2026-04-14 15:55:39
Memo: Disney CEO Josh D'Amaro informs staff of layoffs; source: around 1,000 jobs are expected to be eliminated as the company unifies marketing (Alex Weprin/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business
Memo: Disney CEO Josh D'Amaro informs staff of layoffs; source: around 1,000 jobs are expected to be eliminated as the company unifies marketing (Alex Weprin/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business
Sources: a Snap-Perplexity AI search deal calling for Perplexity to pay Snap $400M has fallen apart; Snap is set to announce significant layoffs on Wednesday (Alex Heath/Sources)
https://sources.news/p/snap-crucible-moment
Every time you see a news article mention AI in conjunction with news of layoffs or a bad hiring market, remember: that’s less than 5% of jobs cut, at least according to that report.
Ask the reporter why they’re not blaming fascists instead, because…well, I’ll bet you’ve got more data on your side than they do.
/end
A year after mass layoffs, Education Dept keeps handing off its programs to other agencies | Federal News Network
https://federalnewsnetwork.com/reorganization/2026/03/a-year-after-mass-layoffs-education-dept-keeps-handing-off-its-programs-to-other-agencies/
How Jeff Bezos Upended The Washington Post (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/14/business/media/washington-post-jeff-bezos-layoffs.html?unlocked_article_code=1.TFA.1BXW.uPrAKNmySdUA&smid=nytcore-ios-share
http://www.memeorandum.com/260314/p18#a260314p18
Expect total #enshittification of #Snapchat to start in 3 .. 2 .. 1 ...
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Snap Inc blames AI as it lays off 1,000 workers
E.W. Scripps is expected to make layoffs in the near future as it seeks to grow adjusted earnings by up to $150M over three years; in 2024, it had 5K staff (Todd Spangler/Variety)
https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/scripps-layoffs-cos…
Digg announces a "hard reset" and shuts down operations two months after it was relaunched by Kevin Rose and Alexis Ohanian, citing the scale of AI bot spam (Richard Lawler/The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/tech/894803/digg-beta-shutdown-layoffs-ai
Well now that’s an eye-popping graphic.
The DOGE headline is the notable one — but also please note the less-than-advertised contribution of AI-driven layoffs to the current awful job market.
EDIT: I took “lossed” to be yet more corporatespeak gobbledeygook, but per comments, it may actually just be a hilarious misspelling of “lost.” I’m not sure which is more depressing tbh.
1/
https://mstdn.social/@DemocracyMattersALot/116076599342808912
While these numbers are both evolving and non-definitive, they do back up my general impression that AI is •not• what’s primarily making the current job market such crap.
AI companies are pumping ungodly amounts of money into making us all •believe• that they’re causing massive layoffs — that’s the heart of their big investor pitch — but so far that remains mostly hypothetical, apparently.
3/
Sources: Jeff Bezos said "I don't care" after WaPo leaders told him changes to the Opinion section could turn off subscribers; 60K canceled their subs in Feb. (New York Times)
https://www.nytim…
The Washington Post told employees on Wednesday that
it was beginning a widespread round of layoffs that are expected to
decimate the organization’s sports, local news and international coverage.
Matt Murray, The Post’s executive editor, told newsroom employees on a call that
all sections would be affected in some way.
But he said that the end result would be a publication that focused even more on national news and politics,
as well as business and health…
Sources: Meta plans sweeping layoffs that could affect 20% or more of the company, amid mounting AI infrastructure costs; it had ~79,000 employees as of Dec. 31 (Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/business/world-at-work/meta-planning-swe…
The claim "you won't be replaced by AI, but by a person using AI" is nonsense. The Block layoff victims were some of the most productive, #llm pilled people in the company, but it didn't save them, because that's not what layoffs are about.
