Podcasts, Job Cuts and AI: Media News Recap for March

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

March brought more turbulence to the media industry, with continued job cuts reshaping newsrooms and unions pushing back against growing uncertainty. The role of AI in journalism remained a flashpoint, fueling debate over its risks and opportunities. Meanwhile, the podcast industry continued to grow, with new shows launching to meet audiences’ growing appetite for fresh content.

Let’s dive into the month’s top stories. 

A ‘Landmark Year’ for Podcasting

Monthly podcast listening has reached a milestone, as Edison Research says a majority of Americans 12 and older have consumed a podcast in the past 30 days. The growth from a year ago includes a one-point uptick in audio listening, but the biggest driver has been the gain in video consumption. Edison projects 158 million people, or 55% of Americans, are monthly podcast listeners.

“This is truly a landmark year for podcasting,” Edison VP Megan Lazovick said. “For the first time, more than half of Americans are now monthly podcast consumers. No matter how you measure it by audio or video consumption, podcasting continues to show impressive growth.”

A big reason digital listening is growing? Four in 10 Americans say they have a dashboard integration with their mobile phones. The result is that a majority (55%) of Americans 18 and older say they have listened to online audio in their car during the past month either via a phone or directly through the vehicle system. It means both online audio and podcast listening are bigger than roughly the one in four who listened to either SiriusXM or CDs. (Inside Radio)

More podcast industry moves:

• Michelle Obama’s next act: video podcaster. (New York Times)
• Fast Company launched the “Brand New World” podcast. (Talking Biz News)
• ABC News is pivoting its audio podcast strategy to focus on true crime. (Hollywood Reporter)
• Reveal launched a new ongoing podcast series. (Editor & Publisher)
• States Newsroom announced plans for a national podcast. (Editor & Publisher)
• An NPR study found that news podcast listeners have higher education and income. (MediaPost)

2025 Journalism Job Cuts Continue

Job losses in the journalism industry slowed in February, with just over 210 layoffs, down from 900 in January.

Among the most affected media companies in February were MSNBC, the Los Angeles Times (via voluntary buyouts) and New York Public Radio.

The Press Gazette is tracking all journalism industry job cuts in the UK and US throughout 2025 via its 2025 journalism job cuts tracker.

Other media outlets that announced cuts last month:

• The Chicago Sun-Times lost 20% of its staff after a buyout offer. (Chicago Sun-Times)
• Scripps cut staff at local stations. (Axios)
• The Philadelphia Inquirer shut down its communities and engagement desk. (MediaPost)
• The Maine Trust for Local News eliminated 49 staff positions. (MediaPost)
• Disney laid off 200 employees at ABC News Group and Disney Entertainment Networks. (Wall Street Journal)
• FiveThirtyEight shut down as part of broader ABC/Disney cuts. (NiemanLab)
• Outside magazine staffers demanded their names be removed from the masthead after layoffs. (MediaPost)
• Voice of America and Office for Cuba Broadcasting suspended all full-time staff. (NPR)
• Louisville Public Media offered buyouts due to a budget shortfall. (Louisville Business Journal)

Gannett and Bergen Record Union Members Reach Deal

Gannett avoided a threatened walkout in New Jersey by reaching a two-year contract deal with reporters at the Bergen Record, Daily Record and New Jersey Herald. The contract, which provides average salary increases of 25%, was ratified by 95% of the employees, according to the Record Guild union, which represents 68 editorial employees. (MediaPost)

This comes on the heels of another contract agreement between Gannett and The NewsGuild of New York affecting six of Gannett’s largest papers in New Jersey and New York. The agreement — which affects staff at Asbury Park Press, Courier News, Home News Tribune, Journal News, Poughkeepsie Journal and Times Herald-Record — ends three years of contentious bargaining over pay increases and job protections. (Editor & Publisher)

More labor updates:

• Unionized NBC editorial staffers reached a tentative contract deal. (MediaPost)
• Striking Pittsburgh Post-Gazette workers accepted buyouts. (MediaPost)
• The court granted an injunction in a Post-Gazette labor dispute. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Italian Newspaper Says It Published the World’s First AI-Generated Edition

An Italian newspaper said it is the first in the world to publish an edition entirely produced by artificial intelligence.

The initiative by Il Foglio, a daily newspaper with nationwide circulation, is part of a month-long journalistic experiment to show the impact AI technology has “on our way of working and our days,” the newspaper’s editor, Claudio Cerasa, said.

“It will be the first daily newspaper in the world on newsstands created entirely using artificial intelligence,” said Cerasa. “For everything. For the writing, the headlines, the quotes, the summaries. And, sometimes, even for the irony.” He added that journalists’ roles would be limited to “asking questions [into an AI tool] and reading the answers.”

The experiment comes as news organizations around the world grapple with how AI should be deployed. Earlier in March, the Guardian reported that BBC News would use AI to give the public more personalized content. (The Guardian)

More AI developments:

• The Los Angeles Times is displaying AI-generated political ratings on opinion pieces. (The Guardian)
• Patch expanded its AI newsletters to 30,000 communities – nearly every U.S. town. (Axios)
• Local newsrooms are using AI to listen in on public meetings. (NiemanLab)
• AI chatbots generate virtually no referral traffic to publishers. (Editor & Publisher)

Yahoo Sells TechCrunch to Investment Firm Regent

Yahoo has struck a deal to sell TechCrunch, the 20-year-old tech journalism site, to Regent, a media investment firm.

Regent is trying to build a portfolio of tech news sites and is eager to invest in news. Earlier, it acquired Foundry, which houses a slew of online tech publications, such as PCWorld, Macworld and TechAdvisor.

Financial deal terms were not disclosed. The deal will not require regulatory review, which is normally needed for deals valued at roughly more than $100 million. (Axios)

Other news from March you might have missed:

• A Washington Post shakeup triggers mass subscription cancellations. (NPR)
• OptOut News, an aggregation app for independent news, shut down. (NiemanLab)
• Alex Konrad, former senior editor at Forbes, launched Upstarts Media. (Talking Biz News)
• Game Informer is back, and so is its entire staff. (The Verge)
• Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions is in talks with Peter Chernin’s new content studio. (Axios)
• Dan Abrams is seeking investors for his new media venture, Bottle Raiders. (Axios)

Subscribe to Beyond Bylines to get media trends, journalist interviews, blogger profiles, and more sent right to your inbox.

Email Address

Subscribe