Walkouts, Layoffs and an X Exodus: Media News Recap for November

Welcome to Media Insider, PR Newswire’s roundup of media news stories from the month.

November marked another transformative month for the media industry, with significant developments reshaping nearly every corner of the business. The election dominated headlines, but Elon Musk and X also found themselves at the forefront as users and publishers continued to abandon the platform. Meanwhile, newsrooms from The New York Times to Forbes experienced walkouts, highlighting tensions within the industry. And, of course, AI remained a hot topic, with news organizations joining forces to sue OpenAI.

Dive in for a breakdown of this month’s top stories.

X Sees Largest User Exodus Since Elon Musk Takeover

On the day after the election, X, formerly known as Twitter, experienced its largest user exodus since Elon Musk bought the platform in 2022. And now, users are running to alternative text-based social media apps like Bluesky and Instagram’s Threads.

Those numbers appear to be climbing, as brands and users like The Guardian and Don Lemon continued to announce their departures from the platform.

More than 1 million people joined Bluesky in the week following the election, bringing its user base to over 15 million people, while Instagram announced that Threads had surpassed 275 million monthly active users.

According to data from Similarweb, a third-party company that tracks social media analytics, daily traffic to Bluesky jumped above that of Threads on Nov. 6. When the data was gathered in mid-November, Bluesky was the no. 1 free app on Apple’s App Store, directly ahead of Threads. (NBC News)

Related developments:

• The Guardian quit X, citing concerns over racism and conspiracy theories. (Reuters)
• Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia announced it will stop posting on X. (Barron’s)
• Bluesky added more than 1 million users since Election Day. (Associated Press)

Staff Walkouts at Forbes and The Guardian Reflect Growing Labor Tensions

Two prominent publishers faced temporary strikes this month, highlighting ongoing labor disputes in the media industry.

Forbes Union members walked out for one day, coinciding with the release of the magazine’s “30 Under 30” listing, according to the NewsGuild of New York. “We walked out today, on the day of the ‘30 Under 30’ launch, to show that value and to make it clear that we will not stand for management’s violations of labor law,” said Andrea Murphy, unit chair and statistics editor for Forbes.

In the UK, journalists at The Guardian and The Observer voted to strike to protest the planned sale of the latter publication to Tortoise Media. The strike was to run for four days. (MediaPost)

These actions are part of a wider wave of labor activity across the media industry. Notable developments include:

• The New York Times Tech Guild went on strike earlier this month but ended it without reaching a deal. (MediaPost)
• Writers at “Frontline,” “NOVA” and other PBS shows threatened to strike. (Variety)
• After six years of negotiations, Chicago Tribune journalists secured their first contract. (Editor & Publisher)
• Journalists in 11 Southern California newsrooms ratified a contract with Alden Global Capital, averting a strike. (MediaPost)
• In Greece, journalist unions staged a 24-hour strike. (Associated Press)
• After three years of negotiations, the Austin NewsGuild reached an agreement with the Austin American-Statesman. (MediaPost)

Publishing Doldrums: Jobs Are Being Cut, Although Fewer Than Last Year

If you’re still employed in the news business, consider yourself fortunate. By September 27, at least 2,500 jobs were eliminated in the UK and U.S. media, according to the UK’s Press Gazette estimate. Of course, that is an improvement over the 8,000 layoffs seen in the UK, U.S. and Canada in 2023.

As to the reasons for this, it is easy to fall back on the usual excuses, like the propensity of hedge funds to gut newsrooms. But advertising is also somewhat sluggish, and publishers are feeling beleaguered.

One sign of hope is that several firms have signed contracts with labor unions, allowing for at least some job protection. For instance, layoffs will be based on reverse seniority, which is the traditional way of handling these events. (MediaPost)

November layoff announcements included:

• The Associated Press cut 8% of staff through layoffs and buyouts. (TheWrap)
• iHeart Media announced significant layoffs, impacting around 10,000 employees. (The Hollywood Reporter)
• Magazine publisher Dotdash Meredith laid off 53 people, about 1.5% of its staff. (MediaPost)
• G/O Media cut Kotaku to the bone as more writers were laid off. (Aftermath)
• Hearst Magazines was hit by layoffs as it reallocated resources in response to industry changes. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Canada’s Major News Organizations Band Together to Sue ChatGPT Creator OpenAI

A broad coalition of Canada’s major news organizations, including the Toronto Star, Metroland Media, Postmedia, Globe and Mail, Canadian Press and CBC, is suing tech giant OpenAI, saying the company is illegally using news articles to train its ChatGPT software.

It’s the first time all of a country’s major news publishers have come together in litigation against OpenAI. The suit, filed in Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice, seeks punitive damages, disgorgement of any profits made by OpenAI from using the news organizations’ articles, and an injunction barring OpenAI from using any of the news articles in the future.

The suit seeks up to $20,000 in statutory damages per article used by OpenAI, which could put the total value of the suit in the range of billions of dollars. (Toronto.com)

In more AI news:

• OpenAI mistakenly erased content needed in New York Times case. (MediaPost)
• ly founders secured $6.4M for a new AI startup. (Axios)
• OpenAI has agreed to pay Dotdash Meredith at least $16 million to license its content. (Adweek)
• Meta formed a product group focused on building AI tools for business. (Axios)
• A study found ChatGPT misattributed article sources. (Columbia Journalism Review)
• OpenAI is exploring chatbot ads. (Axios)
• A Ziff Davis study revealed that AI firms rely on publisher data to train their models. (Axios)

The Onion Buys Alex Jones’ Infowars at Auction

Satirical news publication The Onion was named the winning bidder for Alex Jones’ Infowars at a bankruptcy auction. The sale was backed by families of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims, to whom Jones owes more than $1 billion in defamation judgments for calling the massacre a hoax.

The purchase would turn over Jones’ company, which for decades has peddled conspiracies and misinformation, to a humor website that plans to relaunch the Infowars platform as a parody of itself. (Associated Press)

However, the proceedings took an unexpected turn when a bidder affiliated with Jones raised an 11th-hour objection to the deal. Since then, a flurry of court filings put a spotlight on the final act of the bankruptcy proceedings, which have proved to be just as chaotic as those that preceded them. (New York Times)

The judge overseeing the bankruptcy has scheduled a December hearing to decide whether The Onion’s purchase is fair. The judge also declined Jones’ request for a temporary restraining order to disqualify The Onion’s bid. (MSNBC)

Elon Musk and X have also entered the fight — the social platform is trying to block the transfer of the platform’s InfoWars accounts to the Onion, stating that it owns users’ accounts. (The Guardian)

ICYMI

Here is some additional industry news you might have missed last month:

• Inside Paris Hilton’s booming media business, 11:11. (Axios)
• Wired strikes a partnership with 404 Media. (Talking Biz News)
• The Independent claims it leads U.S. traffic growth among British publications. (MediaPost)
• Newsletter platform Substack secures $10 million in new funding. (Axios)
• Former Business Insider editor Nicholas Carson is launching a new company that will focus on video. (New York Times)
• Investor building newspaper chain eyes Lee Enterprises, Dallas News. (Wall Street Journal)
• St. Louis food magazine Feast shutters its print edition. (MediaPost)
• Newsletter platform beehiiv launched a multi-million-dollar journalism fund. (Axios)

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