITF, was announced last month. At that time, officials said WITF and LNP | LancasterOnline would retain their own branding, websites, offices, editorial independence and policies under the new organization.

Attempts to reach Krasne and Shane Zimmerman, president of The Steinman Foundation, were not successful Thursday afternoon.

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