The news industry has seen 2,681 job cuts so far this year, according to a report by employment firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas released Thursday. That number includes broadcast, digital and print.

The news sector has lost more jobs this year through November than it did in all of 2022 or 2021. Media, of which news is considered a subset, has experienced 20,342 cuts, the highest year-to-date figure since 2020, Challenger reported.

Dozens of news outlets have executed layoffs this year, including The Washington Post, NPR, BuzzFeed News, Vox and The Texas Tribune. On Thursday alone, KCRW in Santa Monica, California, started offering buyouts, and Condé Nast announced layoffs at Wired, according to unions representing journalists in those newsrooms.

By Angela Fu, media business reporter

Lee grows digital revenue, still ends year on a loss

Lee Enterprises ended its fourth quarter with a $1 million loss despite growing digital revenue, the company announced Thursday.

In the quarter ending Sept. 24, Lee — the fourth-largest newspaper chain in the country, operating in 75 markets — saw its digital revenue grow 14% year-over-year to $73 million. This growth was largely driven by an increase in digital subscriptions. The company reported a total operating revenue of $164 million.

“These strong performances in digital revenue are pushing us down the path of thriving, recurring profitable digital revenue which bolsters our confidence in achieving our long-term goals,” CEO Kevin Mowbray said during an earnings call with investors.

Lee is trying to develop sustainable digital revenue to combat industrywide declines in print revenue. As part of its investments in digital, the company made $100 million in cuts during fiscal year 2023, most of which targeted its print business. Those cuts included layoffs, furloughs and a reduction in print days at the majority of its daily newspapers.

The earnings report comes as journalists at The Southern Illinoisan prepare for their last day at work. In October, Lee sold the paper to Paxton Media Group, which plans to lay off the entire unionized news staff. In selling to Paxton, Lee ignored an offer from a local investor to match or exceed the purchase price and honor the Southern Illinoisan workers’ contract, according to a group of 12 unions at Lee’s papers.

“If this is the road Lee Enterprises intends to travel, where it guts newspaper holdings and passes on what’s left to disingenuous buyers who will disinvest in local news coverage, then all the communities where Lee owns news organizations have reason to fear for the future,” the unions wrote. “This is not a plan for long-term growth. In fact, it’s no kind of plan at all.”

Lee stock closed at $9.17 a share Thursday, down 16.64% from the previous day.

By Angela Fu, media business reporter

Nieman Lab’s predictions for 2024

A ChapGPT logo is seen on a monitor in West Chester, Pa., Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Nieman Lab published its annual list of predictions about journalism for the upcoming year Thursday, featuring the ideas, fears and wildest dreams of some of the industry’s most influential thinkers.

Media critic Brian Stelter warned about Donald Trump’s retribution against media companies, while University of Delaware professor Dannagal G. Young said, “We will not learn who the best person for the job of the presidency actually is, but we might come away from campaign coverage knowing who the best person is to play president on TV.”

Rubina Madan Fillion, the director of strategy for The New York Times opinion section, said that news organizations need to find ways to
highlight people and processes to build trust as artificial intelligence use grows. Rodney Gibbs, senior director for strategy and innovation at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, argued journalists need to embrace AI because it will be “a defining factor in the competitive edge and innovative capacity of news organizations, big and small.”

There are more than two dozen predictions, on topics such as newsroom training, information warfare and “a post-search, post-social future.” It’s worth a read.

By Ren LaForme, managing editor 

Vice Media co-CEO departs

Vice Media co-CEO Hozefa Lokhandwala has resigned to start “a new endeavor,” Variety’s Todd Spangler reports. Bruce Dixon will become the sole CEO.

Like other media companies, Vice has had a rocky year, though Vice’s has been particularly tumultuous. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May and, in June, was sold for $350 million to a group of lenders. In November, it canceled several shows, including the award-winning HBO show “Vice News Tonight,” and laid off “fewer than 100” employees.

Lokhandwala and Dixon became co-CEOs in February following the departure of Nancy Dubuc. The departing co-CEO joined the company in 2018 and had previously served as chief strategy officer.

“We have gone through significant challenges as a company and there have been many tough things that we have faced together, but we did it as a team and through it all we continue to see the promise of what VICE is and can be,” Lokhandwala wrote in a memo to staff. “We have accomplished a great deal together and while there is more work to do, it’s clear VICE is on the path for a stronger brighter future.”

By Ren LaForme, managing editor 

Media tidbits and links for your weekend review

• Poynter’s Angela Fu with “Hundreds of Washington Post employees stage 24-hour strike.”
• CNN will host two Republican primary presidential debates next month in Iowa and New Hampshire. The Iowa debate will be at Drake University in Des Moines on Jan. 10 — less than one week before the Iowa caucus. The second debate will be held on Jan. 21 at St. Anselm College in Goffstown, New Hampshire. Both debates will air live on CNN, CNN International, CNN en Español and CNN Max. What’s interesting is the debates do not appear to be sanctioned by the Republican National Committee. Here are the details, including who can qualify, from CNN.
• Wednesday night’s fourth Republican presidential debate drew 1.6 million viewers on NewsNation and 2.5 million on the CW, according to Nielsen fast nationals. The 1.5 million viewers who tuned into NewsNation represented the network’s largest audience ever. However, the 4.5 million total viewers continue the trend of decreasing debate numbers. The first Republican debate this cycle on Fox News and Fox Business drew 12.8 million viewers. The second, which aired on Fox News, Fox Business and Univision, drew 9.5 million viewers. The third, on NBC and its various platforms, dropped to 7.5 million viewers. Variety’s Brian Steinberg wrote, “Preliminary digital results show nearly 400,000 users livestreamed some portion of the debate via the NewsNation website or mobile app.”
• Speaking of the debate, Mediaite’s Colby Hall with “Cable News Newcomer NewsNation Draws Bipartisan Praise — And a Little Heat — For Its First Debate.”
• And more regarding the debate. The Daily Beast’s Justin Baragona with “Fox News Goes Absolutely Nuclear on ‘Court Jester’ Vivek Ramaswamy.”
• Latino Magazine’s piece “Latinas Who Make News” features, among others, NBC News’ Ana Cabrera, who tells Patricia Guadalupe, “Representation matters, and growing up I can’t recall seeing a Latina in a major news anchor role. So I know that people are looking at me as a role model and specifically are connecting with me because I’m Latina and I look like them and they see some of their own stories.”
• CJR’s Mathew Ingram with “Joan Donovan speaks out about Meta and her ouster from Harvard.”
• Slate’s Scott Nover with “The Casualties of the Podcasting Bloodbath.”
• The Washington Post’s Sydney Page with “He struggled when his kids’ mom died. Then boxes began appearing at his door.” The story is part of the Post’s Inspired Life section, which Poynter audience engagement producer Annie Aguiar recently profiled.
• In a piece co-published by ProPublica and The New York Times, Seth Freed Wessler with “When the Coast Guard Intercepts Unaccompanied Kids.”
• Slate’s Alexander Sammon with “Kevin McCarthy’s Not the Only One Quitting Congress.”
• The Atlantic’s David Sims with “The Best Films of 2023.”

One more thing

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