Anyone in the media asking why?

We’ve all heard about the LA Times fighting for its life. The recent VP Harris interview with CNN drew 332,000 in total viewers and just 72,000 in the coveted 25-54 demographic. In other words, nobody watched.

The newsrooms from coast to coast are doing more “layoffs” than reporting these days:

Reality is rapidly catching up with US corporate media — As newsrooms find themselves in absolute free fall:

•  The Times lost $30-40 million in 2023, cutting 74 jobs
•  WaPo lost $100 million, cutting 240 jobs
•  The LA Times just laid off 115 journalists — 22% of its newsroom
•  NPR cut 10% of their employees last year
•  The Atlantic is still unable to turn a profit
•  NBC just slashed 75 jobs

And this represents just a fraction of the dire situation and outlook for US corporate media.

What are these reporters doing when they get a pink slip and are told to clean their desks? Is anyone asking why? Why aren’t people reading or watching?

To be fair, a lot of people are cancelling newspaper subscriptions and getting their news from the internet. Is it all about the internet or could they be fed up with media organizations that present the news from a certain point of view?

How about CNN? Is anyone in that network asking questions about how an interview with the vice president gets ratings like that? It was embarrassing.

Nobody wants to see anyone get laid off or a news channel go down the tubes. So my question is simple: Is there any reflection among these journalists about their lost jobs or organizations losing audiences?

In any other profession, management would be curious about customers dropping or switching. I remember cancelling an auto insurance policy years ago and getting a call from the agency asking a question: “What did we do wrong” “Why aren’t you a customer anymore” “Why” “Why”?

Apparently, no one does that in the media. They just sit around and talk about Trump turning into a dictator or how MAGA people are deplorable.

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Image: Quinn Dombrowski