2024 Annual Report : simplebooklet.com

CONTENTSFrom Our CEO ............................. 1What ........................................... 3Why ............................................ 5How ............................................ 7Who ............................................ 9Where ....................................... 11Announcements ....................... 122024 Honors............................. 132025 is upon us. It was 75 years ago, this year, that WBUR rst went on the air. It was the year the Korean War began; President Truman authorized the development of the hydrogen bomb; and Senator Joseph McCarthybegan spreading fear that people with communist sympathies werelurking in our midst. It was the same year that “Peanuts” debuted —Charles M. Schulz’s iconic comic strip. His main character was CharlieBrown. A very anxious little boy.Looking back, one realizes that life wasn’t so simple then, either. But our world at WBUR certainly was. On March 1, 1950 — the day we rst wenton the air — WBUR was just a 400-watt non-commercial educational radiostation. Some say the signal got staticky when the wind blew. Today,WBUR is a world-class editorial enterprise. We reach millions of people inBoston and beyond. On air, locally and nationally, online at wbur.org, innewsletters, on demand with a slate of popular podcasts, and on stage atCitySpace at the Lavine Broadcast Center.While we’ve evolved a lot, public service has always been at the heartof what we do. We believe in the power of journalism to foster under-standing, connection and community. Our job is to tell the truth and totell it well. And beyond reporting the news, there is something about theintimacy and the immediacy of audio — an old-fashioned medium — thatreminds us of our shared humanity. So crucial in these polarized times.Perhaps you noticed our new look in this year’s annual report. We’veshined up our autumnal gold for a brighter hue. We hope it’s inviting andperhaps optimistic.And our new logo image — the WBUR Viewnder — encapsulates the role we play. You can see it on the top corner of this page. WBUR helpslife come into focus and bring what’s confusing into view. The squarerepresents the solid facts at our foundation. The circle is the shape webring to each story. It’s both head and heart. Science and art. A tool tond understanding and perspective.I hope you see that reected in the following pages, as we try to capturethe breadth and depth of our coverage in 2024.With appreciation,Margaret LowChief Executive OcerWBUR 2024 Annual Report | 1A LETTER FROM OUR CEO

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WBUR 2024 Annual Report | 3OUR JOB IS TO TELL THE TRUTH AND TO TELL IT WELL.We ask questions about what’s happening in ourcommunity. We nd the context. We ask why. Andwhy not.ELECTION 2024Voter concerns were central to WBUR’s local andnational election coverage. Here & Now’s Scott Tong traveled to eastern Kentucky to talk to voters andlearn what was most important to them. His reportingexplored the history of the region, which went fromsupporting Democrats to Republicans in a single generation. The three-part series revealed how many people felt ignored or looked down on byelected leaders.On Point featured election officials from the Democratic and Republican parties who faced deaththreats as they tried to ensure a free and fair election.On Morning Edition, Radio Boston and All Things Considered, we regularly spoke with members of Congress and local leaders about national and commu-nity issues. Our beat reporters produced enterprisingstories about key local issues at stake in the nationalelection, from oshore wind to immigration. After theelection, our journalists fanned out into communitiesacross the Commonwealth to understand why peoplevoted the way they did.To ensure people had the information they needed tocast their ballots, our local newsroom created a com-prehensive Massachusetts voter guide. It provideddetails on everything from voter registration to localand statewide races, including explanatory reportingon each of the ve statewide ballot questions. We alsoco-hosted debates with our editorial partners at WCVBabout those questions. People across the state told usthey relied on our coverage to inform their decisions.Beyond our voter guide, people turned to ourMass. Politics newsletter, which provided concise,clear information about the election with links todeeper reporting. We saw sustained, double-digitWhatmonth-over-month audience growth in the lead upto the election, revealing the hunger for trustworthyinformation.OUR COMMUNITYEvery day, we report on what’s unfolding in ourregion. This year it ranged from a crisis in communitymedical care to political strife on college campuses,extreme weather, the solar eclipse and the Celticschampionship duck boat parade.When we reported on the Steward Health Care crisisand ultimate bankruptcy, we examined what ledto the problems in the rst place, and dug into thehospital system’s secrecy around its nances. Ourreporting focused on how the turmoil aected bothpatients and sta, notably in Ayer and Dorchesterwhere two locations permanently closed.We were among the rst to report on the state’s family shelter system — which has been strained as more migrant families have come to the Bay State over the last few years. Our 2023 reporting on the systemic challenges and the plight of families with no place to call home won national and regional awards. We sta-yed on the story throughout 2024. With support from the Pulitzer Center we produced an in-depth narrative series following one family’s journey to Massachu-setts and their challenging search for housing.“I believe WBUR keeps me in touch with acommunity of thoughtful, curious people.”— Gillian A.

