News site Axios is slashing roughly 50 jobs amid volatility in the media landscape, Axios co-founder and Chief Executive Jim VandeHei said Tuesday.
The Axios CEO cited the need to make “difficult changes” to adapt to the changing climate in a memo to staffers.
“We’re making some difficult changes to adapt fast to a rapidly changing media landscape,” he said. “We’re eliminating about 50 positions to get ahead of tectonic shifts in the media, technology and reader needs/ habits. This is a painful but necessary move to tighten our strategic focus and shift investment to our core growth areas.”
VandeHei said impacted employees would be notified about severance packages, adding that most pink-slipped staffers will depart the company on Friday.
Axios employes roughly 500 people.
The exec, who launched Axios with fellow former Politico journalists Mike Allen and Roy Schwartz in 2016, expressed sadness about the layoffs and took responsibility for the upheaval, saying: “The right way to handle this is forthrightly and transparently.”
VandeHei, who sold Axios to Cox Enterprises in 2022 for $525 million, tried to soften the blow of the layoffs, adding:
“This isn’t a reflection on anyone’s work — it’s because of changes in the media business. If you’re understandably upset by the decision, please direct your frustration at me.”
A rep for Axios declined to comment on which divisions were getting slashed.
The layoffs come at a particularly volatile time for media companies, which are being squeezed by shrinking advertising and a slowdown in web traffic due to changes in Facebook and Google’s search algorithm.
Digital media companies have been severely impacted by the headwinds with Business Insider slashing 8% of its staff in January. The Messenger, a news startup, shut down entirely at the end of January after less than a year in operations, leaving 300 employees jobless and without severance.
Buzzfeed cut 16% of its workforce and sold sister brand Complex in February, as Vice Media stopped publishing on Vice.com, and slashed hundreds of jobs, among others.
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