Entertainment and Media Suffers Another Major Blow in 2024 With 15,000 Job Cuts

The sequel to 2023's brutal year for the entertainment and media industries was not much better.

In 2024, nearly 15,000 jobs were eliminated across broadcast, television, film, news and streaming — extending a two-year run in which the news and entertainment businesses were dealt body blows.

The numbers, courtesy of Chicago-based firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., which tracks the employment market, are sobering. While the 14,909 jobs that were lost by mid-December this year offered an improvement on the 21,417 jobs that were cut in 2023, it would be unwise to consider this year a "comeback" by any stretch. Combined, the number of jobs lost between 2023-24 more than quadrupled the amount lost between 2021-22.

2021-2022: 7,735 job cuts

2023-24: 36,206 job cuts (+368%) 

What's behind the multi-year downturn?

Like any complex problem, there are several factors at play.

Hollywood has had successive years of layoffs as companies have aimed to reach profitability in their new streaming businesses. Jobs have been shed from their declining linear businesses as the former cable giants have wound down new programming. The aftermath of the entertainment industry's brutal double strike in 2023 has underscored the difficult job market. And consolidation at companies like Paramount Global, whose share price has been rock bottom, has slimmed down the company for a proposed sale to Skydance Media.

Meanwhile the news business has suffered from ongoing decline as the business model for traditional print has collapsed, with advertising fleeing to digital partners like Google, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Digital media companies from BuzzFeed to Vice have also suffered layoffs. The shifting business model has decimated local news and proved challenging for magazine and print companies like Condé Nast and Hearst.

There is an industry-wide expectation that more consolidation will take place in the coming years. Hollywood is also grappling with how to integrate artificial intelligence — a technology that offers real productivity benefits but also threatens to wipe out a myriad of jobs in the process.

And perhaps most inauspiciously, there are few reasons to believe next year's job market will rebound to 2021-22 levels. The new normal for the media world, unfortunately, is to brace for thousands of layoffs each year.

From 2010 to 2017, the media industry lost 7,305 jobs per year on average, according to Challenger's data. Since 2018, the average number of annual job cuts has jumped to 14,298.

Brian Frons, the former head of ABC Daytime and a current professor at UCLA's Anderson School of Business, told TheWrap that Hollywood is going through growing pains right now as the industry shifts its focus to streaming. But it's not the first time the entertainment world has undergone a radical change, he said.

"These sort of cycles of consolidation, combination and drive to profitability happen time and again," Frons said. "This is a year where the original majors like Paramount and Disney were looking at that transition from the comfort of what was the linear business to the discomfort and growth of the streaming business, and they needed to adjust their head count."

While that fact is little consolation to those who lost their jobs, Frons said he's more optimistic Hollywood will bounce back from the recent cuts than the news business.

"What's going to happen, as has happened in the past, is the businesses that were the breadwinners will continue to be consolidated and shrunk, and the businesses that are growing will increase headcount," Frons said. In other words, expect more opportunities in streaming and tech.

Below is a look back at a grisly year that is increasingly becoming the norm for the news and entertainment industries.

Sallie Ciganovich, Hollywood hairdresser. (Jeff Vespa)

Entertainment

The entertainment industry suffered thousands of job cuts this year as contraction and M&A hit companies like Paramount, Warner Bros. Discovery and Disney the hardest. Meanwhile productions continue moving to the U.K. due to incentives overseas and the cost of shooting in Los Angeles.

Some of the major job cuts to hit Hollywood this year included:

Ahead of closing its deal with Skydance Media in the first half of 2025, Paramount Global embarked on a plan to reduce its U.S.-based workforce by 15%, or around 2,000 employees, in August. The cuts, which aimed at generating $500 million in cost savings, impacted advertising, marketing and communications, finance, legal, technology and other support functions. In addition, Paramount Television Studios was shuttered, impacting about 20-30 jobs.

As part of this consolidation and the reduction in production due to the strike, thousands of independent jobs have also been lost this year that are not immediately visible, from below-the-line dolly grips and lighting specialists, to producers and directors, to crafts people. TheWrap investigated those losses in a series earlier this year, "Holding on in Hollywood."

In the meantime, there were a handful of other major job cuts this year that have to be mentioned.

That includes the nearly 1,000 employees who were laid off by Warner Bros. Discovery in July, with the finance division taking the brunt of the cuts, while less than 10 Max staffers were affected in total. Around the same time, CNN CEO Mark Thompson revealed that around 100 employees would be cut from the news network as part of restructuring plans as it looked to increase its focus in the digital space.