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WhyLOCAL JOURNALISM CAN STRENGTHEN COMMUNITIES.Research shows a strong connection between accessto local news and civic engagement. We know thatwithout high-quality journalism, communities comeuntethered. Voting rates decline. Government is lessresponsive and more wasteful when no one is keepinga watchful eye. People feel a lack of connection toone another and misinformation and disinformationourish. Local journalism helps counter those trendsand allows us to feel more connected to one another.ACCOUNTABILITYAs the state faces more intense and frequent stormsdue to climate change, WBUR uncovered inadequatepreparation for the increasing risk of a large-scalechemical spill. The threat comes from seafoodprocessing plants near the Massachusetts coast.Independent federal regulators have urged com-panies to keep backup power generators, but thereare no federal laws requiring it. Meanwhile, tens ofthousands of residents who live near these plants arelargely unaware.At the same time, with the increasingly intense rain-storms, New England’s aging sewer systems are oftenoverwhelmed. That means sewage overflows intolocal waterways. While municipalities are requiredto report these events, each one does it dierently.WBUR created a real-time map to help people see iftheir local water is safe.SOLUTIONSIt’s not enough to reveal problems. It’s important tolook at ways to make things better. We believe incor-porating solutions helps combat news fatigue andfeelings of despair.This year, Here & Now launched an ongoing series called “Building Better Mental Health: Advice FromExperts.” This year’s stories included: does everyoneneed therapy, why depression makes daily tasks sohard and how to tell if it’s typical teenage behavior ora more serious mental health issue.Another series from Here & Now, “Reverse Course,” explores solutions to climate change. This year’sinstallments included: a look at cleaning up pollutionin aviation, o-the-grid homes made with old tiresand the arrival of solar power to coal country.CONNECTIONAt WBUR, we bring people together to talk about themost pressing issues of our time — leaders, news-makers, artists and big thinkers and doers.In our events venue, CitySpace at The LavineBroadcast Center, our conversations take place onstage and many are then shared on-air with our listening audience. 2024 highlights include historianHeather Cox Richardson talking about the future of American democracy, former NPR host MicheleNorris on how Americans talk about race, and lm-maker Werner Herzog reecting on his life.Beyond high-profile conversations, WBUR hostsThe Moth StorySlams, our monthly series “CuratedCuisine”, and “Sound On”, our concert series profiling rising local musicians. Importantly,CitySpace has become a “third place” in our commu-nity: a space outside of work or home where peoplecan gather together.WBUR 2024 Annual Report | 5NEWS FELLOWSFellowship programs are vital to developing thenext generation of journalists. These fellows bringnew ideas and perspectives into our newsroomand help inform coverage decisions. They are alsohelping us build newsrooms that more accuratelyrepresent our community.Thanks to individual and institutional philan-thropy eorts, six early career journalists joinedWBUR in 2024 — to work on everything from investigative reporting to arts & culture coverage.

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NUANCETwo WBUR podcasts this year focused on true crimes,with sensitivity and sophistication. The longformnature of podcasts allows us the time and space toreport deeply, craft captivating narratives and revealhidden truths and untold stories.Last Seen: Postmortem goes behind the headlines of the bodies stolen from Harvard Medical School andinto the world of buyers and sellers of human remains.The series examined what went wrong and pondersquestions like: how we should treat the dead and whogets to decide?Beyond All Repair digs into the unsolved murder of Marlyne Johnson in 2002. It is an exquisite and painfulportrait of a family torn apart — and pitted against oneanother in the aftermath of this tragedy.WE BRING YOU MORE DEPTH AND NUANCE.We commit time to researching, reporting and fact-checking our stories. We ask questions and search foranswers. We provide context for every story we tell.DEPTHSometimes we explore the present-day implicationsof our history. We worked in partnership with TheEmancipator, a digital magazine that reimaginesabolitionist newspapers for a new day, to examinethe legacy of court-ordered busing to desegregateschools in Boston. Our series examined why Bostonschools are now more segregated than they were 30years ago, and what could be done to create moreequitable schools that serve all students well.Other times, we explore our future. Among the deepdives On Point took this year was its series “Elements of Energy.” The ve episodes examined the chemicalelements needed to produce clean energy. We lookedaround the world at the human and environmental tolland trade-os of mining for lithium, copper, cobaltand nickel. To cap the series, we dug into whether theU.S. could meet its ambitious climate targets.How“My life would be less well-informed andless rich without WBUR.” — Susan M.WBUR 2024 Annual Report | 7ETHICSWBUR journalists have always taken great care tothoroughly check and verify sources of information.Generative AI will not change that. To navigate con-cerns around generative AI, we created a new set ofguidelines, drawing from WBUR’s existing EthicalGuidelines. Our goal is to be as accurate, transparentand clear as possible.It can be increasingly dicult to tell the dierencebetween images and sounds recorded in real life fromthose created by generative articial intelligence.The rapidly evolving technology can make it hardfor people to know what and whom to trust. If we dochoose to use generative AI, we will clearly describeand explain its use.