The layoff script goes, as always:
- overhire
- lay everyone off
- pretend it's because of
Digg announces a "hard reset" and shuts down operations two months after it was relaunched by Kevin Rose and Alexis Ohanian, citing the scale of AI bot spam (Richard Lawler/The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/tech/894803/digg-beta-shutdown-layoffs-ai
Layoffs hit their worst January levels since 2009, Challenger says https://ground.news/article/layoffs-hit-their-worst-january-levels-since-2009-challenger-says_8366b6
Source: New York Daily News is cutting six of 10 national desk staffers, one metro reporter, seven print production people, and two photo department staffers (Alexandra Steigrad/New York Post)
https://nypost.com/2026/02/1…
A survey of 1,000 hiring managers: 59% say they stress AI's role in layoffs or hiring freezes "because it plays better"; only 9% say AI has fully replaced roles (Gautam Mukunda/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles
Judge Voids Mass Layoffs at Voice of America - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/07/us/politics/judge-kari-lake-voa-layoffs.html
Notus will rename itself The Star and relaunch in early June as it adds local news and sports coverage; source: Robert Allbritton will add ~$30M to its funding (Katie Robertson/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/16/business/media/notus-news-t…
Judge Voids Mass Layoffs at Voice of America (Minho Kim/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/07/us/politics/judge-kari-lake-voa-layoffs.html
http://www.memeorandum.com/260307/p72#a260307p72
Sources: 11 CBS Evening News employees, or about 25% of the staffers eligible for buyouts, have chosen the option ahead of impending layoffs (Alexandra Steigrad/New York Post)
https://nypost.com/2026/02/10/business
US Layoffs Surge to Highest Level Since Great Recession | Thomson/Reuters
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/layoffs-ups-amazon/2026/02/06/id/1245120/
Make #Layoffs Shameful Again
Q&A with Block CEO Jack Dorsey on laying off 40% of the company's workers, wanting Block to "feel like a mini AGI", his take on Elon Musk's X, and more (Steven Levy/Wired)
https://www.wired.com/story/jack-dorsey-explains-block-layoffs/
Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post conducts widespread layoffs, gutting a third of its staff (CNN)
https://cnn.com/2026/02/04/media/washington-post-layoffs
http://www.memeorandum.com/260204/p147#a260204p147
Layoffs in the past year:
• Dell: 13,000
• Intel: 27,000
• Meta: 11,000
• UPS: 48,000
• FedEx: 12,000
• Boeing: 17,000
• Verizon: 15,000
• Walmart: 12,000
• Amazon: 30,000
• Microsoft: 15,000
• Citigroup: 20,000
Job security is a myth.
https://
Sources: E.W. Scripps sent layoff notices to dozens of Court TV staff after it sold the channel to Jellysmack; Court TV's linear feed will shut down on March 11 (Matthew Keys/TheDesk.net)
https://thedesk.net/2026/02/court-tv-layoffs-shutting-down/
Pinterest Sacks Workers For Creating Tool To Track Layoffs
https://slashdot.org/story/26/02/04/114220/pinterest-sacks-workers-for-creating-tool-to-track-layoffs
As goes the Washington Post: US democracy takes another hit under Trump (The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/news/ng-interactive/2026/feb/08/washington-post-layoffs-democracy-trump
http://www.memeorandum.com/260208/p15#a260208p15
WGAE members at CBS News 24/7 unanimously ratify a three-year contract with salary increases and AI protections, including 1.5x severance for layoffs due to AI (Ted Johnson/Deadline)
https://deadline.com/2026/04/cbs-news-24-7-union-contract-wgae-1236860193/
Workers describe a deteriorating culture at Jack Dorsey's Block as morale plunges amid rolling layoffs and a push to use AI tools to improve productivity (Reece Rogers/Wired)
https://www.wired.com/story/inside-rolling-layoffs-jack-dorsey-block/
Washington Post publisher Will Lewis says he's stepping down | AP News
https://apnews.com/article/washington-post-will-lewis-stepping-down-layoffs-c8559f5e1d9f4d73f37163e4a708f9da
Video call: WaPo Executive Editor Matt Murray says the paper plans to lay off hundreds of staff, cutting into its local, international, and sports coverage (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/business/media/washington-post-layoffs.html
Marty Baron says "I firmly believe" Jeff Bezos prioritizes his other interests over WaPo; Jim VandeHei says "I have no clue what their strategy was or is" (Jeremy Barr/The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/feb/05/mass-layoffs-wash…
Washington Post Union Calls for Jeff Bezos to Sell the Paper - Business Insider
https://www.businessinsider.com/washington-post-union-urges-jeff-bezos-sell-paper-layoffs-ceo-2026-2
Jeff Bezos Killed the Washington Post (Alex Kirshner/Slate)
https://slate.com/business/2026/02/jeff-bezos-washington-post-layoffs.html
http://www.memeorandum.com/260205/p112#a260205p112
Sources: Oracle is cutting thousands of jobs in its latest layoffs as the company continues to ramp AI spending; as of May 2025, Oracle employed 162,000 people (Jordan Novet/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/31/oracle-layoffs-ai-spending.html
Around 150 ProPublica Guild members announce a 24-hour strike beginning on Wednesday, seeking protections around the use of AI, layoff protections, and more (Mia Sato/The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/news/908401/propublica-union-strike-negotiations-ai-…
Beong-Soo Kim will serve as USC’s 13th President, according to a community-wide email sent Wednesday.
