Legacy media faces major shake-ups and layoffs as viewership plummets and staff morale sinks
Washington, D.C.: The state of legacy media is looking pretty grim as we head into 2025. If it were a movie, the theme from “Jaws” would be playing in the background.
There’s a real sense of panic, with viewers and readers bailing out like beachgoers spotting a shark. Just this week, MSNBC President Rashida Jones announced her exit, and The Washington Post is cutting even more jobs.
Internal data shows that the Post’s daily online traffic has dropped significantly, from 22.5 million users in January 2021 to just 2.5 to 3 million now. That’s a staggering loss of 85 to 90% of their audience in just four years.
They’ve also faced two years of massive financial losses, totaling over $100 million. Last week alone, around 100 jobs were cut, and many well-known reporters are leaving the paper.
Jeff Bezos, the owner, seems to get why this is happening. He pointed out that the Post and The New York Times are increasingly talking only to a small elite audience.
But staffers are blaming him for the current mess. A petition signed by 400 journalists expressed deep concern over leadership decisions that have hurt the paper’s integrity.
It’s wild to think that without Bezos propping up the paper, many of these folks would be out of a job. One notable departure was columnist Jennifer Rubin, who made headlines for her extreme views.
Things aren’t looking any better at MSNBC. Their ratings are tanking, with just 631,000 viewers tuning in recently. In the key demographic that matters for ad sales, they only managed 53,000 viewers.
To put that in perspective, that’s less than the population of El Paso, Texas. So what’s their big plan? More Rachel Maddow! She’s going back to a five-day-a-week schedule, doubling down on her partisan approach.
Meanwhile, CNN is struggling too. Conservative analyst Scott Jennings is the only one making waves, often outshining a panel of liberal voices. It would make sense for CNN to give him his own show, but that’s unlikely given the current climate.
In fact, CNN’s primetime lineup is a disaster, averaging just 300,000 viewers, which is way below Fox News’ 2.4 million. They tried to shift to a more centrist approach, but it backfired, leading to leadership changes.
As long as the leadership remains the same, the media landscape isn’t likely to change much. With Trump back in the picture, legacy media like The Washington Post, CNN, and MSNBC are all in a sinking boat.
Joe Concha, a Fox News contributor, sums it up well in his upcoming book, “The Greatest Comeback Ever: Inside Trump’s Big Beautiful Campaign.”
