Could Boston’s two public broadcasters be headed for a merger?
GBH President and CEO Susan Goldberg sent staff a note Thursday morning in which she reiterated her belief that it would be wise for GBH and WBUR to join forces.
The note followed a story published by the Boston Globe that explored the possibility of a merger and quoted Goldberg saying, “it would make a lot of sense to merge.”
Goldberg’s comments mark, for the first time, a public indication that one of Boston’s storied public media organizations supports merging.
“In an interview, the [Globe] reporter asked me if I thought GBH and WBUR should merge, and I answered honestly: The loss of public funding must prompt a re-examination of how public media operates — here and nationwide — and that, in Boston, a merger between our two organizations would make a lot of sense,” Goldberg wrote in the all-staff email. “I’ve said this to you in staff meetings, and I think it’s important, if asked, to say so publicly.”
The Globe story portrayed Goldberg as more bullish on a possible merger than Margaret Low, the CEO of WBUR, who was quoted as saying that while WBUR has “no plans to merge,” she is “always open to new collaborations.”
In her email to staff, Goldberg added that the full impact of the clawback of $1.1 billion for public media stations across the country via the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which previously helped fund GBH and other public-media stations, has yet to be felt. She said merging with WBUR would create new opportunities for a hypothetical unified organization.
“By eliminating competition for donors and sponsors, and finding efficiencies in the ways we operate, a merged organization could invest even more in journalism, becoming more sustainable and making a bigger impact in the communities we serve,” Goldberg said. “Isn’t that the point of it all?”
A GBH spokesperson said Goldberg was not available for an interview Thursday, and Low declined a request for an interview with GBH News.
However, in a note to WBUR staff sent Thursday, Low again struck a different note than Goldberg.
“As I told [the Globe], conversations about how to navigate these uncertain times are happening all across the NPR network and across all media,” Low wrote. “Those conversations should be happening. That said, we always want to make sure we’re examining any partnership through the lens of what we could do better together than apart.
“WBUR and GBH have no plans to merge. Full stop,” Low wrote.
But the comments from both Low and Goldberg mark a dramatic turn from previous interviews — and led to feverish speculation in the GBH newsroom Thursday. In 2024, Goldberg told the Globe that the stations had not discussed a merger, saying she didn’t “see any reason why Boston — a place like Boston, my gosh, the smartest people in the world — can’t support two wonderful news organizations like BUR and GBH.”
Low declined to comment at the time, but did indicate she had heard the question of whether the stations should merge.
GBH, which introduced chef Julia Child to a national audience in the 1960s, is considered a crown jewel of the PBS system, and is PBS’ largest producer of TV and web content, including “Frontline,” “Nova,” and “Antiques Roadshow.” The station started its local radio news service in 2009 and has been aggressively expanding its local midday radio offerings, which now include “Boston Public Radio,” “The Culture Show,” and “The Curiosity Desk.”
WBUR, which is owned by Boston University, is prominent within the NPR system. It co-produces the newsmagazine “Here & Now” with NPR and produces “On Point,” both of which are broadcast by hundreds of stations nationally.
Both GBH and WBUR air national news programs like “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered,” and have locally focused journalists covering similar topics.
Both organizations have also faced layoffs and cutbacks in recent years — and following the rescission of federal funding, both have been inundated with donations. But speculation has increased about whether even a large, civically minded and news-obsessed city like Boston can support two unique public media operations.
This story, which has been updated, was reported by Adam Reilly of GBH and edited by Eric Aasen with Connecticut Public. No members of GBH News’ leadership team were involved in the editing of this story, nor did they review it before it was published.
