McClatchy, whose titles include The Miami Herald and The Sacramento Bee, executed its most severe layoffs in years on Thursday, cutting newsroom staff at some papers by upwards of 40%.
More than 90 journalists across the country were affected, according to estimates by the unions representing journalists at various papers owned by McClatchy, which is owned by private investment firm Chatham Asset Management. The cuts included reporters, photographers and videographers and affected coverage ranging from government and education to accountability to sports. At least 13 papers across eight states lost staff.
“McClatchy has decided that short-term profits for a hedge fund matter more than the wellbeing of the communities that its newspapers are supposed to serve,” the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild, which represents McClatchy journalists in Idaho and Washington, said in a statement. “That is a model that is destined to fail.”
The layoffs are part of a companywide restructuring, according to a notice McClatchy gave to the Pacific Media Workers Guild, which represents journalists at three McClatchy California papers.
“McClatchy is reshaping its newsroom structure to more closely align resources with changing subscriber interests and the ways audiences engage with local news,” the notice read. “As part of this change, we’re focusing resources on journalism that subscribers value and that can have the highest impact in the communities we serve.
“This change is not a reflection of the individual’s performance or contributions, but of our commitment to positioning the organization for long-term sustainability and growth.”
But some of the cuts have raised questions about what types of journalism the company values. The Charlotte Observer’s only data reporter shared on Bluesky that she was cut. The Fresno Bee, which had seven layoffs, lost multiple accountability reporters, according to Pacific Media Workers Guild executive officer Michael Applegate. The Miami Herald, which had 20 layoffs and eliminated 10 vacant positions, lost its city of Miami and city of Miami Beach beats, said deputy investigations editor Carol Marbin Miller.
“Now, they can move chess pieces around, but how do you do that when you have no chess pieces left?” Marbin Miller said. “As I understand it, this would be 30 overall slots (eliminated) in a newsroom that was already under 80 positions. So if this is accurate, we’re looking at a job loss of greater than 30%.”
When Marbin Miller first joined the Herald in 2000, the newsroom had roughly 300 journalists. With the layoffs and eliminated vacant positions, it will have fewer than 50 — a blow to the city’s largest media outlet.
“Right now we are circling the drain, and that scares the hell out of me,” Marbin Miller said.
Like many news organizations, McClatchy has shrunk over the years. In 2020, it filed for bankruptcy and was acquired by Chatham Asset Management. Since then, it has shed staff and papers. Just last year, the company shuttered its Washington, D.C. bureau, and over the summer it sold two of its Georgia papers to the National Trust for Local News.
But several people said that Thursday’s layoffs were the most brutal in more than seven years. The Charlotte Observer lost nearly a quarter of its newsroom, according to The Charlotte Ledger. The Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild reported losing a third of unionized workers at the Idaho Statesman, The News Tribune, Tri-City Herald, The Olympian and Bellingham Herald.
“This is definitely the bloodiest round of layoffs in quite some time at McClatchy,” said Ariane Lange, an investigative reporter at The Sacramento Bee and vice chair of the newsroom’s union. (The Bee lost at least 10 journalists.) “We’re still trying to figure out the exact numbers across the company and in our newsroom, but it’s a significant portion of reporters companywide.”
McClatchy did not respond to a request for additional comment.
The layoffs come as the company experiments with artificial intelligence — much to the chagrin of some of its journalists. Earlier this year, McClatchy developed an AI tool that could generate new pieces based on reporters’ work. Unionized reporters at several newsrooms responded by withholding their bylines from the AI-generated pieces.
“We’ve seen a major investment in AI, and we’re seeing a major disinvestment in jobs,” Applegate said. “The company is going to say something different about that, I’m sure. But that’s what I’m seeing here, and it’s very concerning.”
Well, if worst comes to worst and you’re running out of options you could always just give up and put out a quality product. People read newsmedia to find out what’s going on in the world. A Journalist isn’t a platform, it’s a job. All god’s children have positions, and are entitled to them. Telling us the news is what people pay for, not selling us the news.
Journalism lost its shine and purpose when it became the house organ of liberal and leftist politics.