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WhoWBUR 2024 Annual Report | 9WBUR IS IN OUR COMMUNITY.We live where we report. Our work is accessible toeveryone — without a subscription. We work everyday to win your trust and to ensure our reportingreects the communities we serve.We take special care to connect with people who don’tsee themselves or their stories in other news coverage.STORYTELLINGOur children’s storytelling podcast, Circle Round, is downloaded over one million times each month andcontinues to draw young fans and their grownupsto packed venues. CitySpace produced a two-daychildren’s podcast festival again in 2024, bringingtogether performances and storytelling for all ages.Both days were lled with creativity and laughter.Beyond WBUR, the Circle Round team performed live on stages across the country — from Seattleto Minneapolis to New York City. All told, more than 6,000 people enjoyed the experience at 10sold-out shows.VOICESCognoscenti is WBUR’s ideas and opinion section,where we explore the issues and life experiences that bind us.In 2024, Cognoscenti published 250 original essays.Thousands of subscribers read our weekly newsletteron Sunday mornings. Beyond the page, Cognoscentiproduced rich audio narratives for WBUR’s Morning Edition and for Here & Now. One piece captured the musical talents of Boston Mayor Michelle Wu. Anotherrevealed how plunging into cold water during a di-cult period transformed how one woman saw herself.Cognoscenti also presents multimedia projects,including a video with running influencer LauraGreen about connecting through humor. Anotherfeatured award-winning chef Ana Sortun and whatmakes a great meal.Sharing deeply personal stories adds richness to ourlives and a deeper understanding of ourselves andone another.PARTNERSHIPSThe stories from our community can resonate acrossthe country. That’s why we’ve partnered with nearlytwo dozen highly regarded news organizations. Thesepartnerships not only expand our reach, they alsoadd subject matter expertise and editorial heft to thework that WBUR produces.Some of our long-standing partnerships includeProPublica, The Washington Post, the MarshallProject, Grist, New England News Collaborative,WCVB, the Dorchester Reporter and the Boston-based Spanish language newspaper El Planeta, whichpartners on reporting projects and translates selectWBUR stories into Spanish.We collaborated with The Brazilian Times inSomerville to translate our story on inhalers and climate change into Portuguese.We’ve added new partnerships with The Emancipatorand Scientic American. The joint reporting with thescience magazine examined septic pollution in CapeCod waters. We explained how wastewater endedup in the bays and ponds and what could be done toclean it up.The two-part series was heard on air and publishedon wbur.org and Scientic American, tapping intothe magazine’s monthly global audience of 10 millionpeople. The package also included a short documen-tary lm and a short-run podcast.

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WBUR 2024 Annual Report | 11OUR JOURNALISM IS STRONG AND OUR AUDIENCE IS GROWING STEADILY.Like the most beloved institutions in Boston — from the symphony tothe great museums and hospitals — WBUR is part of the essential fabricof this brilliant, beautiful town. WBUR has made this a stronger, morevibrant city and region for 75 years and we plan to serve the public foranother 75. At least!With the challenging economics of journalism, WBUR is a leaner organi-zation than we were a year ago. At the same time, our journalism is moreambitious than ever and we have a clear-eyed focus on the future.Our fundamentals are strong. We have one of the strongest local news-rooms in America and have earned high levels of public trust. We area public media leader in digital journalism and consistently receivenational recognition from our peers for our digital storytelling, as you’llsee in the next pages. We reach millions of people across the countrywith our two nationally syndicated shows — in fact, we produce morenational news programming than any other public radio organization inthe country.With an eye to the future, we’re modernizing WBUR’s technology behindthe scenes in order to provide a more curated experience for our readersand listeners. Through the support of generous donors, the WBUR Boardof Directors and the Knight Foundation, we have raised more than$9 million to support this digital transformation, which we call TheCatapult Initiative.We’re bringing in new revenue through CitySpace Productions, our custompodcast production company, and through our event rental business.We have continued — and we will continue — to count on our Members.Individual contributions covered just about half of WBUR’s expenseslast year. This includes your membership donations, your used cars andgenerous gifts that donors left in their wills. Thank you.Where“Between the news, the local programming, and wonderfulassortment of national shows — one cannot ask for a morereliable, informative and engaging source for in-depthreporting and intelligent entertainment.” — Steve K.

