AP Enacts Layoffs on Top of Buyouts

The Associated Press reported Friday that it laid off an unspecified number of US-based journalists, effective Friday. The news organization said the job cuts are part of the restructuring announced last month to move away from its print roots. The layoffs are on top of the recent buyout offers made to more than 120 US-based staffers, per the AP; the News Media Guild said about 40 people accepted. The account says the guild's administrator reported the union received an email just before 10am Friday from an AP human resources employee informing it only that layoffs would take place that day.

Executive editor Julie Pace has framed the cuts as a pivot, not a crisis, saying the news organization wants to shrink its global staff by under 5% while ramping up visual journalism and services tailored to broadcast, digital, and tech clients. Newspaper revenue has fallen 25% over four years, and major chains Gannett and McClatchy stopped using AP content this year. The AP won a Pulitzer Prize this month for a three-year project that found American companies help lay the foundations of the Chinese government's system for monitoring and policing its citizens. The AP's account of Friday's layoffs can be found here.