In recent months several major international media companies have announced restructurings involving job cuts, operational streamlining and reinvestment in digital offerings. The shifts reflect shared drivers: declining linear television viewing, falling print circulation, advertising revenues flowing to global tech platforms, and the emergence of artificial intelligence.
US majors: CNN and NBC News
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CNN: In early 2025 CNN announced cuts in roughly 200 positions, affecting about 6 percent of its workforce. CEO Mark Thompson said the move responds to an irreversible decline in traditional cable news consumption. At the same time, CNN launched a $70 million investment to develop its digital business and set a target of $1 billion in digital revenue by 2030. The company is working on new streaming products, subscription services and mobile content, and plans to create several hundred new digital roles.
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NBC News: NBC News implemented reductions affecting about 150 staff this year. The driver is primarily a reorganisation of Comcast’s media portfolio: several cable holdings including MSNBC and CNBC are being spun into a separate publicly traded company. That restructuring eliminates some shared infrastructures and editorial functions, while NBC prepares a new subscription news product and additional digital offerings. The company says many eliminated roles could be replaced by new positions and has posted nearly 140 open roles.
Europe: streaming priority and declining print revenues
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RTL Group: One of Europe’s largest media players, RTL Group announced about 600 job cuts in Germany in 2025. The company said the measures respond to a sustained weakening of the traditional TV advertising market and the rise of streaming platforms. RTL is prioritising development of its RTL+ service while reducing costs in its linear TV business. The German market shows a clear generational shift: younger audiences increasingly consume video on streaming platforms and social media rather than on traditional TV channels.
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French press: According to an overview by Le Monde, since December 2025 nearly 1,000 job cuts have been announced across various French publishers. Specific plans include Prisma Media proposing more than 260 position eliminations and CMI France announcing changes to over 130 roles. Regional and national publishers have launched significant cost-cutting programmes. The problem is twofold: print circulation has been falling for years, while digital transition requires substantial investment; many regional publishers still derive a large share of revenue from print products, which are declining at about 7–8 percent annually.
The Washington Post: efficiency through technology
The Washington Post has also undergone organisational changes. The newspaper aims to grow digital subscription revenue, enhance its technology stack and integrate artificial intelligence into newsroom workflows. The stated objectives are to speed up content production, automate research and background tasks, and improve subscriber experience; the Post emphasizes that the goal is not to replace journalists.
Why it matters
Although these companies operate in different markets and pursue different specific measures, they share the recognition that competition for audience attention is now primarily digital. For media companies the issue is increasingly not whether to transform, but how quickly and effectively they can adapt to an environment defined by smartphones, video, social platforms, recommendation systems and artificial intelligence.
