A number of US media outlets, including CNN and the Washington Post, have announced the dismissal of staff this winter in response to concerns about an economic break-down.
On Friday, Vox Media, which owns the landmark New York Magazine and its online platforms as well as the websites Vox and The Verge, made the announcement that 7 percent of its employees would be repatriated. “The difficult decision to eliminate roughly seven percent of our staff roles across departments due to the challenging economic environment impacting our business and industry,” Vox Media CEO Jim Bankoff announced in a memo to employees on Friday. Vox Media confirmed the message to AFP, stating that the affected employees would be informed of their dismissal within 15 minutes.
That amounts to roughly 130 of the 1,900 employees in the group will be layoff. On Friday, award-winning journalist Meghan McCarron tweeted that she had been laid-off from Eater, the Vox Media-owned food website, even though she was 37 weeks pregnant.
ALSO READ: Russia vows further media restrictions after EU court ban RT Channel
According to a 2021 study by the Pew Research Center, newsroom employment in the United States has been steadily declining, falling from 114,000 to 85,000 journalists between 2008 and 2020, with local media being particularly hard hit. The Writers Guild of America, East, stated in a statement to AFP that “a number of businesses seem to believe this is an opportune time to reduce their labor costs – hurting both journalists and journalism.” Journalism has been under pressure for a long time. NBC and MSNBC journalists are members of the union. According to US media, the two outlets, which declined an AFP request for comment, said goodbye to approximately 75 employees.
As part of what executive editor Sally Buzbee referred to in a memo as the newspaper’s “global and digital transformation,” The Washington Post Magazine, the Sunday supplement that won two Pulitzer prizes, was shut down in December; additionally, Vice Media CEO Nancy Dubuc informed her employees on Friday that the business is for sale.
According to US media, CNN has reportedly laid off several hundred employees out of a total of approximately 4,000. According to Roush from Quinnipiac University, the changes were particularly difficult for smaller media. He also stated that CNN and the Washington Post aren’t going away, but a smaller company has bigger problems because it’s smaller and hasn’t been around as long as a media brand.
