The coronavirus crisis has made people ravenous for information, and many news sites have seen a significant jump in readership during the pandemic. But rather than hire new staff to meet the demand, local news operations and national media outlets alike have been laying off or furloughing staff in order to cope with plummeting advertising sales.
The latest media outlet to succumb to the wave of pandemic layoffs is VICE Media Group. The Brooklyn-based company, which also owns Refinery29, announced Friday that it is laying off 155 employees internationally, including 55 in the U.S.
VICE was able to avoid further layoffs, in part, by eliminating job openings across the company, said CEO Nancy Dubuc. In a memo to staff, she said, “While losing even one job feels like too many, these decisions ultimately rest with me and I assure you that we went to great lengths to preserve jobs.”
In a statement, the VICE Union said the company should have first considered a job-sharing program, executive pay cuts, and other measures to avoid layoffs. The union cited the Los Angeles Times, where journalists have accepted temporary cuts to their pay and hours, a move that is projected to save the paper some $2 million.
“We understand the news industry is hurting,” the VICE Union said. “We do not understand why VICE chose to lay off many of our colleagues in the middle of a global pandemic instead of exhausting all options in order to save these jobs.”
Marie Solis, a Brooklyn-based reporter (and former Gothamist intern) who was laid off from VICE, was writing about topics such as the impact of coronavirus on reproductive health before she lost her job.
“Like many reporters working staff jobs right now, my coworkers and I had been told that our work was more important now than ever, and that we were providing an important service to our readers during a critical time,” Solis told Gothamist via email. “It has been difficult to explain to non-media people why our industry is suffering so much right now, when the value of accurate, thoughtful news coverage seems self-evident. It's this irony that encapsulates what's so deeply broken about our industry.”
Like many journalists, this is not the first time Solis has been laid off. But she says she’s concerned that media conditions are worse now than when she lost her job at Mic in 2017.
“Now, with so many journalists out of work, so few jobs, and most freelance budgets frozen, I'm definitely worried about what the future holds for me,” she said.
A long list of media companies, many of which are based in New York, have been negatively impacted by the pandemic, making jobs even more insecure in the already beleaguered journalism industry. Around 36,000 reporters have been laid off since the pandemic began, according to the Times.
Conde Nast, which publishes such titles as Vogue, the New Yorker and Wired, first implemented pay cuts a month ago but then followed up with an announcement this week that it is laying off about 100 staffers. BuzzFeed is furloughing 68 employees, cutting salaries of those who remain on staff, and implementing a hiring freeze. Vox Media, which also owns the Verge, New York Magazine and local real estate site Curbed New York, is furloughing about 100 employees, or 9 percent of its staff, for three months. Quartz is laying off 80 employees. Schneps, which owns the free papers amNY and Metro along with about 50 community publications covering New York City, has laid off or furloughed some 30 employees amid the pandemic.
New York Public Radio, which owns Gothamist and WNYC, as well as WQXR, WNYC Studios, and The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space, announced on Friday that it was running a deficit in the “millions,” and would take a $8.9 million PPP loan from the federal government.
At the Queens Daily Eagle, a small local news outlet covering neighborhoods at the epicenter of the pandemic, a dip in ad sales during the coronavirus outbreak added to existing financial troubles. Two of the three members of the editorial staff were let go this week.
“I'll still be reporting, putting together the daily print paper & doing web,” tweeted the one remaining reporter, David Brand.
Victoria Merlino, a staffer who was laid off from the Queens Daily Eagle, said articles about coronavirus have been driving traffic at the site. “People were actually reading it and responding to it, which was awesome,” she said.
Some are now starting to call for the federal government to provide support to media outlets as it moves to bail out other industries impacted by coronavirus.
“Please urge Speaker Pelosi to include federal financial support for digital media in the #HEROESAct,” the Writers Guild of America, East, tweeted Friday. “This one, quick action will have an impact in protecting journalists from layoffs and furloughs because ad revenue has drastically fallen due to COVID-19.”
New York Congresswomen Yvette Clarke and Carolyn Maloney are among the lawmakers who signed a letter sent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy this week, urging them to include payroll support for digital media outlets in coronavirus relief legislation.
The letter applauded Congress’ effort to protect local news outlets by clarifying that local publishers that meet the Small Business Administration’s size standards can apply for support through the PPP.
The letter goes on to say, “As we seek to keep America’s journalists on their beats, however, we also encourage you to consider the needs of the digital news workforce, who provide similarly critical reporting but may not just serve a single region.”