Kim has served as USC’s interim president since July 2025.
The election by the Board of Trustees was unanimous.
A Feb. 5 email from Suzanne Nora Johnson, chair of the USC board of trustees, stated that Kim,
formerly general counsel and senior vice president at USC,
would not be a candidate for the presidency in order to “dedicate all of his efforts to being a fa…
Mass layoffs at Washington Post: Dimming democracy's light
https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/5729864-democracy-dies-in-darkness/
With the WaPo layoffs, we're seeing a business and leadership failure, and the death of a newspaper where the actual journalism still stands strong (Ashley Parker/The Atlantic)
https://www.
Sam Altman says there is some "AI washing", where companies blame AI for layoffs that they would otherwise do, alongside "real displacement by AI" of some jobs (AJ Dellinger/Gizmodo)
https://gizmodo.com/sam-altman-says-companies-are-ai-wash…
Ex-WaPo Executive Editor Marty Baron says "this ranks among the darkest days in the history of" the paper; WaPo laid off Amazon beat reporter Caroline O'Donovan (Todd Spangler/Variety)
https://variety.com/2026/digital/news/
Kennedy Center to start layoffs ahead of planned closure for renovations (Gary Grumbach/NBC News)
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/kennedy-center-layoffs-ahead-planned-closure-renovations-rcna265390
http://www.memeorandum.com/260326/p167#a260326p167
Sources: The Washington Post has laid off a third of its staff; major cuts are also being made on the business side of the Post's beleaguered operations (CNN)
http://www.cnn.com/2026/02/04/media/washington-post-layoffs
Jack Dorsey's Memo Could Signal a New Era of White-Collar Layoffs - Business Insider
https://www.businessinsider.com/jack-dorsey-block-memo-new-era-white-collar-layoffs-2026-2
Amazon plans to cut ~16,000 roles across the company as part of an ongoing effort to reduce organizational layers and bureaucracy, after cuts in October 2025 (Beth Galetti/About Amazon)
https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/amazon-layoffs-corporate-jan…
WaPo Publisher Will Lewis appeared at NFL Honors in San Francisco Thursday, after failing to show for a Zoom call in which WaPo announced historic layoffs (Drew Lerner/Awful Announcing)
https://awfulannouncing.com/newspapers/will-lewis-nfl…
'This Is a Wakeup Call': Critics Disgusted as Billionaire Bezos Guts Washington Post | Common Dreams
https://www.commondreams.org/news/bezos-washington-post-layoffs
Filing: Pinterest plans to lay off less than 15% of its workforce by Q3 and cut back on office space, saying it is "reallocating resources" to AI teams (Annie Palmer/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/27/pinterest-layoffs-stock-ai.html
To avert layoffs, WaPo's White House correspondents, not considered at risk, write a letter to Jeff Bezos highlighting collaborations among the paper's sections (Max Tani/Semafor)
https://www.semafor.com/article/01/29/2026
America Now Has an EV Rust Belt. High Gas Prices Won't Rescue It. (Sharon Terlep/Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/ev-factories-layoffs-autoworkers-f93de8d3?st=2bQRfJ&reflink=article_copyURL_share
http://www.memeorandum.com/260331/p158#a260331p158
In an interview, Washington Post top editor Matt Murray says Jeff Bezos supports "reinvention" and wants WaPo to be "a bigger, relevant, thriving institution" (Brian Stelter/CNN)
http://www.cnn.com/2026/02/04/media/jeff-bezos-matt-murray…
Judge rules Kari Lake unlawfully ran U.S. media agency, voiding layoffs (Scott Nover/Washington Post)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/03/07/kari-lake-unlawful-voice-of-america-ruling/
http://www.memeorandum.com/260307/p64#a260307p64
GAO: Education Dept's RIF cost taxpayers $28M
https://thehill.com/homenews/education/5718437-gao-education-department-layoffs/
Sources: Oracle has cut ~10,000 jobs in India, or ~20% of its Indian workforce, as part of a restructuring that has reportedly affected 30,000 staff worldwide (The Economic Times)
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/t
Sources: WaPo told its ~45-person sports staff that some will be re-assigned within the newsroom, as it cuts one of the great American newspaper sports sections (Dan Shanoff/The Athletic)
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7019090/2026/02/04/washington-post-…
