The media industry's current round of cuts and consolidation is accelerating. Sizable layoffs at Buzzfeed, Gannett and Verizon Media (home of AOL, Yahoo, HuffPost and others) were announced Wednesday, totaling over 1,000 jobs cut.
Why it matters: If the headlines signal anything, it's that the news media will continue to struggle to find a sustainable business model in an advertising and attention ecosystem dominated by tech companies like Google, Facebook and Netflix.
By the numbers:
- Verizon Media will cut roughly 800 jobs, or 7% of its global workforce across the organization, as well as certain brands and products. Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg told Axios earlier this month that each of the company's three units, including the media business, needed to be able to stand on their own. (A company spokesperson later clarified to Axios that Verizon Media Group will still have access to Verizon customer data when customers opt in to provide such information.)
- Buzzfeed will cut roughly 250 jobs, or roughly 15% of its workforce, including jobs within its news division.
- Gannett cut over 20 jobs Wednesday, per Poynter, with more expected as the company tries to shed costs amid buyout talks.
[...] Bottom line: Many news companies are struggling to find sustainable business models in the digital era. There's no sign it's getting any easier.
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(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 25 2019, @03:21AM (1 child)
Did all the anonymous sources dry up or something?
(Score: 5, Funny) by hemocyanin on Friday January 25 2019, @07:57AM
Nah -- they just realized it doesn't take 100 people to make shit up. Just as easy to do it with 10.