This piece is by WWSG exclusive thought leader, Sara Fischer.
A slew of cuts announced Tuesday suggest the media industry’s struggle to regain the advertising and subscription momentum lost during the Biden era will persist for the foreseeable future.
Why it matters: The rapid rise of AI-riven search engines and an unpredictable economy only threaten to disrupt the ecosystem even further. Publishers are trying to get ahead.
Driving the news: The Tampa Bay Times on Tuesday said it needs to reduce payroll by 20% as part of a wider set of cost-cutting measures. The newspaper will offer buyouts to its roughly 270 full-time employees, it said, which includes about 100 journalists in the newsroom.
Zoom in: Layoffs and various cost-cutting measures impacting jobs have impacted nearly every major publication this year, including CNN, Warner Bros Discovery, The Messenger, Sports Illustrated, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Engadget, Intercept, Bustle Digital Group, Vice Media, The Daily Beast, BuzzFeed, NowThis, Paramount, Disney, TechCrunch, Forbes, Insider and others.
The big picture: A slowdown in the ad market has had an outsized impact on publishers who can’t compete with Big Tech on low-cost advertising placements.
Between the lines: More newsrooms are trying to cut costs while shifting focus to premium products, like events, that don’t compete with Big Tech firms for ad dollars.
The bottom line: “Media companies of the future will be leaner, more demanding of distinctiveness, more indispensable to their audience and advertisers,” VandeHei wrote in a staff memo. “There will be no market for mediocrity, or widely known, or fine-but-not-essential content or work.”
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