RationalFX: tech layoffs totaled 78,557 in Q1 2026, with the US accounting for 76.7%; nearly half were attributed to AI implementation and workflow automation (Nikkei Asia)
https://asia.nikkei.com/business/techn
Sources: Disney is planning to eliminate as many as 1,000 positions in the coming weeks, many from the company's recently consolidated marketing department (Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/business/media/disney-planning-layoffs-under-new-…
Judge Advances Suit Over RFK Jr.'s Layoffs, Reorganization
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/health-law-and-business/judge-advances-suit-over-rfk-jr-workforce-cuts-reorganization
CBS, Post blind themselves when America needs eyes on the ground (Will Bunch/The Philadelphia Inquirer)
https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/cbs-news-washington-post-layoffs-20260129.html
http://www.memeorandum.com/260129/p95#a260129p95
In a memo to CBS News staff, Bari Weiss and Tom Cibrowski announce layoffs without specifying the extent of the cuts; employees will be notified by end of day (Ted Johnson/Deadline)
https://deadline.com/2026/03/cbs-news-layoffs-bari-weiss-1236761230/
Sony Pictures Entertainment is laying off hundreds of employees across its film studio, TV studios, and corporate to refocus on "strategic priorities" (Alex Weprin/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business
Several Indian tech workers say they are buckling under deadline pressure and worry about layoffs, with many fearing conditions will worsen with the rise of AI (Parth Mn/Rest of World)
https://restofworld.org/2026/india-tech-workers-crisis-suicide/
Layoffs in January were the highest to start a year since 2009, Challenger says (Jeff Cox/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/05/layoff-and-hiring-announcements-hit-their-worst-january-levels-since-2009-challenger-says.html
http://www.memeorandum.com/260205/p35#a260205p35
Sources: ESPN plans to cut ~30 jobs in the coming weeks, primarily in off-camera departments, partly due to a $100M loss tied to its 2025 YouTube TV dispute (John Ourand/Puck)
https://puck.news/espns-next-round-of-layoffs-is-almost-here/
Q&A with Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins on data centers in space, memory shortage, Cisco's networking business, AI bubble, layoffs, AI coding, and more (Nilay Patel/The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/podcast/906727/cisco-ceo-chuck-r…
The Washington Post Correspondents Start "Save The Post" Campaign
https://deadline.com/2026/01/washington-post-layoffs-jeff-bezos-1236697326/
Equalpride, parent company of LGBTQ outlets like Out and The Advocate, cuts staff, including the EICs of Pride.com and The Advocate (Chris Gardner/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/out-…
Amazon reports Q4 AWS revenue up 24% YoY to $35.6B, vs. $34.9B est., AWS operating income up 17% YoY to $12.5B, and boosts capex in 2026 to $200B (Annie Palmer/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/05/amazon-amzn-q4-earnings-report-2025.html
Source: Spotify laid off 15 people, or ~3% of its podcast group, with most cuts coming at Spotify Studios and The Ringer, which is ending a John Jastremski show (Todd Spangler/Variety)
https://variety.com/2026/digital/news/spotify-podcast-…
A look at local TV news' struggles: aging audiences, less network content, shrinking ad revenue, and layoffs of anchors in favor of on-the-ground reporting (Los Angeles Times)
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts
Sources: Oracle plans thousands of job cuts as soon as this month as part of its moves to handle a cash crunch from a massive AI data center expansion effort (Brody Ford/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-05/orac…
A look at local news outlets including The 51st, City Cast, and The Baltimore Banner expanding in Washington, D.C. to help fill a void created by WaPo layoffs (Sophie Culpepper/Nieman Lab)
https://www.niemanlab.org/2026/03/with-was
Sources: WaPo plans to end the sports section in its "current form", restructure the metro desk, and eliminate the books section as part of a "strategic reset" (The Wrap)
https://www.thewrap.com/media-platforms/journalism/washingto…
Pinterest fires two employees who it says "wrote custom scripts" that accessed confidential info to track which workers lost their jobs during recent layoffs (BBC)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn0k670n0ydo
