2026 has arrived, and hope springs eternal for many across the broadcasting industry. But before we move forward, we must first revisit some harsh realities and understand the current climate. It’s no longer business as usual, where hard work assures an annual raise and the best talent land the open opportunities. Revenue vs. expense and job necessity vs. job luxury is a greater area of concentration.
Did you know that more than 17,000 entertainment, news, streaming, and broadcast jobs vanished in 2025? That represented an 18% spike from 2024’s already punishing numbers according to The Wrap. If you were betting on jobs increasing or decreasing in 2026, where are you putting your money? I’ll hang up and listen.
These are not isolated events or cyclical resets. They are figures that highlight a historic shift, signaling a deeper reckoning for media organizations across various areas of the business. Many executives are clinging to legacy models that weren’t built for a world of infinite content, endless creators, algorithmic distribution, and audience expectations shaped by TikTok speed and Netflix convenience. They’re protecting an old system rather than inventing what will dominate the next decade.
That defensive posture has consequences. They appear clearly in the numbers: thousands unemployed, countless productions shelved, shrinking newsrooms, abandoned digital verticals, and large organizations forced into survival mode.
And the turbulence isn’t slowing. It’s accelerating. Operators who treat disruption as a crisis instead of an opportunity can shrink themselves out of relevance. I don’t say that to generate headlines, clicks or to paint a doom and gloom visual of the industry I love. I write it because it’s a reality that many ignore.
Consolidation is NOT the Answer
Consolidation has become the storyline of the media business. But it rarely delivers long-term solutions without a broader reinvention strategy. When Paramount and Skydance merged, most of the headlines focused on leadership changes, expected synergies, and cost savings. Behind closed doors, insiders knew the truth: consolidation often serves as an emergency brake for companies that can no longer sustain their scale.
Paramount’s layoffs, Warner Bros. Discovery’s spin-off planning, NBCUniversal’s reorganization under Comcast’s Versant, Disney’s global cuts, and the thousands of additional jobs eliminated at CBS, CNN, and the broader news industry provide a clear example of what consolidation tends to produce. Companies want efficiency, but the easiest path to efficiency is payroll reduction, not strategic reinvestment. Executives remove layers, restructure divisions, and tout cost discipline. Meanwhile, the audience slips further away.
The FCC’s approval of the Paramount-Skydance merger, the competitive bids circling Warner Bros. Discovery, and the ongoing speculation around further mergers highlight how much instability lives beneath the surface. Deals may create excitement for Wall Street, but the on-the-ground consequences are predictable. Departments merge. Redundancies are eliminated. Innovation budgets shrink. Templated content strategies replace creative risk-taking that once made us special.
That’s not how you grow an audience, it’s what assures your existing one of shrinking. A merger is not a strategy unless it becomes a launchpad for something new. Too many companies treat it as the end goal rather than the beginning.
AI is Misunderstood
Industry executives love talking about AI because it signals innovation. But many higher ups deploy it like a blunt instrument. Nearly 55,000 jobs were reportedly cut for AI-related reasons this year. That number will rise as companies automate research, content drafting, editing workflows, marketing operations, and even certain aspects of production.
But AI isn’t the problem. Mismanagement is.
The World Economic Forum projects AI-related tech jobs will double by 2030. That is concentrated growth outside of traditional media because most groups still haven’t built an AI talent pipeline. Companies approach AI as a way to shrink headcount, not as a mechanism to expand products or speed up creative output. Look around, how many traditional groups use AI to grow revenue through merchandising? Who’s using it to reduce photo licensing, production music, written content, social media scheduling, software, and other key business expenses?
AI can serve journalism and entertainment in valuable ways beyond assisting sales professionals. It can accelerate workflows, boost research, enhance production, and expand experimentation. It doesn’t need to replace your talent, music or content to add value. But it’s not going to magically fix business models built around shrinking audiences and slow adaptation. Without clear guidelines, accountable and educated leadership, and teams trained to integrate the technology responsibly, AI will create reputational risks that rival the financial ones.
The winners will be the companies that treat AI as an engine, not a replacement.
The Creator Economy
The term Creator Economy is overused but it’s not going away anytime soon. As legacy media’s influence decreases, creators are taking more control of their lives and business. This is the clearest signal of where the industry is moving. The sad part is that companies have helped create this by sending away many of their top stars. More entrepreneurial-minded people will produce content in the future, some by necessity, others by choice.
