OPINION
I obviously am disappointed that the WNET board of trustees voted not to extend its management role of NJ PBS under any circumstances. After June 30, 2026, unless facts change, NJ PBS will go dark, despite the airing by WNET of some news program on its own platform. Let us not forget that with little assured upside, WNET boldly stepped in 14 years ago and ably supported and modernized NJ PBS during that span. Over the past many years, my seat has been in the front row. WNET and NJ PBS’s recent good-faith back-and-forth with the State included a request for a reasonable level of support, and was simple, clear, and deserved, particularly given our record. A public-private partnership operating the State’s retained licenses, NJ PBS raised funds from foundations, underwriters and viewers like you, so we walked the walk.
Over several months, we had not shied away from timely responding to the State, but I believe that the State’s intransigence or maybe even apathy, coupled with federal funding cuts and new media challenges, likely influenced WNET’s decision to protect its core enterprise as one of our nation’s leading public media platforms. So be it, but frankly it could have all been so much easier.
Calls for a top-to-bottom review of New Jersey public media are welcome. However, it could have started with a more sincere and less rigid understanding by the State from the outset that the landscape is radically different than 2000. But within disappointment sits opportunity. New Jersey boasts existing, vaunted educational, artistic, philanthropic, and civic institutions positioned to coalesce and take this function over to provide an enhanced delivery of facts and stories to our neighbors at a reasonable cost. Plus, we do have elected leaders who have been vocal and who care.
True journalists are not folks who wake up one day and declare themselves journalists. They are professionals who must follow an ethical code, despite shrill chatter to the contrary. I am so proud of our NJ PBS/NJ Spotlight team and what they’ve accomplished and am sorry that we could not get this particular deal done. Our pivot now should be for us to land our news and stories about smart and diverse New Jersey within our own control and present a valued product to the 9.2 million of us of which we can be prouder. We possess the deep thinkers and leaders to get it done, and it is eminently doable with willing participants and less intransigence. More to come.
Scott A. Kobler has been the longtime chair of NJN and NJ PBS. He will be stepping down to facilitate WNET to winding down its relationship with NJ PBS. The opinions expressed are his own.
