The deal is the latest in a wave of consolidation among digital publishers.
The move runs contrary to what has become the typical business model for digital news outlets.
The layoffs came swiftly last week. At Vice Media, 155 people lost their jobs. Quartz laid off 80. Condé Nast, publisher of glossy magazines such as Vogue, cut 100 people. And as BuzzFeed furloughed staffers at its overseas divisions, its U.S.-based staffers braced for similar cuts. For those who had been watching local newspapers struggle in the era of digitization, these announcements were sobering: Even the media business’s most savvy, innovative and glamorous players are hurting.
Nearly half the employees at the international business news site will lose their jobs as the eight-year-old outlet emphasizes paid subscriptions over advertising revenue.
Exclusives
Making News Millennials Will Want To Watch
One of the biggest challenges for news operations is stopping young consumers’ thumbs from moving from a new story to other distractions on mobile devices. Techniques that news organizations are testing to attract and retain millennials include fresh presentations, voice interfaces, automation, augmented reality and creating chat-like apps.
For some of the publishers chasin the broadest scale, maybe. A new study from the Reuters Institute examines the strengths and weaknesses of seven globally ambitious news companies — Brut, Business Insider, De Correspondent, HuffPost, Mashable, Quartz, and Vice.
Tech To Court Next-Gen At NewsTECHForum
AP’s Andy Carvin, Quartz’s John Keefe, The E.W. Scripps Co.’s Rob McCracken and GateHouse Media’s Penny Riordan will look at how social platforms, bots and voice-enabled technologies are building audience engagement and loyalty among cord-cutting millennials at TVNewsCheck’s sixth annual NewsTECH Forum on Dec. 11-12.