Radio should be dominating the creator economy conversation, yet many companies are risk adverse. Talent development once served as radio’s growth engine and key advantage. Program directors identified raw personalities, put them in low-pressure roles, nurtured them, and built them into stars. Social platforms now play that role. Who needs to work a weekend shift for minimal dollars when they can broadcast to thousands across multiple platforms?
There are few situations where brands like Westwood One Sports invest in a new 23-year old host (Drake C. Toll) in mornings. When they do, traditional broadcasters tend to reject it because it’s unproven. Yet that’s how stars are born in music, radio, sports, politics, television, and most businesses. I was fortunate to find Joe Fortenbaugh, John Middlekauff and other rising stars during my programming career. Most internally and externally viewed those moves unfavorably initially. But people eventually came around. A host can’t become proven, trusted, and successful if nobody takes a chance to invest in what they could be.
Creators with large digital followings are the new modern “morning show”. They deliver daily content, personal storytelling, community-building, and interactive engagement. Yet many radio folks still scout air talent based on traditional demos and broadcast experience, while creators test content with millions watching. Some of the best shows I ever built were designed in my head or a production room. I didn’t need a fancy resume, slick demo or strong on-air audition to determine if it’d work. It was never about first-show acceptance. The focus was on the characters, roles, chemistry, content and how to get people interested thru consistent promotion.
Television is fighting this problem too. Networks treat streaming as their primary competitor when creator-led micro-studios are a more disruptive force. Just last week, 23-year old, Nick Shirley captured over 100 million views for his investigative work on Minnesota fraud. Many legacy TV companies ignored the story. Creator-driven content works because media overlords and friction are removed. It’s why millions took a liking to Barstool Sports, Outkick, The Daily Wire, Charlie Kirk and others. Great talent and content don’t require long development cycles, massive writing rooms, or multi-million dollar pilots. They just need to be created and distributed.
Last but not least is Podcasting. It sits at the center of the creator economy because it offers the most frictionless transition between platforms. But traditional podcast networks still recruit through conventional scouting processes too. Real growth comes from creators who bring audiences with them. Many radio groups treat podcasting as a digital add-on rather than a full-fledged creator ecosystem. That mindset has to evolve.
The next era of hit talk shows, interview series, hybrid video-audio shows, and branded content franchises will come from creators with digital-first fandoms. Podcasting is an ideal gateway for creators entering the traditional media world, and the companies that capitalize on that connection will widen the gap between those with a future and those still clinging to the past.
What Professionals Can and Must Do
If there’s one message every media professional needs to internalize today, it’s this: your employer cannot guarantee your long-term stability. That doesn’t mean the industry’s future is bleak. It means responsibility for skill diversification, brand building, and professional evolution sits with those who want to work in the business. Strong talent and relationships will help many last longer than those who lack one or both of those skills. I tried to make this point two weeks ago when detailing Bart Winkler’s sign off at the Infinity Sports Network. The feedback and how it was intended though didn’t register with some.
After losing his show at WFAN, Brandon Tierney could have sulked and asked ‘why me’. Instead, he began reinventing himself immediately. He started creating video content, working on social promotion, building a local event, improving his creative images, and using the opportunity to invest in himself rather than wait for the next phone call. He is building a direct connection to his audience and has grown his channel in one week to over 12,000 subscribers.
Another friend, Damon Bruce just hit 50K in subs on YouTube last week. Maybe they’ll return one day to traditional media, but if they do, they’ll be more skilled and able to adapt should anything change again. Once talent get a taste of controlling their own businesses though, it outweighs working for others.
I believe that professionals who succeed in the next decade will do the following:
- Understand and adopt AI tools early
- Build personal brand equity through social content, podcasts, newsletters, and/or creator collaborations
- Position themselves as audience builders, not just content producers
- Master multiple storytelling formats across video, audio, digital, and social
- Take more control of their own businesses, selling and monetizing their own brands
- Strengthen their ability to analyze data, interpret metrics, and adjust content strategy quickly
Closing Comments
The media business will always need creative thinkers, storytellers, strategists, editors, showrunners, producers, reporters, and content architects. But it won’t carry professionals who wait for the old model to snap back into place. It will likely have less entry level and mid-level openings, and potentially less pay for select roles too.
