CNN, VoxMedia, washington post… the winter is marked by a new series of layoffs in the American media, a trend which continues against the backdrop of a gloomy economic climate.
“I am part of the group licensed by @NBCInvestigates (NBC) […] I will miss it, but I am grateful for the time spent here. »
Like Emily Siegel, who did not wish to speak in detail after this tweet On Wednesday, several journalists from the editorial staff of NBC, the channel of the same MSNBC group or even CNN took the lead and announced on social networks their dismissal since December.
Journalism has long been under pressure, and a number of companies seem to think now is the right time to cut their labor costs.
Friday is at Vox Media, owner of the Vox, The Verge, SBNation sites and since 2019 of the prestigious New YorkMagazinethat employees received a same email from their boss, Jim Bankoff, announcing “the difficult decision to cut approximately 7% of our staff in all departments”, including the editorial, “due to a difficult economic environment “.
The employees concerned, around 130 out of 1,900, were informed by a second message “within 15 minutes”, according to this email.
Several of them have testified on social networks to their anger or their dismay, such as Meghan McCarron, journalist for “nine and a half years” on the site specializing in catering Eater, and dismissed at “37 weeks” of pregnancy. Vox Media replied to Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the group was offering “competitive severance pay”, including additional weeks of compensation in the event of imminent parental leave.
If the layoffs do not have the scope of the social plans of large tech groups like Google on Friday (12,000 jobs cut), the American media are also affected by “the drop in advertising revenues and the slowdown in the economy. “, explains to AFP Chris Roush, professor of journalism and dean of the School of communication at Quinnipiac University.
“A lot of them have grown and developed in hopes of growing their audiences to a certain level. This has not happened and is unlikely to happen given the economic context,” he adds.
environment under pressure
Newsroom employment has suffered a long decline in the United States, from 114,000 to 85,000 journalists between 2008 and 2020, according to a study by the Pew Research Center in 2021. With a steeper decline in local press .
“Journalism has long been under pressure, and a number of companies seem to think now is the right time to cut their labor costs,” lamented the Writers Guild of America East union, which oversees the NBC and MSNBC unions. Within the two media, which did not respond to AFP, 75 employees were dismissed, according to American media.
An announcement is also dreaded at washington postwhere publication director Fred Ryan warned in mid-December that job cuts would take place in the first quarter of 2023, representing “a single-digit percentage” of the 2,500 employees, but without “net reduction in workforce” .
The editorial staff of the daily bought in 2013 by Jeff Bezos had already learned of the end, for Christmas 2022, of the Sunday magazine supplement, winner of two Pulitzer Prizes in 2008 and 2010.
At CNN, the total layoffs in December would have reached several hundred employees according to American media (out of more than 4,000), figures not confirmed by the chain. They took place as part of a reorganization after the merger between WarnerMedia (CNN, HBO Max) and Discovery, which formed media and streaming giant Warner Bros. Discovery.
Witnessing the strategic turmoil, in April, the group had abandoned its paid streaming service CNN+, only a month after its launch.
With viewers and paid cable subscribers declining for years and competition from platforms like Netflix, “it’s a constant struggle for these companies to hold on,” said Naveen Sarma, director of US media and telecoms at S&P Global. Ratings.
For Chris Roush, CNN or the washington post, “those won’t go away, but a smaller company will have more problems, because they’re smaller and not as established as a media brand,” he explains. He cites in particular Buzzfeed, which laid off 12% of its employees in December, or Vice Media, whose general manager, Nancy Dubuc, announced to its employees on Friday that it was considering selling the group.