Layoffs and closures, news and entertainment suffering from changes.
By Kelli Ballard Dec 31, 2024 @ Liberty Nation News, Tags: Articles, Opinion, Politics
The year 2024 will be known for many things: two assassination attempts on Donald Trump, a president basically forced out of office and a vice president becoming the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate without voter approval, and a 40-year-high inflation, to name a few. Virtually every aspect of American life has changed, and not just politically. The entertainment sector suffered greatly as well, and things don’t look to improve in the coming years.
Nearly 15,000 jobs were lost during 2024 across television, broadcast, film, streaming, and news. In 2023, 21,417 jobs were cut according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., an agency that tracks the employment market. Although, as of December, there were 14,909 jobs lost in 2024, a bit lower than the previous year, that doesn’t mean the industry is rebounding. In fact, with factors such as artificial intelligence and streaming, experts warn the entertainment business will likely face even more struggles.
Why Is the Entertainment Industry Struggling?
The business used to be booming. “From 2010 to 2017, the media industry lost 7,305 jobs per year on average, according to Challenger’s data,” The Wrap reported. “Since 2018, the average number of annual job cuts has jumped to 14,298.”
Leaving California
The Golden State hasn’t just been losing residents looking for “redder” pastures. Hollywood is also losing production to other states and the UK, where there are better tax breaks. In the third quarter, production dropped 5% in California, with reality TV production losing a massive 56%, The Wrap explained.
Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Tony Vinciquerra told The Hollywood Reporter: “There’s a very significant difference in California, which has been the hardest hit [and] just hasn’t responded to what’s going on in the world of incentives. The cost of doing business in California is so high that it’s very difficult to price out a film.”
Artificial Intelligence
The SAG-AFTRA strike in 2023 brought to attention the concerns about using AI in the film industry. Actors and writers protested the use and walked off their jobs for 118 days. Studios may have thought to save money by scanning actors and then using their images – over and over – while the actor only received a one-day payment, but the strike put an end to that and provided other protections.
Filmmaker and AI regulation activist Justine Bateman spoke at The Wrap’s “The Grill” conference in October and said artificial intelligence threatens to “burn down” the entertainment business. “If you start taking out chunks of duties, maybe the whole marketing department, maybe a camera, maybe all the actors or half the actors, or the crew doesn’t qualify for insurance because you’re only using them for three weeks instead of 12. Whatever it is, the structure will collapse.”
Here’s a brief look at some of the Entertainment jobs lost in 2024:
- In January, Amazon studios cut hundreds of jobs.
- In February, Paramount Global laid off about 800 staffers.
- Netflix laid off around 12 people in April.
- Fox Entertainment let go of 30 staffers in July.
- Warner Bros. Discovery laid off nearly 1,000 employees in July.
- Paramount Global started a plan to reduce around 2,000 employees in August, and Paramount Television Studios closed, which impacted between 20-30 jobs.
Disney had several rounds of job cuts as well, including:
- 175 (14% of the division) Pixar Animation staff
- Around 300 corporate staffers in September
- About 75 staffers across ABC News and owned stations in October.
- 140 staffers at Disney Entertainment Television
- 15 staffers across Marvel Entertainment and Marvel Studios
News and Media
Advertising has had a major impact on the media industry. Traditional print or digital mediums have mostly been abandoned for digital companies such as Facebook and Google. A study from Reuters Institute showed that only 15% of Americans pay to read the news from a local outlet while less than one-in-four pay for a digital news subscription, The Wrap reported. When it comes to streaming services, though, 85% of Americans pay for at least one service, a report from Deloitte pointed out. In other words, people don’t want to pay for their news.
Artificial intelligence has its hand in the news as well. In 2024, it was integrated into the newsroom when OpenAI struck a number of licensing partnerships, including with such giants as New York Post, Vox, and Time Magazine. The contracts allow the AI company to use content from these outlets in answers from its chatbot.
“Currently, AI aids news workers rather than replaces them, but there are no guarantees this will remain the case,” according to a report from Columbia University’s journalism school. “AI is sufficiently mature to enable the replacement of at least some journalism jobs, either directly or because fewer workers are needed.”
And need we mention the lack of trust people have in the mainstream media? A recent Gallup poll discovered that only 31% of respondents said they had a “great deal” or “fair amount” of confidence that media will report the news “fully, accurately and fairly.”
The Trump Factor
“Ironically, the best thing for major outlets could be Trump’s return to the White House,” The Wrap noted, citing The New York Times as an example. “[T]he ‘paper of records’ stock price increased from $12.75 to $49.07 between the time he entered and left the Oval Office.”
However, the outlet warned this next four years could be trickier for media when it comes to the incoming president who has made it a mission to go after those who report “fake news.” An L.A. Times editor told The Wrap that Trump’s return and aggressive measures against the media will be good for some and bad for others:
“Because only a handful really cover Trump aggressively, and it’s going to be very difficult for them, because this is going to be an administration that is the most hostile ever to the press. Out of that, the ones that are courageous and can do a good job are going to do well – but there’s not many that can do that.”
With that, we’ll leave you with a brief rundown of jobs cut in the media in 2024:
Vice Media announced in February it would lay off several hundred people and close its website. In July, CNN laid off 100 employees. Scripps, in September, removed 200 jobs and announced it would start “winding down” its national news operation. ABC News, owned by Disney, laid off 75 people in October. Hearst, which owns publications such as Esquire and Cosmopolitan, laid off almost 200 people in November.
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