“It’s the year of politics. Let’s face it.” Despite slight revenue declines, WABE will continue to double down on politics in 2024.
While news fatigue and declining advertising have caused layoffs at many news organizations, including public radio, WABE will continue its focus on political news throughout 2024.
“It’s the year of politics, let’s face it,” WABE CEO Jennifer Dorian said during her presentation at the station’s quarterly board meeting Wednesday. “So that’s going to be good for WABE and other news outlets and we intend to capitalize on this.”
The station added the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Politically Georgia as a daily radio show last fall and has added a second weekly episode of its own podcast Political Breakfast.
“It’s so vital to have an hour of live politics coverage in Georgia every day. We’re super proud to be partners with [the AJC] but I also, as CEO, want to invest in our IP and our talent and I want to make sure Political Breakfast does not get lost in the mix of options across our region.”
Political Breakfast features WABE’s Morning Edition anchor Lisa Rayam interviewing Republican strategist Brian Robinson and Democratic Strategist Theron Johnson.
“We have doubled the output of Political Breakfast every week for this next year … It’s our top weekly podcast and as we doubled the output, we have not lost listenership and in fact grown the downloads by 50%.”
Gold Dome Scramble, a podcast covering the state legislature, will continue through the current session and then “turn into an evergreen election, Georgia votes, inside politics podcast from our reporters.”
After pushing for the AJC hour last year, Dorian emphasized WABE’s own podcasts and reporters in this meeting, even as all of them cover much of the same ground.
“So again, we’re excited to have Politically Georgia and we’re excited to have two podcasts from us about political strategists from both parties as well as our reporters.”
Apart from Dorian’s presentation, politics was also an emphasis in presentations by the newsroom leader and head of marketing.
Politics is also part of the AJC’s own plan to grow subscribers, including a new ad campaign launched this week.
The for-profit, if not currently profitable, legacy newspaper’s show on non-profit WABE may indeed lead listeners to support both financially, but that’s a lot to expect.
With both pushing politics, differentiating WABE from the AJC may become harder as the year unfolds.
Or could become the stuff of intrigue.
Already the differences in topics, tone, and guests between the 10 a.m. AJC hour and WABE’s own Closer Look at 1 p.m. are ripe for analysis.
Why is that politician on this show, but not that one? How did that show get the “exclusive” while the other one didn’t?
Nationally, there’s been a decline in audiences compared to 2020 and a debate among media critics as to whether wanting another “Trump bump” is even healthy for democracy.
Georgia is still new to its swing state status and there may be room for audience growth, but it has no Senate seat or major statewide offices on the ballot this year. There’s no Herschel Walker intrigue to follow.
The Trump RICO trial is certainly an ongoing major story but one national outlets and specialty newsrooms on law and courts are eager to make their own. The AJC has its own podcast and newsletter devoted to the Trump trials.
Much of the news fatigue impacting mainstream media organizations and leading to layoffs is ascribed to the Trump factor. His supporters don’t trust the mainstream media and have a whole slate of conservative or MAGA alternatives to turn to, including entire Trump-supporting social media platforms.
WABE has had no newsroom layoffs and at 25 it’s the largest it’s ever been, but the station has kept several other budgeted positions open this fiscal year.
A New Head of Radio
Perhaps in keeping with the emphasis on politics, the meeting also introduced WABE’s new Sr. Director of Radio Douglas Bell who was previously program director at WAMU in Washington D.C.
“We haven’t had a captain of radio for about a year and it’s going to be such an integral connective tissue between operations, content, marketing…”
Dorian added, “He’s also kind of a big deal in the NPR system. He’s on a lot of important advisory councils and the Public Media Content Collaborative.”
WAMU is the highest rated NPR affiliate but is in a city where politics is the main industry.
Revenues and Expenses Down
In the Financial presentation, overall revenues were down slightly in several areas but those were offset by a decline in expenses including the unfilled positions.
Membership contributions are “near budget despite a lot of turnover.”
WABE is not facing a fiscal crisis and is being frugal, but that hampers its overall ambitions.
Dorian’s goal, restated in the last meeting, is to make WABE a top 10 NPR affiliate.
That an affluent, growing Atlanta needs an NPR affiliate on par with WNYC or WBUR or WAMU.
WABE would like a slate of hit podcasts and an impressive new building with a public facing front door in a cool part of town.
All of that is still possible, but betting on politics to get there is risky. It can alienate as much as it attracts.
Several media critics, and slews of commentators on news articles and social media links, see the media as broken. “Quit covering the horse race and talk about the risks.”
“Not the odds but the stakes.”
For example, in a second term President Trump would, based on some of his own statements, try to defund public radio and eliminate the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, order the FCC to pull broadcast licenses to stations over “unfair” coverage, and expand libel law as a weapon against “fake news.”
Not All Local is Politics
Politics wasn’t all the meeting talked about. New board officers for the year were voted on and a new season and marketing campaign for its concert series Sounds Like ATL were highlighted.
The concert series is inspired by Austin City Limits and NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts. To show that public media isn’t only news or classical and jazz music.
That’s fine, but helping audiences discover new, local music was always college radio’s virtue, and done much more organically.
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