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SAVE THE DATE: MAY 29-31To celebrate our history and community, we’re celebratingWBUR’s 75th birthday with a big bash for the city we love. Therst-ever WBUR Festival will be a convergence of fascinatingpeople grappling with the most consequential issues of ourtime. We’ll have musical performances, a lively street fair and aKidsStage, too. We hope to see you there.A NEW VOICE AND A NEW TEAMFall 2024 began with a new but familiar voice onWBUR’s Morning Edition. Tiziana Dearing stepped up to host the show in September, after spendingve years behind the mic on Radio Boston where she and the team developed strong relationshipswith elected ocials and community leaders.Dearing is a superb journalist and a virtuosointerviewer who is deeply connected to our com-munity. She has lived in the Boston area for 30years. Dearing came to journalism after a careerthat spanned academia, nonprots and for-protmanagement consulting. Now she’s the voicemany people wake up to as they look to under-stand what’s going on in their neighborhood andthe world.At the end of 2024, we bid farewell to Radio Boston after nearly 15 years as a daily show. We knowmany listeners are sad to see the show come toan end. And yet, while Radio Boston as an hour-long program has sunset, our local news missionremains the same. In fact, we’re stepping up ourgame. We’re deploying the show team and ourresources to make sure that the best local jour-nalism we produce is integrated more deeplyinto everything we do across the day, on-air andonline. No matter where and when you tune in, youwill get WBUR’s signature high-quality coverage.ANNOUNCEMENTS12 | WBUR 2024 Annual Report

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WBUR 2024 Annual Report | 13WBUR2024 Edward R. Murrow Awards: Winner, Overall Excellence, Region 10FIELD GUIDE TO BOSTON2024 Edward R. Murrow Awards: Winner, Digital, National 2024 PMJA Awards: Second Place, Multimedia, Division EWHY A MOM TURNED TO SUPERVISING ILLEGAL DRUG USE AT HER HOME2024 PMJA Awards: First Place, National News Coverage — All Divisions 2024 Gracie Awards: Winner, News Feature 90th National Headliner Awards: First Place, News Series — Broadcast 2024 Online Journalism Awards: Finalist, FeatureEMPTY PUBLIC HOUSING90th National Headliner Awards: First Place, News Series — Radio Stations 2024 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting:Semi-finalistTHE GUN MACHINE2024 Edward R. Murrow Awards: Winner, Podcast, National2024 Online Journalism Awards: Finalist, Excellence in Audio Digital Storytelling — Limited SeriesSEEKING SHELTER2024 Edward R. Murrow Awards: Winner, Continuing Coverage, NationalVIOLATION90th National Headliner Awards: Second Place, Narrative podcast focused on a single incident, person or time2024 HonorsDEEP SEA VESSEL DISAPPEARS90th National Headliner Awards: Third Place, Breaking News or Continuing CoveragePFAS CHEMICALS2024 PMJA Awards: First Place, Series — Division EMANY SCIENTISTS DON’T WANT TO TELL THE TRUTH ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE. HERE’S WHY.2024 Science in Society Journalism Awards: Finalist, CommentaryTHESE BOSTON MARATHON MEDICAL VOLUNTEERS RESPONDED TO THE BOMBINGS — THEN HEALED EACH OTHER2024 Edward R. Murrow Awards: Winner, Feature Reporting, Region 10AS BOSTON POLICE PREPARE TO REMOVE ‘MASS. ANDCASS’ ENCAMPMENT, SOME WONDER WHAT COMES NEXT2024 Edward R. Murrow Awards: Winner, Hard News, Region 10ON POINT: THE BORDER CRISIS ARRIVES IN CHICAGO2024 Edward R. Murrow Awards: Winner, News Documentary, Region 10BEYOND ALL REPAIRSignal Awards: Silver — Best Host, Limited Series or Special Silver — Best Original Score / Music, Limited Series or SpecialTHE LION’S WHISKER: SISTER AND BROTHER TAKE ON A CHALLENGE TOGETHER2024 Nautilus Winners: Gold Winner, Large Press Children’s Picture Books / Fiction Ages 2- 6 YearsWE PRODUCE HIGH-QUALITY WORK THAT HAS BEEN RECOGNIZED AS BEST IN CLASS BY OUR PEERS.

2024 Annual Report

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