Media and entertainment industries to follow the layoff example set by tech giants in the midst of recession fears in the US

The ad market exhibits signs of slowing down and as a result, the media and entertainment industries have begun launching cost-cutting maneuvers, starting with considerable numbers of layoffs. For many businesses within the entertainment and media sector, the challenges they face in the job market today are similar to the dire situation back during the pandemic years.

Today, a smaller number of government relief programs and resources from Big Tech firms are there to help media and entertainment businesses. In 2020, we saw a large number of media job cuts. However, 2021 saw the lowest number of layoffs in the media sector since 2008. According to data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, over 3,000 employees were let go through October this year alone. And there are no signs that these layoffs will slow down.

A lot of big players in the entertainment and media industries are planning for large-scale job cuts in the coming weeks. One common feature between most of these employers is that they have all made significant investments in streaming products which have not brought in much profit until now.

One major player that has continued layoffs is Warner Bros. Discovery. The entertainment giant plans to somewhat alleviate their debt with these job cuts. Chris Licht of CNN told workers a week ago that there will be more layoffs at the beginning of the next month. Paramount Global has also begun layoffs majorly in its ad sales division during the last week.

The Walt Disney Company announced layoffs last week. They also plan to launch other cost-cutting strategies alongside a hiring freeze. The company plans to deal with the rising costs of streaming with these measures. The cable unit of Comcast made some significant job cuts last month. NBCUniversal, the entertainment business of Comcast, is also planning layoffs in the future. Roku announced plans for a job cut of 200 workers, amounting to almost 5% of their entire workforce last week.

Protocol is a news website launched by Politico in 2020 which is planning to close its offices by the end of 2022. This will cause around 60 employees to lose their jobs. The business media company, Morning Brew, is planning to lay off 14% of its workforce. The reason behind the job cuts is advertiser uncertainty.

Outside Media is another media company that laid off a substantial portion of its workforce this year, with 12% of the workforce losing jobs last week. According to CEO Nancy Dubac, Vice Media plans to reduce costs by laying off up to 15% of its employees. Recurrent Ventures, the venture equity-backed digital media rollup company, laid off around 52 employees last month.