Television news is getting depressing, and not just because we seem to be more unpopular than ever.
Layoffs and firings are spreading like California wildfires. And even if you have little sympathy for those losing their jobs, the implications are greater than you might think.
After the dot-com bubble burst in 2000, I was part of an executive team that had to make some tough decisions. The process started with buyouts and, as usual, quickly turned into layoffs.
It was a painful time, and we lost plenty of good people, just as is now happening all over the media landscape. The cuts are endless.
ABC has laid off about 300 people in the last six months. It’s been reported that top talent will lose money in upcoming contract negotiations. NBC has lost as many as 100 over two years. Highly paid marquee names have not been exempt. Faced with a substantial salary cut, Today co-host Hoda Kotb decided to leave.
CBS axed 5% of the news division. CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell, who had been ordered to take a big pay cut, left the job after five years and has become a correspondent. Former evening news anchor Jeff Glor left the network amid cutbacks by Paramount.
MSNBC’s top star, Rachel Maddow, lost $5 million of her $30 million yearly paycheck for showing up one night a week. I’m sorry, but it’s hard to feel sympathy for someone making $25 million instead of $30 million
CNN laid off 6% of its employees but promised there would be new job openings as it invests $70 million into its digital operations. It hasn’t happened yet. They cut hundreds of employees in 2022.
And recently politics has played a role. President Trump, unhappy with the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe — which he views as too liberal — dismissed 1,300 of its journalists and staffers, although a judge has blocked that order and says the group gets their jobs back for now.
Newspapers may be deemed dinosaurs these days, but the degree that they drive television coverage is remarkable. At The Washington Post –with an assist from owner Jeff Bezos — about 100 people have been let go and others quit to protest his ban on dissenting opinions on two broad topics: personal liberty and free markets.
The Los Angeles Times sliced more than 20% of its staff under billionaire owner Patrick Soon-Shiong.
This isn’t NASA-style rocket science. Losing talented journalists with decades of experience and insight hurts newsgathering across the board.
Smaller media companies across the country are reorganizing or failing. Remember The Messenger? Jimmy Finkelstein, former owner of The Hill, used lucrative salaries to lure top performers to his much-hyped website. Less than a year later, he abruptly shut it down, costing 175 journalists their jobs, with no severance payments.
While much of the TV layoffs center on national outlets, local stations haven’t been spared. Tegna cut 20 people by getting rid of its fact-checking group. Some 260 have been dropped at Nexstar stations.
Anyone who can’t see that deep cuts will reduce coverage of local, state, and national politicians needs an eye exam.
One year ago, an influential member of Congress, Appropriations Committee chair Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX), stopped showing up for work. She also stopped voting. None of the hordes of reporters covering Capitol Hill noticed. And due to budget cuts, hometown papers have stopped sending reporters to D.C. to cover politicians from their states.
It was only when reporter Carlos Turcios of the Dallas Express, a small website, got a tip and took a crew to a Texas nursing facility for those with memory problems that the reason for her absence was confirmed. Days later, her son acknowledged that the 77-year-old Granger had “dementia issues.”
It was a huge embarrassment for the national press.
The cuts have caused thousands of journalists to leave their chosen field, forcing them to abandon their calling. In 2024 alone, nearly 15,000 media jobs were lost, according to the firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. It’s clear traditional advertising and subscription models just aren’t working.
As a sign of the times, NBC Universal announced in November that it would spin off its cable networks, including MSNBC and CNBC, as a publicly traded company controlled by Comcast shareholders. This has created considerable unease at MSNBC, which according to Nielsen has seen a 62% drop in total viewers in primetime since the election. CNN lost 45%.
Fox News, which positions itself as an alternative to the mainstream media, is an anomaly when it comes to low viewership and advertising dollars. The juggernaut drew seven in ten cable news viewers in primetime in January and on some nights finishes ahead of the broadcast networks.
I understand why media companies are desperate to slice headcount. Revenues are falling as fast as viewers and readers are fading, leaving for podcasts and TikTok. The top brass was hired to keep the lights on and it’s increasingly becoming a difficult job. But let’s face it, greed is a big factor. The transition to streaming is moving at a snail’s pace making executives worry about their jobs. And it’s easier to cut a salary from someone else’s paycheck than your own.
At a time when press freedom is more important than ever, it’s hard to see how news organizations will get stronger, or more popular, by cutting the very people who know how to dig, report exclusives, and hold top officials accountable. But, sadly, it’s not a trend we will see reversed for a long time to come.
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