The expected “bad winter” for media companies and their employees has arrived early. This week, a number of major outlets announced layoffs, print cuts, job freezes and other measures to deal with declining advertising revenues and annual losses. CNN, under pressure from Par company Warner Bros. Discovery — which posted a net loss of $2.3 billion in its most recent quarter — began Wednesday and Thursday with “the deepest network cuts in nearly a decade,” according to media reporter Oliver Darcywho reported that the expected cuts “will cause some on-air contributors and hundreds of staffers to lose their jobs.” CNN boss Chris Light said in one memo for all employees that those notified on Wednesday were largely paid contributors and that “affected employees” would hear in person or via Zoom on Thursday. Among the big names affected was a political analyst Chris Cillizza, per Deadline, a senior editor who wrote The Point newsletter, as well as prominent on-air contributors Susan Glasser of the New Yorker and Jonathan Martin from politics, per Puk.
“It’s incredibly hard to say goodbye to one member of the CNN team, let alone many,” Licht wrote. “Let’s take care of each other this week.” In October, Licht announced that the network would stop buying documentaries and movies. original TV series as part of its cost-cutting efforts, and in September it laid off some audio team staffers as part of a divisional refocus.
CNN wasn’t alone in cutting staff. Gannett also began its latest round of layoffs and furloughs on Thursday — Gannett’s third cost cut in the past six months, Poynter notes. , which would amount to about 200 lost jobs. That comes on top of mandatory unpaid leave and cuts to benefits imposed by the company in October. Washington Post executive editor Sally Buzzbee also informed the staff that the after would “end print Sunday Magazine as it stands”, pointing out that “we will be moving some of the most popular content and adding more in a revived style section to be launched in the coming months.” The magazine’s 10 employees learned that their positions had been eliminated in a meeting, according to Sara Ellisonwho reported that “Buzbee did not offer laid-off staff other roles within the newspaper.” afterThe weekly—which Buzbee endorsed this year in a town hall—began in 1986 and won a National Magazine Award and two Pulitzers. Washington Post stories that attracted the most online readers over the past year were produced by the magazine,” Ellison noted.
Other outlets appear to be staving off layoffs with other cost-cutting measures. In November, Insider reported that The Associated Press is offering about 200 senior staffers early retirement, a chance to take their retirement at once that an AP representative framed as “an opportunity for some workers to receive a new form of their benefits and for the AP to reinvest any savings in people, technology and infrastructure.”
Meanwhile, at NPR, chief executive John Lansing announced this week that the network would need to cut at least $10 million in spending amid a sharp drop in sponsorship revenues and that it would, among other things, impose “near total staff freeze” to help cut costs. prioritizing our staff and not anticipating layoffs at this time,” Lansing wrote in a memo to staff. NPR media correspondent David Folkenflick reported that there are currently 137 job openings with the network, about 11% of the workforce. Lansing said NPR’s decision stemmed from “a slowdown in the advertising market, just like any other media company.”
The deluge of bad media news comes on the heels of other plans for deep budget cuts. “Digital entrants are particularly vulnerable to ad delays because digital ad contracts are much easier to win at the last minute than television ad contracts,” says Axios. Sarah Fischer reported last week in an overview of expected layoffs in the media. Morning Brew cited “a lot of fear and uncertainty” in the economy among advertisers in a note announcing that 14% of staff would be laid off, Vice Media plan to cut costs by “up to 15%,” and Protocol, Politico’s new tech news site, is closing altogether at the end of the year.
