- Media cuts have continued into 2023 after a year of layoffs throughout the industry.
- A pull-back of advertising tied to the declining economic outlook has affected all media.
- From tech disruptors like Netflix to legacy organizations like Disney, a range of companies are impacted.
In the past year, the media and tech jobs market has gone from hot to not. HR managers have gone from figuring out ways to lure employees to mass firings amid a general pull-back of ads tied to the declining economic outlook.
“The common wisdom is when the economic outlook turns bad, the very first thing to go is marketing and advertising,” Andy Challenger, SVP at outplacement and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, told Insider.
In all, 3,774 media jobs were lost in 2022, down 5% from the year before, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas. But in news alone, 1,808 jobs were cut in 2022, up 20% from 2021, according to the firm. While media and entertainment layoffs are dwarfed by the tens of thousands in jobs lost at big tech companies from Amazon to Google, a wide range of workers have been impacted.
Cuts have roiled entertainment giants like Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery that are racing to make their streaming businesses profitable as well as digital media companies such as BuzzFeed and Vice Media that are trying to bolster their valuations. Also affected were legacy journalism stalwarts like The Washington Post and USA Today owner Gannett, which laid off 400 staff and axed a further 400 positions in early December.
Publications focused on cryptocurrency have also felt the crunch after a rocky period in the industry, with The Block announcing layoffs of about one-third of its staff on March 31.
Spotify announced cuts of about 6%, or around 600 people; and The Wall Street Journal parent News Corp. laid off 5%, or around 1,000. Hasbro in late January said it would eliminate about 1,000 positions in 2023, and Disney in March began to execute the 7,000 job cuts it had announced in February, part of a push for $5.5 billion in cost savings.
“The hottest labor market in American history inevitably is going to cool a little bit,” Challenger said.
This list was originally published in December and has been updated. Here are 35 media and entertainment companies that have laid off staff as of April 2023:
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