2024 Begins with Massive Journalism Layoffs

January was a devastating month for news media in the US. At the beginning of the year, NBC News announced they would cut 50 to 100 jobs. Sports Illustrated was decimated by widespread layoffs. Business Insider announced they were cutting eight per cent of its staff, after 10 per cent was laid off in 2023. The move even has potential for the entire staff to be gone within three months. Though, in comparison, only 12 staffers were laid off at Pitchfork, this came in a move that would see it folded under the GQ label. The biggest bombshell came when the Los Angeles Times announced they were laying off 115 workers in their newsroom. That's 20 per cent.

The factors that are pushing these outlets to cut substantial staff members are industry wide. Sports Illustrated, for instance, was caught publishing articles written by AI late last year. Shortly before it was announced the Los Angeles Times would cut 20 per cent of its news room, a prominent editor resigned before his contract was up due to conflicting interests.

In the L.A. Times case, it's important to note that one of the disputes was over a decision to ask journalists who signed a letter condemning Israel's actions in Gaza to recuse themselves. Ironically, the owner of the paper, billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong, disagreed with the decision. This is a rare situation where the decision of the editors was in contrast with not only the public, but the capitalist owner of his workplace. Regardless, the paper's money situation was at the forefront of the tension.

Then, right on the last day of the month, The Messenger, a news digital news startup that launched with $50 million in February of 2023, announced it was shutting down. Staff was informed an hour after the decision was made, and the site closed down quickly after. Though The Messenger had fundamental problems in its premise and operation, it's further proof that the simple concept of "news" isn't a viable model for reporting anymore.

While January was particularly damaging to journalism, it's merely the continuation of the pattern set in 2023. Canada wasn't spared in the slightest. Most notably, Bell Media cut 1,300 jobs in June of 2023, shuttering multiple radio stations.

This is in addition to the fact that the Canadian news industry is already being hammered by the fallout of Bill C-18. Originally, The Catch was going to publish a piece examining how the Trudeau Liberals are functionally defunding the CBC. Ten per cent of their workers will be laid off. They had to cut their New Year's Eve programming due to lack of funds. The two topics are inextricably linked.

Like most things down south, what effects the US journalism industry will inevitably ripple throughout the Canadian context. In truth, this is just the tip of the iceberg. As Sports Illustrated showed, AI is beginning to have its effects on reporting in the industry revealed. 404 Media reported that AI content that stole its reporting from other news sites was being shown on Google News over their original sources.

I don't mean to be cute when I say the news doesn't look good. Though this must be recognized, there are promising changes in the margins. 404 Media was founded by four journalists who were laid off from Vice's tech division Motherboard. They put it succinctly in a recent piece about why they're requesting email addresses to read their articles. They evaluate the harm of AI, the precariousness of news media in general, and, relevant here, discuss the payment model that dominated the space until very recently. I encourage you to read the whole piece. It's seriously worth your time, but here's what they have to say about their move to register emails:

When sites like Buzzfeed, Gawker, and VICE were growing, there was the pervasive dream that it would be possible to make huge sums of money by simply getting as many pageviews as possible and advertising against it. Overall, this strategy has not worked for a variety of systemic, technological, and mismanagement reasons, as evidenced by the fact that nearly every digital media company that chased scale has lost vast sums of money, have collectively laid off thousands of talented journalists, and have watched ad revenues dry up as Facebook and Google dominate the industry and ad-tech platforms systematically drive down rates on good journalism with concepts like “brand safety.” While we would like as many people as possible to read our articles and for the experience to be as frictionless as possible, we are unwilling to make the exact same mistakes as failing media companies that have convinced both readers and their staffs that their work is worthless and their labor is expendable and interchangeable.

Make no mistake, there are still good outlets doing good journalism. 404 Media, of course, being one of them in the US. Readers will also be familiar with some of my recommendations, The Breach, The Narwhal, The Tyee, and outlets I've previously written for like rabble, The Maple and Ricochet. But these small independent outlets can't carry the burden of reporting in an entire country. Journalists looking to get into the industry will have less opportunities to hone their abilities in the daily routine of a full-time journalism job. With the prospect of a comfortable living falling through the cracks, most people interested in journalism will discard the thought after seeing the state of the industry. These independent outlets will still do necessary work. But it's an unfortunate truth that a falling tide lowers all ships.

Whether we like it or not, news in 2024, especially on the internet, is not in the same place as it was in the 2010s. It's undeniably worse, and the investors and companies that banked on profits are now choosing the next best option: gutting their companies and selling them for parts.

In the 20th century, newspapers and television news could pay for themselves through direct sales and ads. This created profits and allowed the funding of real investigative work. The primary purpose of this investigative work was to create more profits. While this era still had obvious problems with capitalist dynamics affecting framing and coverage, news could, at the very least, be a viable opportunity to create profit. This profit allowed institutions to run, and facilitated at least a steady stream of good reporting. Good stories meant more papers sold. This also meant sensationalism also ran rampant, but the two phenomena are not mutually exclusive.

Obviously, this isn't the case anymore. Since the proliferation of the internet, it was inevitable that news would become free to read in some form. Like the golden days of music downloading, people will always find a way to access their desired media for free. That genie can't be put back in the bottle. That, alongside the profit-motive inherent to capitalism, has put journalism in a difficult spot. Dwindling profits from a shrinking base of paying consumers and minuscule ad revenue from savvy readership that either installs ad blockers, or knows not to click any ads, have decimated the industry's tried and true income sources. Now, AI scrapers ripping good journalism to feed the machine are only worsening the problem.

These factors, however, are only an issue if you are a citizen hoping to be (at least somewhat) informed about the world in which you live. For billionaire owners, corporations and politicians, the slow prolonged death of journalism is reason to rejoice. Less scrutiny over your decisions? Less people able to earn a living delving into your business dealings? Less cross-examination by the public? Why, exactly, would a competent "fifth estate" be something worth pursuing for these powerful actors?

Journalism is as flawed as every other industry in capitalist society. The purpose of this newsletter is to help examine and explain why that is, hopefully resulting in cultivating a critical eye. But this is done not to tear down journalism as a medium. Reporting allows for wider dissemination of complicated issues, and up-to-date information that affects the lives of the public. The framing of these issues and topics is almost always flawed, as The Catch has spent its life explaining, but without this coverage, we wouldn't have any reliable information needed to approach the world. This is the contradiction that paints the window we have into our society. The view is distorted and warped, but eyeglasses can allow you to adjust.

Right now? That window is slowly being filled with bricks. No glasses can see through that. Even if the entire window isn't covered, enough will be obscured to hide the train headed our way. That isn't good for any of us.