The global news agency Associated Press on Monday said that it plans to reduce its workforce by 8% through a combination of buyouts and layoffs. In an internal email accessed by Guardian, Daisy Veerasingham, President at AP, stated that staff that adapting to industry challenges requires “making some difficult changes so we can invest more fully in our future,” the email said.
“We all know this is a time of transformation in the media sector,” the email said. “Our customers – both who they are and what they need from us – are changing rapidly. “This is why we’ve focused on delivering a digital-first news report. We now need to accelerate on this path.”
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The email continued: “As we modernize our products and operations, we will eliminate some positions across the organization.” According to Veerasingham's email, the changes will cut 8% of employees from the company's staff. Fewer than half of those changes should affect the news division, Veerasingham said.
The news agency said that it would offer a voluntary separation plan to a small number of eligible employees, based on their departments, roles and length of employment – in addition to eliminating certain positions throughout the organisation.
According to the Wrap report, the new agency AP is working on 121 eligible staff. “I know this is difficult news, and there will be a period of uncertainty as we work through these changes,” the email sent to AP employees reads. “We are communicating about these actions now because transparency is a core value of this organization. The AP leadership team is committed to supporting our affected colleagues and working quickly and thoroughly to limit uncertainty as much as possible.”
The email said that employees who are losing their jobs because of the staff reductions would be notified over the next few weeks.