The Intercept - Cutbacks, layoffs, and shutdowns

Readers of The Intercept are a pretty well-informed bunch, so you’ve no doubt heard about the widespread economic struggles facing the journalism industry.

We want to let you know that these reports are not exaggerated. In fact, however bad you think it is, it’s probably even worse.

Since the start of 2024, the Los Angeles Times laid off more than 100 journalists. NBC News and MSNBC cut about 75. The Washington Post is buying out more than 200. Business Insider, Time, Forbes, CBS News, and, sadly, even The Intercept have made staff reductions.

Other outlets have disappeared completely. BuzzFeed News, Vice News, and Jezebel are all gone. The Messenger, an ambitious news website that launched just last May with $50 million to spend, didn’t even make it eight months before shutting down.

Driving these cutbacks is a series of converging factors, including rising costs, falling advertising revenue, and Big Tech giants like Meta and Google suppressing links to media outlets.

These trends are unlikely to change anytime soon. So The Intercept is taking steps to position ourselves for the long term while navigating the industrywide crisis. The cornerstone of our plan is growing the number of readers who become recurring monthly donors — providing a stable base of support that we can count on to keep publishing.

To stay on track, we need to recruit an additional 3,000 monthly donors by April 30 — and you’re receiving this email because you’re not yet a monthly donor. Will you sign up to give $5 a month to support the hard-hitting, independent investigative journalism of The Intercept?

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