The wrong people will be laid off…again

My entire career, I have attempted to push our newsrooms’ cultures to embrace new technologies, new opportunities, and new realities in our industry. I’ve written some past predictions about this work here too. But, as we enter a new year, it is time to admit that embracing these disruptions in our newsrooms is no longer the largest obstacle we face.

There are countless examples of how — despite not having appropriate resources — journalists have done more with less and succeeded in producing quality products across the growing landscape of modern journalism. Whether it is newsletters, podcasts, social media, or live events, journalists have not only embraced these new forms, they’ve elevated journalism and brought in new audiences.

What has continued to fail is the leadership and executives running the business. They fail to monetize these successful new news products, while other content producers seem to make money.

Journalists are not the problem. Editorial management (a.k.a. newsroom leadership) is no longer the problem — mainly because they’ve retired or, sorry to be blunt, died and more modern leadership has taken over. Culture to embrace our digital/modern reality is not the biggest problem. Everyone gets it.

Despite producing award-winning, audience-attracting news products, our business side executives have failed to lead and find ways to monetize them.

Yet when layoffs come, those who sold us the false business ideas of “pivot to video” or “get me their emails” or “put on live events” or “we need new podcasts” or “let’s get IP to sell to Netflix” aren’t the ones paying the layoff price. We’ve all seen many of these leaders not only stay but get promoted — and in some cases be the authors of the memos announcing newsroom cuts.

I am not saying they’re our enemies. Far from it. For any news organization to succeed, we need to be partners, collaborating as we find innovative solutions to sustain our journalism and serve our community. Whether you are a journalist or a money person, that is the sole mission — either get on board or get out. And there are examples of this in both local and national markets.

What I’m saying is it’s time to hold our business executives accountable. Look at your direct boss — chances are they aren’t making the business decisions, just putting them into practice. They may tell you we need a TikTok presence or it’s time to leave X for Bluesky (I have codes, btw), but they don’t have a clue how these new products will be converted into revenue.

But you do it anyway — and you do it well.

Now think of your boss’s boss…or even their boss. If they aren’t charged with finding revenue, they have a colleague on the business side, and these are the people who are suppose to bring us to modern financial stability.

How often do these executives face consequences, like a general assignment reporter in the newsroom? Chances are they’ve gotten bonuses and raises, while newsrooms fight for better pay. Chances are they’re currently laying off people in the name of AI — and when they mishandle that technology, they’ll pivot to the next thing, not facing consequences.

Chances are they have left a gutted organization and are (somehow) raising millions for a new news startup — which, based on their track record, will fail and lead to more layoffs.

I’m not naive enough to think that this prediction is going to have them face their shortcomings, or that there aren’t a few executives doing the best they can. Yes, yes, yes — hedge funds are a huge problem. No doubt.

But if there is a news org that is genuinely trying to produce a viable product, then there had better be business leadership that delivers — or gets replaced if it doesn’t.

And when someone asks you to launch a new news product, you better be proactive and hands-on working with the business side collaboratively, finding ways to monetize it.

If we have a dedicated journalist to produce a successful newsletter, then we need them to have a dedicated business person to monetize it. And their challenge needs to be to fund their salaries and bring additional revenue into the newsroom budget.

Everyone needs to roll up their sleeves to produce and fund journalism. If making money off journalism is your job, deliver or step aside. If they aren’t held accountable, the wrong people will be laid off again.