Journalism Layoffs
The IIJ Foundation’s Journalism Layoffs Census aims to uncover patterns in layoffs and buyouts within the journalism industry, focusing on demographics such as race, gender, disability, and age. This project is essential to hold newsrooms accountable for their commitment to diversity goals, aiming to understand diversity in journalism and the impact of force reductions. Results will be published in Nieman Reports and through the IIJ.
If you've experienced a layoff or buyout or want to contribute to the project, please email us at census@theiij.com. You can take the census survey here.
To stay updated on the project, subscribe to the IIJ’s email list.
2024 Journalism Layoffs
Apr. 24 - WBUR, a NPR affiliate, announces plans to lay off 14% of staff, through buyouts and layoffs.
Apr. 10 - The Wall Street Journal lays off another 11 staffers.
Mar. 11 - G/O Media sells Deadspin and lays off entire staff.
Feb. 23 - WAMU lays off 15 staffers and announces plans to shut down local news site DCist.
Feb. 22 - Vice Media to lay off several hundred positions and likely sell Refinery29.
Feb. 22 - Engadget lays off 10 people, including top editors, and restructures editorial team.
Feb. 21 - Reckon News laid off an undisclosed number of employees.
Feb. 21 - Buzzfeed announces plans to lay off 16% of workforce, and closes sale of Complex.
Feb. 16 - Law360 laid off 10% of newsroom staff.
Feb. 15 - NowThis laid off 50% of staff, including 26 union members.
Feb. 15 - The Intercept announced a layoff of 15 employees.
Feb. 13 - CBS News laid off 20 staffers, as part of broader layoffs at Paramount Global.
Feb. 12 - Bustle Digital Group laid off all seven employees on the Fatherly team.
Feb. 2 - The Wall Street Journal laid off roughly 20 staffers.
Jan. 31 - The Messenger closed down, ending employment for about 300 people.
Jan. 25 - Forbes lays off 3% of staff, as union organizes three-day walkout protest.
Jan. 29 - TechCrunch laid off around eight staff members.
Jan. 25 - Business Insider laid off 22 unionized employees and many nonunion employees.
Jan. 23 - TIME Magazine laid off roughly 30 employees.
Jan. 23 - The Los Angeles Times announced plans to lay off at least 115 employees.
Jan. 23 - Condé Nast announced it would lay off 94 unionized members.
Jan. 19 - Sports Illustrated announced a layoff of many, possibly all, employees.
Jan. 16 - Univision laid off approximately 200 employees.
Jan. 11 - Arizent announced a layoff of editorial staffers.
Jan. 11 - NBC News implemented layoffs affecting dozens of staffers.
Jan. 7 - Audacy announced plans to file for bankruptcy.
Jan. 2 - The Messenger will lay off about 24 employees according to a person with knowledge of the decision.
2023 Journalism Layoffs
Nov. 30 - Popular Science shut down its digital magazine, resulting in the layoff of 13 journalists.
Nov. 30 - Vox Media announced it is cutting about 4% of its workforce in its second round of layoffs this year.
Nov. 9 - Vice Media shut down several shows and laid off dozens of employees from its news division.
Nov. 1 - Condé Nast, owner of Vogue, The New Yorker, Wired and Vanity Fair, announced it will cut about 5 percent of its over 5000 person staff as part of upcoming restructuring.
Oct. 18 - Google cut an estimated 40 to 45 jobs from its news division.
Oct. 10 - The Washington Post offered buyouts in hopes of cutting about 9.6% of total staff, or 240 positions. CEO Patty Stonesifer hopes to avoid “more difficult actions such as layoffs.”
Sept. 26 - New York Public Radio announced a cut of about 12% of its total workforce. President and CEO LaFontaine Oliver states they are “battling economic headwinds on multiple fronts.”
Sept. 20 - The City, a non-profit newsroom, cut staff hours by 20%.
Aug. 31 - Barstool Sports laid off approximately 25% of its staff, or 100 employees. Owner Dave Portnoy said the company needs to “break even.”
Aug. 25 - Futuro Media announced layoffs following “months of economic uncertainty,” prompting editorial editor Fernando Santos to resign.
Aug. 23 - The Texas Tribune cut 11 employees and placed two of its podcasts on hiatus, citing an upcoming “tough budget year” in 2024.
Aug. 15 - The Metropolitan Opera Guild ended its 87 year old publication, Opera News.
Aug. 14 - CoinDesk, a news outlet specializing in cryptocurrency, cut 18 people from its editorial staff.
July 27 - Entertainment Tonight laid off about 10% of its staff, or 20 employees, as part of a “small restructuring of staff.”
July 20 - Hearst Magazines, whose publications include Cosmopolitan, Elle, and Seventeen, cut 41 employees.
June 29 - ESPN cut 20 on-camera positions and canceled a morning radio show.
June 27 - National Geographic, according to senior writers Craig Welch and Doug Main, laid off all of its staff writers.
June 26 - Grazia, an Italian fashion magazine, shut down its U.S. publication.
June 24 - The Hollywood Reporter laid off at least people.
June 22 - Bloomberg cut about 10 people from its national news desk, radio and television staff.
June 22 - Cheddar News laid off about 12 employees. The company cites a “challenging advertising environment.”
June 20 - Warner Bros. Discovery laid off about 100 employees from its cable networks, following the merger of Discovery and AT&T-owned Warner Media.
June 14 - Bell Canada Enterprises eliminated 1,300 positions, or 3% of its staff, in addition to closing or selling nine radio stations.
June 13 - Southern California Public Radio cut 28% of company positions, or 21 people. CEO Herb Scannell attributed this decision to a decrease in studio advertising.
