The Associated Press to cut under 5% of global news staff

[bing101]

https://www.reuters.com/business/associated-press-cut-under-5-global-news-staff-2026-04-06/

https://thedesk.net/2026/04/ap-job-cuts-layoffs-newspapers/

The Associated Press (AP) is planning to cut dozens of jobs as part of a broader restructuring of the company that shifts away from producing hyperlocal journalism in favor of national news coverage and emerging platforms like social video, according to a report published on Monday.

The report, from Axios, says the AP is dealing with sizable revenue cuts as local newspaper groups invest fewer dollars into the organization, which operates at a not-for-profit. Local newspaper revenue has dipped 25 percent over the past few years, and newspapers generate less than 10 percent of the organization's overall revenue today, Axios noted.

Julie Pace, the Executive Editor at the AP, said the organization is profitable and its revenues are stable, but that audiences are getting their news from places other than newspapers — including digital platforms like websites and social media — which necessitates the reorganization.

The news outlet has also seen revenue climb from tech companies that license its wire stories and other materials to train large language models (LLMs), with the AP signing licensing deals with Google, ChatGPT developer OpenAI, Microsoft and Amazon over the past few years.

https://apnews.com/article/news-industry-buyouts-ap-newspapers-dd790effc6a385514b3323560161ea4f

This is expected given that the AP has shifted to getting donors as a non-profit. Yes the big one that accelerated the cuts was the number of newspapers cutting access for AP stories. But in this case its the AP adapting to the current business model and pivoting where the core demos are at. Had no idea AP was focusing on hyperlocal journalism prior to the cuts given that the AP front page and their notifications on my phone focuses on national news Yes I knew AP had content deals with AI services and search engines for sometime as part of those tech platforms needing to put a fact-checking part on their systems but yes AP is reallocating resources to where the core audience is at.

Pace said the AP's goal is to reduce its global staff by less than 5%. The Marketing and Media Alliance estimated the AP had 3,700 staffers, but it was not clear when that estimate was made.


Since buyouts are being offered now to only U.S. journalists, it stands to reason that the cut among that workforce will be more than 5%. Whether there are layoffs depends on how many people take the offer, Pace said.
Reached on Monday, the News Media Guild, which represents AP journalists, had no immediate comment on the plan.

Over the past four years, the AP's revenue from newspapers has declined by 25%. Gannett and McClatchy, two of the largest traditional newspaper publishers, dropped AP in 2024.

In recent days, the company learned that Lee Enterprises — publishers of newspapers like The Buffalo News, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Richmond Times-Dispatch — is seeking an early exit from a contract due to expire at the end of 2026.

Pace said the buyout plan was in the works before learning about Lee Enterprises. "We made a decision earlier this year that we needed to be bolder in this transformation," she said.

[Max Rockatansky]

Sounds like a "pressing" problem.