Reuters has laid off more than a dozen staffers in what management described to one employee as “restructuring.”
The cuts hit at least three top editors based in the United States and another 10 staffers in London. There were also an untold number of additional layoffs across foreign bureaus, including Poland, Italy and elsewhere in Europe and Asia.
“Layoffs were described to us as a restructuring,” a U.S.-based employee told TheWrap on Monday.
In the United States, the news organization dropped Americas desk editor Toni Reinhold, her deputy, Clive McKeef, and U.S. public finance editor Daniel Bases.
On the Americas desk, the layoffs sent a tremor through the newsroom and prompted an internal letter of protest to desk chief Howard Goller that called the dismissals “an incredibly foolish move.”
The news was first reported by Politico in its morning newsletter.
A spokesperson for Reuters declined to get into specifics or to provide numbers on how many employees were affected, saying only that the layoffs were implemented to improve “efficiency” at the company.
“We are currently reviewing our global operations and how our newsrooms are organized as we look to enhance the quality of our work and ensure we are serving our customers’ changing needs,” they said.
“We are confident that the changes we are making will increase our efficiency, enhance our services and allow us to produce more of the high-impact journalism – exclusives, investigations and insights – that we know is valued by our clients.”
It’s only the latest in a string of bad news for journalists, as 2018 proves to be a year of broad national and international retrenchment for news organizations. Only last week, Mic.com laid off its entire newsroom in advance of a firesale to Bustle, while BuzzFeed shut down its offices in France earlier this year. Univision, The Daily News, The Denver Post and Upworthy have all also slashed staff in 2018.