Global Media Layoffs Surge Amid AI Rise, Mergers, and Revenue Declines

Year 2024 started off with lay-offs in the media industry across the globe – Los Angeles Times, Time magazine, Business Insider, Condé Nast, Forbes, The New York Daily News are some of the latest on a long list. There is no difference in this regard in the Indian scenario too. As recently as last week, there were reports that one of India’s leading media groups with interest in TV, print, and digital has laid off as many as 200 of its employees.

According to Statista, Spotify globally topped the list of largest media industry layoffs, laying off 1,500 employees as of December 2023. Netflix and Buzzfeed also made it to this list. From India, Statista mentioned Times Internet, which laid off 100 employees by August 2023.

While the exact number is not available, various industry estimates point towards the number of media personnel losing jobs to be between 400 and 600 in 2024 alone across print, television, and digital news media.

Industry experts point to the headwinds being faced by the media industry across the world, where ad revenues face a squeeze, resulting in media organisations going for what they call ‘cost rationalisation’. Mergers, acquisitions and consolidations too have caused companies to go in for leaner teams.

The failed merger between ZEE and Sony also sent ripples down the market, with all the plans shelved as both media houses go in for restructure.

The Viacom18 and Star India Merger, which received approval from CCI recently, is also expected to cause a significant disruption in the media market.

Commenting on the existing market dynamics that are forcing media jobs, experts said, “The media business is sailing through digital and tech transformation and policy modification, with maintaining a profitable operation.”

Over the months, publications have been shutting down quite a few of their small town and regional operations which have seen massive layoffs.

The other reason for lay-offs in general is financial considerations. According to the FICCI EY 2024 M&E report, Print advertising grew a mere 4%, while circulation grew 3% in 2023. According to the TAM AdEx report, compared to Jan-Mar’23, ad space per publication observed growth of 10% in Jan-Mar’24.

HT Media reported a 19% decline in its revenue for Q1 FY2025 at Rs 427 crore, from Rs 527 crore in Q4 FY2024. Jagran Prakashan’s Q2 FY2025 standalone revenue stood at Rs 390.59 crore, a marginal decline from Rs 391.65 crore in Q2 FY2024.

AI and media jobs

The effect of rising adoption of Artificial Intelligence has started to be felt, particularly in media jobs around the world. Sample this from an ad which appeared in Journalism.co.uk – the post, appearing on August 22, 2024 had stated that Newsquest Media Group is looking for an AI-assisted reporter who “will be at the forefront of a new era in journalism, using AI technology to create national, local, and hyper-local content for our news brands, while using their traditional journalism skills.

More often than not, one hears the question whether journalism will survive AI. According to a report by the US-based The Brookings Institution, “The dominance of less than a handful of privately-owned, Silicon Valley-based tech corporations over digital advertising, publishing, audience, data, cloud, and search decimated the business models of journalism worldwide. And now AI is doing it again.”

It further reported that the United States has lost a third of its newspapers and two-thirds of its newspaper journalists. They cannot be replaced by AI. On how journalism can make most of AI, the report by The Brookings Institution says optimistically, “Journalism is particularly valuable to generative AI search, where it provides real-time information, context, fact-checking, and human language. This is where journalism, including local journalism could be particularly valuable and thus must be able to monetize.”

Brutal goodbyes

The post Covid landscape has seen organisations lay stress on empathy, creative a conducive workplace to empower employees and push for inclusivity and sustainability.

Unfortunately, this does not translate to the way in which most of the employees are laid off, and that is mostly without any prior warning and also with only one month’s salary as severance pay. Many of the former employees who have been laid off said that many a time, there isn’t even any formal letter or email, it is just a call or being informed over the phone. And even if there is a mail, it’s sent before the weekend, and very often, senior bosses are unreachable to listen to those who were laid off.

Industry experts say although lay-offs are part of an organisation’s restructuring process, the Indian media houses can be more empathetic and make the process less painful.

It is going to be a rough ride ahead, as well, since the economy remains under pressure.