Commentary
Slowdown In J-Town: Hundreds Of Reporters Are Now Losing Their Jobs
- by Ray Schultz , Columnist, January 28, 2024
Business Insider, the financial news product owned by Axel Springer, is among the latest news operations to taste layoffs.
The organization announced last Thursday that it was cutting up to a tenth of its workforce, according to Financial Times. Other reports put it at 8%.
This follows a week in which Los Angeles Times dispensed with roughly 115 people, over 20% of its newsroom staff; Sports Illustrated cut another 100 or so people, raising questions about its very survival; and Time eliminated a more modest 30 jobs.
Moreover, there were protest walkouts at Forbes, New York Daily News, Condé Nast and Los Angeles Times, involving hundreds of staffers.
“Bosses get Prada, workers get nada,” said one protest sign seen outside Condé Nast.
“Alden To News: Drop Dead,” said a poster carried by a New York Daily News striker, which played off the famous 1975 News headline, “Ford to City: Drop Dead.”
advertisement
advertisement
The big shots were criticized even for their manner of conducting the layoffs. Case in point: Anna Wintour allegedly wore sunglasses while laying off the Pitchfork staff last week. And some L.A. Times employees were laid off via social media, according to claims made to Fox Business.
Together, these events form a “Media Apocalypse,” New York Magazine said in a headline.
Even the so-called heroes like Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos come under fire.
“The cuts at The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times signal that even billionaires — who have at times been viewed as potential saviours to beleaguered news groups — will not tolerate extended financial losses,” Financial Times writes.
This report adds that US newsroom employment dropped 26% between 2008 and 2020, according to Pew Research Center.
The question is: is there a future for publishing? And is there really an “apocalypse?” among media firms?
Why not ask the same thing of technology companies — like Salesforce, which dispensed with 700 people last week, and Google, which has cut 1,000 since Jan. 10, according to The Verge?
Like those firms, some publishers may have over-hired at times. But this doesn’t excuse the newsroom-gutting that routinely goes on at publications owned by the big combines like Alden.
It seems odd that the press, marching in lockstep, chooses this moment to declare the death of the news business.
Maybe they’re just worried.
Ray Schultz is the former editor of DM News, Chief Marketer, Direct, Circulation Management and other marketing titles.
It may have something to do with the political focus of the publications. It seems that all the publications having these layoffs are liberal and/or leftist organizations that have lost their objectivity when it comes to reporting the news.
They adopt a woke culture perspective, deny there are only two genders, demean women by saying a man who says he's a woman is a woman, and call anyone who supports conservative values a MAGA terrorist. Those positions alienate a large majority of their readership. At the same time conservative news organizations are flourishing and paid readership is expanding at many of those organizations.
I don't think those conservative organizations are hiring candidates who believe a man can be a woman, Joe Biden is a great President, and there no southern border crisis.