Vice and BuzzFeed laid off hundreds of workers in 2023 because audiences moved to TikTok, Instagram, and Substack, while AI tools made cheap content production possible. Media companies are keeping only top writers and cutting everyone else.
There have been some big media layoffs in 2023. So when you think about Vice, when you think about BuzzFeed, a lot, a lot of media layoffs. The old media companies, especially the ones that haven't adapted, they're getting crushed because the new way of doing media, it might be like on TikTok or Instagram or on other mediums, or maybe people are just starting their own Substacks. Whatever it is exactly, it's changing, right? The other thing is with the advent of AI, the cost per writer or the cost for writing in general, it's getting a lot cheaper, right? And so people are really sticking around with the best people that they have, and maybe they're letting go of the people that are maybe B and C players because they only want to focus on the top tier.