The job losses that defined 2025 are a warning, not an aberration. They reflect an industry that must rethink its identity from the ground up. It’s a challenging situation, but it presents opportunity too. Reinvention can feel overwhelming, but it’s far more energizing than managing a slow collapse.
Quick adapting organizations and professionals who aren’t afraid to explore and reinvent themselves will thrive in the future. The old world is not returning. This next one is going to reward those who build, collaborate, experiment, and evolve—and punish those who hesitate.
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. Sign up for our newsletters to stay updated and get the latest information right in your inbox.
Jason Barrett is the Founder and CEO of Barrett Media. The company launched in September 2015 and has provided consulting services to America’s top audio and video brands, while simultaneously covering the media industry at BarrettMedia.com, becoming a daily destination for media professionals. Prior to Barrett Media, Jason built and programmed 95.7 The Game in San Francisco, and 101 ESPN in St. Louis. He was also the first sports programmer for SportsTalk 950 in Philadelphia, which later became 97.5 The Fanatic. Barrett also led 590 The Fan KFNS in St. Louis, and ESPN 1340/1390 in Poughkeepsie, NY, and worked on-air and behind the scenes at 101.5 WPDH, WTBQ 1110AM, and WPYX 106.5. He also spent two years at ESPN Radio in Bristol, CT producing ‘The Dan Patrick Show’ and ‘GameNight’. JB can be reached on Twitter @SportsRadioPD or by email at Jason@BarrettMedia.com.
Nice read! Diversification has always been neccesary in my radio career from Z100 NY to Westwood One LA. Between my great radio gigs, I worked at Westlake Recording Studios, Mood media, Hitmakers magazine, and Universal Studios in sales, marketing, music promotion and teaching instructor. I’ve recently done recording sessions for AI. Reinvention IS key!
Does quality matter to Sports Radio executives anymore? Or has it been decided that the future of Sports Radio is in betting and bargain basement programs now offered by Westwood One Sports?
Gone or greatly reduced are the special, deep interactions between presenter and listener, which only Sports Radio can offer. Some of the best presenters and analysts in Sports Radio, including Jodi MacDonald, Zach Gelb and David Shepherd were fired by Westwood one, with no explanation offered.
These changes were only revealed at the last minute, with no real discussion or input from listeners.
We can only hope that someday, somehow, Sports Radio will become something much better than this, and a place where true quality matters.
Rick, I appreciate your commentary. Quality is a tricky word. What you consider inferior content, another listener may view as superior content. Over time, data tells the story if more or less enjoyed a product. I don’t think anyone with Westwood One or CBS Sports Radio desired to deliver anything less than a stellar product. How the public responds to it will be reflected in the numbers. As far as betting goes, it’s a massive category across the entire sports media landscape. Traditional sports radio was different so if you preferred that brand of content, I understand. I grew up on it too and enjoyed it as well. However, betting is a big part of the present and future and it’s not going to go away. Do some overdo it? Sure. But it’s a big part of the sports experience now and delivers a lot of revenue to outlets so they’re not going to run from it when it affords them the ability to deliver their programming. It’s a different world, some of it might be better, some might not be but the beauty of choice is that we get to sample, decide if something is worth our time, and then seek out the options that best suit our individual tastes. Given how many create quality sports content, I’m sure you’re going to find something great to enjoy listening to. Once again, I appreciate the feedback.
Regarding the “interactions between presenter and listeners,” many sports station have seen a significant decline in the number of phone calls coming in. This is not a result of diminished listenership, but of a change in habits, where communication has transitioned from being primarily via phone calls to texting and messaging. Reading a text from a listener (or a comment on YouTube) and responding to it may qualify as “interaction,” but it’s no longer a conversation.
Those who do call in seem to be either part of a much older demographic (who are still used to communicating by making a call) or the very young, who may not be using their devices as much as those in the middle, so use it, or their house phone, to call a show.
Station managers have to react to this, and are therefore adjusting their programming to be less reliant on phone calls. Does this negatively impact the listening experience? Sure. But unless you want to hear the same callers over and over again, there isn’t much of a choice.