The lights are dimming for many at PBS as the public television network prepares to commence layoffs at "PBS NewsHour," the nightly newscast on public television.

These layoffs, which will be the first major staff cuts in almost 20 years, are the result of dwindling support from corporate sponsors reports, The New York Times. MacNeil/Lehrer Productions will be closing both the Denver and San Francisco PBS offices, laying off most of the employees that work there. These cuts will be accompanied with the elimination of "noncritical production positions" at the company's main office in Arlington, Va.

Public television employees "not authorized to speak publicly" told the Times earlier this year that MacNeil/Lehrer was facing a $7 million shortfall in its first quarter, a fourth of its $28 million budget.

In an internal memorandum released on Monday, "NewsHour" executive producer Linda Winslow and Boisfeuillet Jones Jr., the chief executive of MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, detailed the cuts.

The shuttering of the offices in Denver and San Francisco will end an era for the “NewsHour,” which long ago also had offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and elsewhere. To make up for the loss of reporting staff outside the Washington area, “along with sending our own teams in the field, we anticipate building new relationships with a variety of locally based freelance video journalists around the country,” Winslow and Jones wrote. “Under no circumstances do we intend to abandon the minidocumentary reports that have become so critical to our broadcast. The ‘NewsHour’ remains committed to delivering the same kind of in-depth reporting our viewers and supporters expect from us.”

A spokeswoman for "NewsHour" wouldn't offer any new details on the program's current budget, but other cost-cutting measures will be put into place, such as leaving positions unfilled and streamlining technical operations.