FORT WORTH, Texas (ABP) — Nineteen employees of the Southern Baptist broadcasting network learned Sept. 9 their jobs were eliminated as part of a major cost-cutting move that reduces the FamilyNet annual operating budget more than half — from $8.5 million to $4 million.
The layoff reduces the workforce in Fort Worth from 66 to 47 employees at FamilyNet, a not-for-profit subsidiary of the Southern Baptist Convention's North American Mission Board.
“The financial cuts we have implemented will result in a very lean network but one that will be able to live within its revenues and have the opportunity to expand both distribution and programming as revenues grow,” said Randy Singer, special assistant to mission board's president.
The eliminated salaries and benefits account for $2.5 million in savings, and the remaining $2 million in budget reductions come primarily from cutting contract workers, freelancers and promotional expenses, said Marty King, director of convention relations at the board.
Responsibilities for tasks previously performed by people who lost their jobs will be reassigned to remaining employees, transferred to mission board staff in Alpharetta, Ga., or eliminated altogether.
While the cuts were “across the board” at the network, King noted in particular that production of radio programming and television documentaries “are not a part of the core programming focus.”
For now, supervision of those tasks has been transferred from FamilyNet to the mission board, and their future has not yet been determined, he said.
Affected staff at FamilyNet received severance packages based on prior job responsibilities and length of service.
FamilyNet is a 24-hour television network that airs more than 50 hours of original programs each week to a potential audience of more than 32 million households. The network operates from facilities that previously housed the Southern Baptist Radio and Television Commission, which was eliminated in an SBC reorganization.
About two years ago, the mission board announced it was reorganizing FamilyNet to allow the network greater organizational independence and to make it more accountable for its own future. The board committed to subsidize the network $9 million with the objective of it becoming self-sustaining in three years.
Singer noted the network “has made dramatic advances this past year in programming and increasing cable subscribing homes, but the projected advertising revenues have not kept up with expenses.”
The mission board “cannot provide additional help to FamilyNet beyond the amounts specified in the three-year business plan at a time when NAMB is unable to fill missionary positions in the field,” he continued.
“As a result, it was necessary to reduce expenses for FamilyNet for the remainder of 2004 and into 2005, resulting in a sound financial basis from which to expand. These difficult changes will help FamilyNet be in the black financially next year for the first time in its history.”
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