Online media, podcasts, and other forms of news are quickly replacing traditional media.
Many Americans are sick and tired of being fed a pack of lies whenever they pick up the newspaper, turn on the television, or scroll through a mainstream outlet’s website.
And now the media is in chaos as the first dominos of its demise seem to be falling into place.
Associated Press is reducing its workforce
The Associated Press (AP) was once the largest news publication in the world.
Now, the famous news organization says it plans to reduce its workforce by a staggering 8% and plans to offer buyouts to some eligible employees.
According to the News Media Guild union, 121 of its members would be offered buyouts, but it did not state the exact number of AP employees who would be let go.
The AP is attempting to rebrand itself as a digital-first news organization after it has experienced several business-related difficulties in recent years.
According to the publication, two major news organizations stopped buying news from the wire service, including McClatchy and Gannett, which has subscribed to AP for over 100 years.
Gannett is the publisher of USA Today and officially dropped the AP’s services in March.
AP President and CEO Daisy Veerasingham sent a memo to staff members, writing, “We all know this is a time of transformation in the media sector. Our customers – both who they are and what they need from us – are changing rapidly.”
“This is why we’ve focused on delivering a digital-first news report. We now need to accelerate on this path,” the memo continued.
The term “digital-first” means that the AP will shift more of its focus to visual storytelling by adding more dynamic elements of video, photojournalism, and digital content.
Most of the layoffs will happen in the United States, and less than half will be among its news employees, according to the organization.
The AP said anyone eligible for the buyout should hear from the organization this week.
The buyouts will include partial health coverage for 18 months and a severance check.
Other AP employees who are slated to lose their jobs minus a buyout will find out over the next few weeks.
The AP feels the pressure
According to the Associated Press, the company is “under financial pressure” after the aforementioned organizations stopped purchasing its news reports.
Initially, the AP banked on election coverage to give it a financial boost, but instead, it only sped up its plans to make cutbacks.
The company has not revealed how many people are on its payroll, so no one knows exactly how many will lose their jobs.
Even with some philanthropic funding, the AP hasn’t had enough revenue coming in to maintain the status quo.
However, the AP isn’t the only mainstream media outlet facing serious cuts and downsizing.
The New York Times, CNN, the Washington Post, Buzzfeed, and Axios have also been dealing with financial struggles amid declining ad revenues and slowing subscription growth.
Each of those organizations has also slashed jobs and made other cuts in recent months.
