Working In Media: Tension, Pressure, Pain

Michael Hedges January 18, 2023 Follow on Twitter

The media sector is shedding jobs. The tech sector, too, is downsizing. The reasons are similar, yet different. Three years retail workers found themselves on the street. All types of employers balance the books, figuratively, on the shoulders of normal people doing reasonably normal tasks day in and day out. When times are good, they are hiring. When caution prevails, red lights start flashing. This year, even banks are cutting jobs.

There were headlines earlier this month as the Dow Jones Company announced layoffs across the company. In a “reorganization” 22 employees would be left go. “Double digits,” noted Reuters (January 11), though none would come from the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) newsroom. Dow Jones publishes the WSJ, Barron’s and MarketWatch and is a division of News Corp, principally owned by the Murdoch family. Dow Jones has about 8,000 employees.

The media sector, broadly, has been shrinking staff since 2020, the apex of the coronavirus pandemic. In a report released earlier this month by US outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas, 3,774 US media sector jobs were lost in 2022, down 5% one year on. In 2020 16,000 US newsroom jobs and 14,000 related media jobs were lost.

UK publisher Reach announced 200 job cuts at Daily Express and Daily Mirror, in a statement quoted by the Financial Times (January 11)). The publisher cited falling ad revenues. In December Reach, known as Trinity Mirror until 2018, indicated it would expand US publishing, opening a New York office, noted Press Gazette (December 8), with about 100 employees for the two tabloids and the Irish Star.

“Reach’s announcement of big job cuts – on top of the shedding of journalists’ roles around the group over the last few months of 2022 – has come as a grim and unwelcome start to the new year,” said National Union of Journalists (NUJ) coordinator Chris Morley in a statement (January 11). “We are today urgently seeking more clarity on these proposals and where the company thinks it can make cuts without harming its core business. Our members are clear that for the company to succeed, it must protect the creation of quality journalism and original content and that means limiting as much as possible any cuts to editorial staffing.”

Three significant publishers in Poland - Agora, Burda Media Polska and Ringier Axel Springer Polska (RASP) - announced collectively major staff changes at the end of last October. “Black Friday,” shouted Polish media news portal Press PL (October 28), at 250 media workers shed. Agora laid off 5% of full-time staff, RASP 8% and Burda closed four magazines. "Due to economic and financial factors, (including) the economic crisis caused by the conflict in Ukraine, resulting in, among others, an increase in paper prices and due to unfavorable forecasts regarding the development of the economy in the coming quarters, changes in the organizational structure of the company are required,” said the Agora statement.

NBCUniversal (NBCU) is also headed for job cuts at television networks NBC News and MSNBC, reported Deadline (January 13). About 75 workers will likely be impacted. "After 5 years at NBC News, today I got laid off,” wrote business and tech producer Ezra Kaplan on social media. “It's been a helluva run. I am so grateful for the relationships I have built and the reporting we have produced.”

All of the aforementioned pails in comparison to the massive Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) restructuring during the recent few months. Entire divisions have been shuttered. Granted, the acquisition from telecom AT&T handed chief executive David Zaslav is a true challenge. The iconic CNN subsidiary has been going through rolling staff changes, particularly in the sports departments. Headline News (HLN) was shuttered. Then WBD said it would vacate the Atlanta CNN headquarters.

“This is one of the most downbeat starts of the year, certainly from a business prospects point of view,” wrote Reuters Institute principal researcher Nic Newman in his annual newsroom predictions (January 9). “Having said that, these things are never quite as bad as people think,” he added, not wanting to be the Grim Reaper. “A lot of businesses over the last few years have really built up sustainable paths to profitability.”

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