Buzzfeed announce 12% staff cut.

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

Buzzfeed, owners of the HuffingtonPost, posted an announcement today.

I am writing to announce some very difficult changes today across the company. We are reducing our workforce by approximately 12% and letting many talented colleagues go,” said Jonah Peretti, co-founder and CEO of BuzzFeed.

Our revenues are being impacted by worsening macroeconomic conditions...

[tangor]

Will 12% be enough?

Everybody is cutting back these days!

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

Everybody is cutting back these days!

Not everyone, far from actually, but It does seem drawn along political lines.

[tangor]

Comme ci, comme ça

[ronin]

I anticipated that developed economies would need to confront mass technological redundancy in the 2010s, after the GFC.

In the event they didn't - not to a dramatic degree, at least.

The signs are there that in the 2020s, they may have to, finally.

Perhaps, as the new reality comes into focus, we'll see less hand-wringing over the idea of moving on from what Dave Graeber referred to as BS jobs.

It strikes me that, when thinking about jobs, many people get mixed up between the level of remuneration of a job (and the fact that it is remunerated) and the real-world contribution that job delivers.

Not least - and I recognise this is an issue slightly separate from that of axing frothy jobs floating around multi-billion dollar new media platform organisations - forcing humans to continue doing rubbish, dull, uninspiring, poorly-paid, depression-inducing jobs so they can continue barely existing, when machines can do the jobs faster, better, cheaper is lunacy.

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

Comme ci, comme ça

Oui monsiuer! Tu parle Francais? Je pensais que j'étais le seul sur WW.

It strikes me that, when thinking about jobs, many people get mixed up between the level of remuneration of a job (and the fact that it is remunerated) and the real-world contribution that job delivers.

The main reason jobs are disapearing at a high and accelerating rate isn't philosophical imo, it's the economy.

The Recount, for example, produced video content prolifically and the future looked bright. They invested 37 million into their news business in 2018. Now the economy is crashing and inflation is so high the economic consensus is "Worst economy in History" (says Jarome Powell, Fed Chairman, a notion shared by many financial experts)

Blame the pandemic response, waring countries, even philosophical topics, whatever you wish, but the reality and outlook is what it is... it's at a level of "buckle up, yesterday, this one's going to last decades".

The Recount, a video news startup founded in 2018, told employees it plans to suspend operations next Friday, sources told Axios.
Why it matters: The company, which raised over $34 million since 2020, struggled to find a profitable business model. Like most media companies, its prospects grew worse amid the economic downturn.

[axios.com...]

Nobody could have predicted how an economy at record highs in 2018 could become an economy at historic lows by 2022. Well, maybe those spending taxpayer money and printing more in such amounts could, and they should have. Inflation is literally the one thing you cannot spend your way out of because spending causes it to get worse.

Expect layoffs to continue, and accelerate the longer inflation remains above 2%. Not planning for it is planning to suffer it.

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

Look, I don't want to debate how losing "frothy jobs" might be a good thing, or how we need guaranteed incomes etc. I'm just saying it's happening and decisions you make right now will determine your situation in the years, and decades, to come. I have no clue what a communist country with socialist views and an elite foreign governance that doesn't suffer with the people looks like, much less care to debate it.

Practical advice is to look around you and see things as they are...

- AMC Networks Plans Large-Scale Job Cuts as CEO Abruptly Departs.
AMC Networks Inc., the home of popular TV shows like The Walking Dead, announced a layoff of one-fifth of its US workforce and the departure of its chief executive officer, becoming the latest media company...

- NBCUniversal layoffs are coming in January, with cuts expected mainly in broadcast and cable TV groups.
Comcast-owned NBCUniversal is set to reduce headcount in early 2023 to hit budget targets, following hundreds of layoffs at Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Paramount.

- NPR to impose near-freeze on hiring but avoids layoffs as budget cuts loom
NPR is freezing hiring and tightening its belt in other ways in anticipation of a $20 million shortfall in financial sponsorships this fiscal year.

- The Washington Post will end its Sunday magazine, eliminate positions
The Post’s executive editor, Sally Buzbee, said the magazine would end in its current form after printing its final issue on Dec. 25.

- Gannett Joins CNN in Laying Off Staffers, The Recount to Shut Down as Industry Struggles with Revenue
Gannett, the country’s largest newspaper publisher, will lay off approximately six percent of its staffers as media outlets nationwide struggle financially. The New York Times reported employees across…

And that's just some of the bad news before Christmas 2022... 2023 is going to be absolutely brutal on many. The poor will suffer most, as usual.

[ronin]

Aside: Non, tu n'es pas le seul. Pas du tout. Franchement, j'imagine qu'il y en a plusieurs de nous, ici.
I supppose it's to be expected. Some of us live in a country with a major Francophone semi-autonomous province and others live on a large island which borders not one but two French-speaking countries - with direct trains to two French speaking capital cities. It would be remiss of us not to be able to talk (at least to some degree) to our compatriots and / or neighbours in their own language.

The main reason jobs are disapearing at a high and accelerating rate [...] it's the economy.

I agree with you. Ultimately, positions will be made redundant when they are no longer needed and machines will replace humans where there is a business case for them to do so. This will happen sooner, faster and more dramatically when there is an economic storm which renders making savings and cutting costs suddenly more urgent.

Blame the pandemic response, warring countries

I agree with you on this too.

Nobody could have predicted how an economy at record highs in 2018 could become an economy at historic lows by 2022.

I must have missed the highs. I thought it had been one long economic winter since 2008. If there was any respite in 2018-19 (here in West Yorkshire) it wasn't more than the faintest hint of weak, pale sunlight shining through otherwise fairly persistent cloud cover.

inflation remains above 2%

On this, I agree with you wholeheartedly. Inflation is a miserable blight.