The weekly audience for all the programming fed by Washington-based NPR -- including talk
shows and music -- also reached a record last year, with 23.6 million people tuning in each week, an 8.7% increase over 2007. NPR's surge continues a trend that goes back to the fall of 2000. Its
audience has grown 47% since 2000, per Arbitron.
But the company has still struggled with its budget. Last week, NPR said its top managers, including new CEO Vivian Schiller, will not be
paid for the last two weeks of this year and will no longer get retirement contributions. In December, NPR cut 7% of its news staff and eliminated two daily newsmagazine programs.
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