The journalism industry continues its downward spiral that started in 2023, as the Los Angeles Times laid off almost 25% of its staff on Jan 23. Taken together with cuts the paper made last year as well as cuts made at Time magazine, National Geographic, and Sports Illustrated, journalists on social media sounded the alarm that journalism is not dying; it is in fact dead.
As NPR reported, these layoffs, and in some cases the outright shuttering of publications altogether, are happening at an accelerated rate because owners of publications are focused on profitability. At the Times, the layoffs are particularly concerning because, as The Guardian reported, the cuts primarily affected writers of color.
The Los Angeles Times Guild, a union representing more than 450 editorial employees, released a statement calling attention to the composition of the layoffs and the paper’s choice to fire journalists via webinar.
“It also means the company has reneged on its promises to diversify its ranks since young journalists of color have been
disproportionately affected,” read the statement. “The Black, AAPI, and Latino Caucuses have suffered devastating losses. Voluntary buyouts could have helped prevent this but that’s not the path the company chose. A buyout process required by our Guild contract could still help offset these cuts.”The guild blames the paper’s management for trying to force journalists into agreeing to a deal without the ability to read it first.
“In his public comments, The Times’ owner has sought to shift the blame for these layoffs away from himself and onto the union. We wholeheartedly reject that. For one, it is the company that chose to lay people off, not the Guild. Secondly, management wanted the Guild to agree to extreme layoff terms that it was unwilling to share on the record—essentially asking journalists to sign a deal without telling them what was in that deal. Third, as part of this secretive deal, the company attempted to pit young journalists of color against more senior employees and gut seniority in the process. We didn’t—and won’t—stand for that.”
Unfortunately, the situation at the Times is not an outlier but follows a familiar pattern. Poynter. reported in December 2023 that the news media experienced 2,681 cuts, which is more than in the previous two years. According to an op-ed by Angela Fu, Ren LaForme, and Tom Jones, ownership at media companies like Lee Enterprises, the fourth largest newspaper chain in America, is concerned about maximizing profit, which often means laying off staff.
In October 2023, Lee Enterprises sold The Southern Illinoisan to Paxton Media Group, which immediately made plans to lay off the paper’s entire unionized staff. The unions issued a statement to Poynter. saying, “If this is the road Lee Enterprises intends to travel, where it guts newspaper holdings and passes on what’s left to disingenuous buyers who will disinvest in local news coverage, then all the communities where Lee owns news organizations have reason to fear for the future,” the unions wrote. “This is not a plan for long-term growth. In fact, it’s no kind of plan at all.”
In Nieman Labs’ roundup of predictions for journalism in 2024, Robert Hernandez, a professor of professional practice at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, explained why he believed that the industry’s push for profit would lead many to continue firing the wrong people.
As Hernandez explained, “We’ve all seen many of these leaders not only stay but get promoted — and in some cases be the authors of the memos announcing newsroom cuts. Everyone needs to roll up their sleeves to produce and fund journalism. If making money off journalism is your job, deliver or step aside. If they aren’t held accountable, the wrong people will be laid off again.”
In the same roundup, Amethyst J. Davis, founder of the Harvey World Herald, calls out funding efforts for the Black press, particularly those of Press Forward, which
has been criticized for a lack of equity in its fundraising by the National Association of Black Journalists and others. “What’s required of philanthropy in this moment—American newspapers dying out, this country deep-sliding into fascism, journalists killed at alarming rates overseas—extends beyond giving money,” Davis says.She continued, “The Black press is demanding structural change. Not lip service. No cap, we should also move the goal post. $500 million is the floor; truthfully, it’s not enough funds…To that end, I think funders should up their ambitions: $1 billion into local journalism nationwide.”
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