New Jersey PBS, set to shut down on June 30, will shutter its Newark studio at the end of this week, with NJ Spotlight News with Brianna Vannozzi moving to a remote format for the final two months.
A spokesperson for The WNET Group, Kellie Castruita Specter, told the New Jersey Globe that the studio lease is up on June 30.
It’s not immediately clear what will happen to the equipment in the studio. Recent upgrades were funded by taxpayers from 2021 to 2024, but last year’s budget cut funding from the state entirely. That followed the Trump administration’s decision to cancel funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funded WNET, the parent company of THIRTEEN, the PBS New York affiliate.
The station, then known as NJTV, opened its 10,645 square-foot production studio and offices at 2 Gateway Center in May 2015. It was funded by a $2 million contribution from the Agnes Varis Charitable Trust
WNET announced last September that they are not renewing its agreement with New Jersey PBS. The New Jersey news organization had faced severe financial challenges over the last several years and had already made multiple rounds of layoffs.
There has already been an exodus of NJ PBS staff, either through retirements or voluntary departures by those seeking new jobs. New Jersey Spotlight News is owned by WNET.
Gov. Chris Christie ended four decades of state funding for public television in 2025, forcing them to find a new funder. The state cut $750,000 in NJ PBS funding this year, but that was hardly the fatal blow; the fatal blow came from the end of federal funding.
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