The Associated Press says buyouts and some layoffs are coming as it aims to cut its workforce by 8%

David Bauder
| Associated Press

The Associated Press said Monday that the news organization will begin buyout offers and lay off selected employees as part of a plan to reduce its staff by about 8% and accelerate the transition to a digital-first organization.

The move is part of what is expected to be a demoralizing year-end in the news industry, beset by years-old business woes. The end of a busy presidential election cycle was also expected to accelerate restructuring plans.

Those eligible to purchase will be informed of the offer, which includes severance pay and partial health insurance for 18 months, by the end of Monday, the AP said. Those whose positions will be eliminated will learn their fate in the next few weeks.

AP, once considered the world’s largest news gathering organization, no longer makes that claim and does not disclose the number of its employees. As a result, it was impossible to tell how many people would be affected on Monday. Less than half of the expected cuts would involve news workers, and the majority would occur in the United States, the AP said.

News Media Guild said it would make a buyout offer to 121 of its members. Layoffs would be fewer among union members, the AP said, without making any predictions.

Gabriel Kahn, who helps run the media, economics and entrepreneurship program at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, said news executives have been forced to make cuts for years because it was difficult to find solutions to business problems. This has become more difficult over the past few years, he said, as journalists’ work has become much less visible on social media due to changes in search algorithms and artificial intelligence.

“They unplugged the bathtub and we’re watching the water go down the drain,” Kahn said.

Priding itself on being an unbiased news source, AP delivers news, images, video, audio and interactive content directly to consumers through its website. apnews.com. But the bulk of its business comes from selling its journalism to other news organizations that use it.

Earlier this year, two major news chains, Gannett and McClatchy, said they would stop hearing from the AP if Gannett ended its more than century-long relationship. The AP has diversified its revenue stream in recent years, including accepting philanthropic funds, but it still suffers from the news industry’s general woes.

“We all know this is a time of transformation in the media industry,” Daisy Veerasingham, AP’s president and CEO, said in a memo to staff early Monday morning. “Our customers (both who they are and what they need from us) are changing rapidly. That’s why we’re focused on delivering digital-first news. “We now need to accelerate on this path.”

Broadly speaking, this means a greater emphasis on visual journalism – photography, video and digital content that combines them with storytelling.

An AP spokeswoman said Veerasingham was unavailable for an interview.

AP remains a central part of the news industry ecosystem, especially when it comes to US elections. During its election coverage earlier this month, AP made unprecedented use of live video, election data, visuals and interactive products, Veerasingham said.

AP said it had reached a tentative agreement with its union to offer the buyouts, but that was subject to approval by its members. The president of the AP union did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment Monday.

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