Los Angeles Shoot days 2024

Netflix also laid off around a dozen employees in April as part of a reorganization of its film division after Dan Lin replaced Scott Stuber, while Fox Entertainment laid off 30 staffers as part of a company-wide restructuring in July.

California is also continuing to battle an exodus of production from the state for tax breaks in the U.K., as production slid 5% overall in Q3 with reality TV production plummeting 56% in the same quarter.

Hollywood, like the news industry, will continue to wrestle with how it leverages AI in the years ahead. Filmmaker and AI regulation activist Justine Bateman, while speaking at TheWrap's TheGrill conference in October, warned that using AI in film and TV threatens to "burn down" the entertainment business; entire departments, not just a handful of jobs, will likely be gone forever as AI gains more of a footing in Hollywood, she said.

"If you start taking out chunks of duties, maybe the whole marketing department, maybe a camera, maybe all the actors or half the actors, or the crew doesn't get their days to qualify for insurance because you're only using them for three weeks instead of 12," Bateman said. "Whatever it is, the structure will collapse."

Media

Hindsight will not be necessary to say 2024 was a pivotal year for the news business. That is clear already, with powerhouse legacy outlets, upstart digital media publishers and smaller, local outlets all feeling the pain.

Here is a brief sample of some of the 2024 news industry cuts:

The year started with The Messenger, Jimmy Finkelstein's news startup, shuttering in January after less than a year; 270 employees lost their jobs as a result.

The cold hard truth facing the media world is that advertising has long abandoned traditional print for digital giants Google and Facebook. The general public doesn't value news in the way it once did, and a growing number of people are consuming news through social media.

Only 15% of Americans pay to read a local news outlet, while less than one-in-four pay for a digital news subscription, according to a study from the Reuters Institute.

For comparison, 85% of Americans pay for at least one streaming service, according to a report from Deloitte this year. The average news consumer is unwilling to pay for information they believe they can find elsewhere for free online or on social media.

The businesses that were the breadwinners will continue to be consolidated and shrunk, and the businesses that are growing will increase headcount.— Brian Frons, professor at UCLA's Anderson School of Business

Diego Mariscal told TheWrap he was contemplating quitting filmmaking and setting up a power washing business when this photo was taken on the set of a PSA in 2023 (Jennifer Rose Clasen)

AI Partnerships 

Another development that does not bode well for reporters was the integration of AI into the newsroom in 2024. OpenAI struck a number of content licensing partnerships this year, including with the New York Post, Time Magazine and Vox, allowing the company to use content from these reputable outlets in answers from ChatG PT, its chatbot.

For now, AI depends on journalists to supplement its products. But as the technology continues to rapidly advance and as newsroom decision makers grow more comfortable with it, that master-and-servant relationship could flip on reporters.

"Currently, AI aids news workers rather than replaces them, but there are no guarantees this will remain the case," a report from Columbia University's journalism school said earlier this year. "AI is sufficiently mature to enable the replacement of at least some journalism jobs, either directly or because fewer workers are needed."

Lack of Trust 

And here is another grim truth for the news world to accept: President-elect Donald Trump's trademark claim that most outlets peddle "fake news" is believed by a majority of citizens.

A recent Gallup poll found Americans' trust in the media is at an all-time low, with only 31% of respondents saying they had a "great deal" or "fair amount" of confidence the media will report the news "fully, accurately and fairly."

Compounding matters for mainstream outlets is the rise in alternative sources they can go to for information – whether that's TikTok, Joe Rogan's podcast or YouTubers who talk politics. Others are turning to popular Substacks, like ex-New York Times writer Bari Weiss' The Free Press, which has 136,000 subscribers paying $8 per month; the outlet is reportedly valued at $100 million.

Trump 

Ironically, the best thing for the major outlets could be Trump's return to the White House. The New York Times' business flourished during his first term. For example, the "paper of record's" stock price increased from $12.75 to $49.07 between the time he entered and left the Oval Office.

Trump's return cuts both ways, though. The president-elect this week said media outlets needs to "straighten out," and – emboldened by his $15 million settlement with ABC News – he's vowed to sue more outlets for their coverage.

"It will be good for some media outlets," a former L.A. Times editor said about Trump's second term.

"Because only a handful really cover Trump aggressively, and it's going to be very difficult for them, because this is going to be an administration that is the most hostile ever to the press. Out of that, the ones that are courageous and can do a good job are going to do well – but there's not many that can do that."

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