David Ellison made his first public appearance before WBD execs; sources: he called the deal process "turbulent", downplayed layoffs, and left some unsatisfied (Borys Kit/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business
How Jeff Bezos has forced WaPo into severe decline in Trump's second term, including today's mass layoffs that seem to transform it into a kind of Politico-lite (Ruth Marcus/New Yorker)
https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-c…
Layoffs hit Vimeo for the second time since September 2025, when it laid off 10% of its workforce; Bending Spoons acquired Vimeo for around $1.38B in November (Business Insider)
https://www.businessinsider.com/vimeo-laying-off-staff-after-bi…
Memo: WaPo won't send sports staffers to cover the Winter Olympics in Italy, as it assesses financial priorities for 2026, following reports of expected layoffs (Benjamin Lindsay/The Wrap)
https://www.thewrap.com/media-platforms/jo<…
An anonymous WaPo Metro staffer who was just laid off says there are now just ~12 people left on the desk, down from more than 40 (David Folkenflik/NPR)
https://www.npr.org/2026/02/04/nx-s1-5699328/washington-post-layoffs-jobs-bezos
Meta's VR layoffs may help the industry long term, as most affected roles focused on first-party content and games that competed with the broader ecosystem (Palmer Luckey/@palmerluckey)
https://x.com/palmerluckey/status/2013099842529005912
Washington Post Guild Steward Sarah Kaplan says the reported 300 layoffs figure doesn't account for non-Guild cuts, making the actual total "well over" 300 (Paul Farhi/@farhip)
https://x.com/farhip/status/2020591656387694810
Challenger: US tech sector job cuts rose to 18,720 in March, up 24% YoY, taking the Q1 total to 52,000 ; AI accounted for 25% of layoffs across all industries (Julia Fanzeres/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20
Sources: WaPo is laying off up to 300 employees, including over 100 staffers in the sports, metro, and foreign teams; the sports desk may be shuttered entirely (Natalie Korach/Status)
https://www.status.news/p/washington-post-layoffs-cuts-jeff-bezos
Sources: before the layoffs, a group of wealthy DC locals asked Will Lewis whether WaPo would sell them its local and sports sections, but never got an answer (Jon Passantino/Status)
https://www.status.news/p/washington-post-jeff-bezos-ownership-sell
Sources: WaPo's layoffs may narrow its scope to topics of expertise and reader interest based on digital traffic, with politics and video becoming more central (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/29/business/media/washington-post-newsroom.html…
Sources: Starz lays off 7% of staff, 10 months after separating from Lionsgate; it laid off 10% of staff in 2023 (Nellie Andreeva/Deadline)
https://deadline.com/2026/03/starz-layoffs-post-separation-lionsgate-1236761926/
A WaPo newsroom source says senior management was livid that Will Lewis attended Super Bowl festivities as news of layoffs broke, adding, "Bezos lost patience" (Financial Times)
https://giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/actions/redeem/146e2dc…
A US judge rules Kari Lake was illegally empowered to run the USAGM, as she was not Senate-confirmed, and her actions there must be seen as "void", even layoffs (Politico)
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/07/kari-lake-usagm-judge-00818165
Nexstar lays off on-air staffers at LA's KTLA and New York's WPIX, after similar cuts at WGN in Chicago, as the company pursues a merger with Tegna (Matthew Keys/TheDesk.net)
https://thedesk.net/2026/02/nexstar-layoffs-ktla-wpix-tegna-deal/
Sources: NOTUS founder Robert Allbritton has discussed taking advantage of WaPo's layoffs to significantly expand the outlet into a full-scale operation (Max Tani/Semafor)
https://www.semafor.com/article/03/06/2026/poli…
WaPo terminated the contract of its Delhi bureau chief Pranshu Verma; a source says "there is no clarity if the paper will continue with its bureau in Delhi" (Aban Usmani/Newslaundry)
https://www.newslaundry.com/2026/02/05/what-the-murder-o…
Filing: Pinterest plans to lay off less than 15% of its workforce by Q3 and cut back on office space, saying it is "reallocating resources" to AI teams (Annie Palmer/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/27/pinterest-layoffs-stock-ai.html
Sources: Washington Post Executive Editor Matt Murray spiked a story prepared by the newspaper's media desk covering the historic layoffs (Natalie Korach/@nataliekorach)
https://x.com/nataliekorach/status/2019614374432825673