US news agency AP looks to cut almost one in 10 jobs
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The agency was founded in 1846 and has journalists in nearly 100 countries and all 50 US states, according to its website.
PHOTO: EPA
NEW YORK - The US-based Associated Press news agency is looking to cut almost one in 10 jobs to slash costs, its management said on Nov 18, as the wire service battles client cancellations and economic challenges.
In a memo to the AP workforce seen by Agence France-Presse, management said the cuts would affect “about 8 per cent of our workforce, with less than half impacting the news division”.
The agency was founded in 1846 and has journalists in nearly 100 countries and all 50 US states, according to its website.
In a note to employees on Nov 18, the AP News Guild said the cuts were the result of revenue declines and would affect the organisation’s global bureaus and administrative staff.
The note said as many as 121 employees would be eligible for a buyout package, adding that managers said the buyouts aimed to avoid layoffs.
The AP has come under financial pressure over the past year as some news organisations have abandoned the service.
Gannett, the publisher of USA Today and the largest newspaper company in the US, announced in March that it would stop using reports provided by the AP.
McClatchy, the newspaper chain that owns The Sacramento Bee and The Kansas City Star, followed soon after.
Still, the AP is among a dwindling number of news organisations that cover the entire globe.
Periodic belt-tightening has stretched the ranks of international correspondents ever thinner over the years, even as crackdowns on press freedoms have made foreign reporting more hazardous.
The cuts come two weeks after US election day, when AP played a key role by calling races across the US.
The wire service temporarily increased its staff for the election, bringing aboard thousands of contractors to cover the results.
Like other traditional news organisations, AP has turned to philanthropy to shore up eroding finances. The news cooperative said in June that it was setting up a non-profit organisation to raise money for statewide and local funding.
The AP was also among the first news organisations to strike a deal with OpenAI to license its news content to the artificial intelligence giant.
Mr Tony Winton, administrator for the News Media Guild union, said: “It’s a pretty sad day for journalism... I think of the collective journalistic skill that could be exiting (and) that’s a hell of a blow.” NYTIMES, AFP