June 12 - Dot.LA, a company covering Los Angeles-based startups, cut all seven members of its editorial staff.
June 12 - The Athletic, acquired by The New York Times last year, cut 20 positions, or 4% of its workforce. 20 reporters were also moved to different beats.
June 9 - Morning Consult, which specializes in polling and data reporting, closed its newsroom and cut seven of its editorial staff.
June 7 - The Los Angeles Times cut 74 positions due to the “economic climate and the unique challenges of our industry.”
June 6 - Bustle Digital Group, which owns lifestyle brands Nylon, Bustle and Inverse, laid off 5% of its staff, or 21 employees, citing struggles with advertising.
June 5 - Spotify cut 200 employees, or 2% of its workforce, following about 600 layoffs earlier in the year.
May 19 - Fox News dissolved its investigative unit and laid off three staffers.
May 9 - Paramount Media Networks shut down MTV News and announced it would cut 25% of its staff due to“pressure from broader headwinds.”
April 27 - Vice Media laid off 6%, or more than 100 of its employees, as well as shutting down its Vice World News brand, following years of financial challenges.
April 24 - ESPN cut an unspecified number of employees. The layoffs mostly impacted management positions, including some who oversaw the ESPN+ streaming platform.
April 20 - Buzzfeed shut down Buzzfeed News, laying off about 15% of all staff.
April 20 - Insider Inc. cut an estimated 10% of its staff.
March 30 - ABC News laid off 50 people as part of a larger Disney restructuring.
March 29 - Salem Media Group, a Christian radio broadcaster, laid off 43 employees, or 3% of its staff.
March 27 - The Texas Observer’s staff of 17 was able to reverse an impending shutdown, after appealing to the Texas Democracy Foundation’s board and setting up an emergency GoFundMe page.
March 23 - NPR laid off 100 employees and canceled four podcasts—Invisibilia, Louder Than a Riot, Rough Translation and Everyone and Their Mom.
March 21 - New England Public Media laid off 17 employees—20% of its staff— after facing “serious financial headwinds during the last three years.”
March 19 - Sea Coast Media, owned by Gannett, laid off 34 people and shut down a printing press, as part of Gannet’s efforts to prioritize digital platforms.
Feb. 26 - The Birmingham News, The Huntsville Times and the Press-Register laid off 100 people due to a prolonged decline in print paper readership.
Feb. 17 - WNYC, a New York public radio station, canceled 15 year old radio show The Takeaway, resulting in 12 job losses.
Feb. 9 - News Corp, owner of the Wall Street Journal and HarperCollins publishers, reportedly expects to lay off 1,250 people across all platforms by the end of the year.
Jan. 24 - The Washington Post laid off 20 people and shut down its video game and kids sections.
Jan. 23 - Adweek, a marketing trade publication, laid off 14 staff members.
Jan. 21 - Vox Media, owner of The Verge, SB Nation and New York Magazine, laid off 7% of its staff, or 133 people.
Jan. 19 - Fandom laid off less than 50 people at GameSpot, Giant Bomb, Metacritic and TV Guide, just a few months after acquiring the four outlets.
Jan. 13 - The Medford, an Oregon-based Mail Tribune, shut down its digital publication. An undisclosed number were laid off, with severance packages requiring a non-disclosure agreement.
Jan. 12 - As part of a larger corporate restructuring, NBC News and MSNBC laid off 75 employees.
Jan. 4 - Gannett laid off 108 people following the closures of printing presses in Greece and New York, as part of an increased focus on online journalism.
Jan. 4 - Gannett laid off 50 employees at an Indiana printing press.
Layoffs Tracker
The Census Team
Katherine Reynolds Lewis is an award-winning science journalist covering children, behavioral and mental health, education, race, gender, disability, and related topics for the Atlantic, Fortune, New York Times, Undark, and Washington Post. Her book, The Good News About Bad Behavior, grew out of Mother Jones’ most-read story. She’s the founder of the Institute for Independent Journalists, whose mission is the financial and emotional sustainability of freelancers of color. A columnist for Nieman Reports on media careers and equity in journalism, she has taught courses or lectured at the journalism schools of American University, Marquette University, Northwestern University, the University of Southern California, and the University of Texas, Austin. Fellowships include O’Brien Public Service and MIT Knight Science Journalism. A Harvard physics graduate, Katherine is a former national correspondent for Newhouse and Bloomberg News.
Cam Rodriguez is a data and investigative journalist based out of Chicago. She currently works for the Illinois Answers Project as a data reporter, and in the past has reported with teams at Chalkbeat, USA TODAY, WTTW/Chicago PBS, South Side Weekly, Voice of San Diego, and others. Cam received degrees in journalism and geography from DePaul University, and while there, managed its award-winning student magazine, 14 East.
Adrian D. Garcia is the associate editor of data visualization within the Financial Time's Money-Media division. He has been with the company since January 2020 and was previously a data reporter and analyst for Bankrate in New York. During the fall, Adrian serves as an adjunct instruct for an intro data journalism course at the City University of New York's Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism. His work includes working with survey data, conducting data analysis and building a wide range of visualizations. Adrian graduated with a journalism degree from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2014. He participated in ProPublica's inaugural summer data institute in 2016 and the SABEW Goldschmidt Data Immersion Training in 2019.
Lam Thuy Vo is a journalist who marries data analysis with on-the-ground reporting to examine how systems and policies affect individuals. She is currently a reporter with The Markup and is an associate professor of data journalism at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism.
Grace Lee is a California-based writer and editor whose work has appeared in Teen Vogue, Bustle, L.A. Times HSI, and more on culture, politics, and education. She is the editorial assistant for the Institute for Independent Journalists and the IIJ Foundation.
