Overview
- McClatchy informed staff Thursday that roughly 90 unionized journalists across about 17 papers were laid off, with the Miami Herald losing roughly 30 positions and the Sacramento Bee’s entire sports desk eliminated.
- Company memos cited a 41% drop in consumer revenue as the rationale for the cuts and said resources must be concentrated where subscriber interest justifies investment.
- The round of layoffs removed key accountability coverage including a City Hall reporter at the Miami Herald, every reporter at El Nuevo Herald, investigative roles at multiple papers, and several local-court and education beats.
- The moves follow months of newsroom pushback over McClatchy’s rollout of a generative-AI ‘content scaling’ tool and new performance expectations that factor reporters’ use of AI into reviews.
- Unions and affected journalists say the reductions will weaken oversight of local government, schools and elections, risk creating news deserts, and shift more reporting toward automated outputs.