Losing public funding won't kill public media: Ignoring the audience problem will - Editor and Publisher

Losing public funding won't kill public media: Ignoring the audience problem will - Editor and Publisher

The biggest threat to public media isn’t the looming cut to federal funding — it’s that we’re losing our audience. While headlines scream about Congress gutting $535 million in support, the real crisis is quieter and far more dangerous: disconnection. Viewers are drifting, engagement is flatlining, and too many of us still act like it’s 1978. If we don’t start earning our place in people’s lives, no funding fight will save us.