Axios announces layoffs for 10% of its workforce
The media company reported that it would lay off a total of 50 employees. A decision that, said its CEO, Jim VandeHei, was made due to "changes in the media business."
Axios co-founder and CEO Jim VandeHei during a May 3, 2022 conference in Beverly Hills.
Axios announced Tuesday that it will lay off 10% of its total workforce. As reported by its co-founder and CEO of the newspaper, Jim VandeHei, this will affect a total of 50 employees who will stop working with the company soon.
These affected individuals, he explained via a memo to his employees, will receive an email with information about severance packages as well as an invitation to a meeting with a leader of their team and a member of the People Team.
"We wanted to tell each of you in person first, but the mechanics of that proved infeasible."
The decision, the executive clarified, is being made in an attempt to "adapt fast to a rapidly changing media landscape."
"We’re eliminating around 50 positions to get ahead of tectonic shifts in the media, technology and reader needs/habits. This is a painful but necessary move to tighten our strategic focus and shift investment to our core growth areas."
The news, obtained exclusively by The New York Times reporter, Katie Robertson, comes a few months after other media outlets also cut down their staff.
Examples include Univision, Los Angeles Times, Forbes, and Business Insider and all of them blamed the layoffs on the same cause as Axios, "changes in the media business":
"As I've said before, this is the most difficult moment for media in our lifetime. Only those who move fast — and make difficult, decisive moves — will thrive."
Given this, the media company's CEO explained, while the company will continue to hire in "key areas," it will also need to implement some measure to stem the losses brought on by fragmentation of reader attention, new rivals and the emergence of artificial intelligence models capable of summarizing news.
Along with this, VandeHei explained that they would boost their "US news coverage" and also expand "their city-specific news bulletins to new locations faster" where this product may be of interest.
Finally, he detailed, they would also continue to bet on its subscription product, Axios Pro, aimed at business professionals and one of the most profitable for the company while also looking to close "potential acquisitions."
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