For years now, headlines of newsroom layoffs have illustrated a dire state of affairs for today's world of journalism, and a 16-month study recently released by the Pew Research Center suggests the hits aren’t letting up anytime soon.
 |
Pew’s recent study, which compiled layoff data occurring at the largest U.S. daily newspapers and digital-native news outlets between Jan. 1, 2017, and April 30, 2018, found that a sizable share of both our largest print and digital outlets publishers to exhibit massive job cuts.
Of the 110 daily papers included in Pew’s study, 36 percent (or 40 newspaper companies) were found to have enacted layoffs between January ’17 and April ’18, with at least a dozen experiencing more than one round.
Newsroom employees at newspapers counted 39,000 jobs last year, according to Pew, compared to 46,000 positions in 2014.
Among newspapers, the largest in the country — those boasting a circulation of at least 250,000 — were most likely to have experienced layoffs. According to Pew’s findings, nine of the 16 newspapers with circulations of 250,000 or more (56 percent) experienced layoffs during the 16-month study period, as did 16 of the 44 newspapers with circulations between 100,000 and 249,999 (36 percent) and 15 of the 50 newspapers with circulations between 50,000 and 99,999 (30 percent).
 |
Big cuts affected the digital world as well, where at least 23 percent of the highest-traffic digital-native news outlets in the country experienced layoffs between January 2017 and April 2018.
One silver lining can be found in the fact that the digital-native news sector gained about 2,000 newsroom jobs between 2014 and 2017. Unfortunately, these small gains weren’t nearly enough to offset the staff positions lost in the print world, which saw roughly 7,000 jobs cut during that same three-year period.
Pew’s analysis examined layoff-related data from 145 news outlets, including 110 newspapers with a circulation of at least 50,000 and 35 digital-native news outlets with a monthly average of at least 10 million unique visitors. Articles analyzed didn’t always mention the kinds of positions eliminated, so the layoffs analyzed in Pew’s study were not necessarily always newsroom employees.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is being bought by the Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism, a nonprofit that is the parent organization of the Baltimore Banner... The British Broadcasting Corporation is axing approximately 2,000 jobs, about 10 percent of its work force... Snap, the company behind Snapchat, is also succumbing to layoff fever, announcing plans to lay off 16 percent of its employees, about 1,000 people.
CBS News Radio will go off the air on May 22, part of the axe-swinging managerial plan put into play by CBS editor-in-chief Bari Weiss... The Economist, which was first published in 1843, is changing hands. Canadian billionaire Stephen Smith has agreed to acquire a 26.9 percent stake in the publication from Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, her family and family foundation... Nexstar Media Group says it has closed its acquisition of TEGNA, the broadcast, digital media and marketing services company that was formed in 2015, when the Gannett Company split into two publicly traded companies.
USA TODAY brings on Jamie Stockwell as VP of news, effective March 30. Stockwell was most recently deputy managing editor of news for the Washington Post... YouTube expands its likeness detection capabilities to a pilot group of government officials, journalists and political candidates... The AP Fund for Journalism adds 50 news organizations to its local news program, bringing the total number of participating newsrooms to 100. 
Versant Media Group, the NBCUniversal cable TV spin-off, today reported its first financial results as 2025 revenues dipped 5.3 percent to $6.7B and standalone EBITDA dropped 9.1 percent to $2.2B.
Trump Media & Technology Group is discussing a spin-off of the Truth Social platform following the expected closing of its $6B merger deal with TAE Technologies... Condé Nast sells off Them, the digital LGBTQ-focused platform it launched in 2017, to Equalpride, publisher of Out, The Advocate, Out Traveler, Health PLUS Wellness and Pride.com... CBS News has parted ways with longevity influencer Peter Attia, one of the 19 contributors that editor-in-chief Bari Weiss brought on as part of her plan to present a wider variety of voices on the platform. 
