And while National Geographic certainly isn’t closing its doors, it has made some serious changes this year, including an announcement that it would be laying off all remaining staff writers.

Some of these employees have worked for Nat Geo for more than four decades, and all in all, thousands of people are losing their jobs. 

And it seems that this shocking change is directly tied to Disney’s decision to cut down on expenses across its many businesses and platforms. 

In fact, companies such as Vice Media, Buzzfeed, and even CNN have all had to make huge cuts within the past year in order to stay afloat. 

In a memo to staff, Licht wrote “At the highest level, the goal is to direct our resources to best serve and grow audiences for our core news programming and products.”

The previous year was reportedly the worst for job cuts in journalism since 2020, with this year shaping up to give 2023 a run for its money.

The plan was to offer voluntary buyouts in an effort to cover costs for the Post. However, the company got more than it bargained for when a protest consisting of over 750 journalists and staffers walked off the job in protest for a day.

Their suit alleges the company was engaged in union-busting practices. The layoffs came from Sports Illustrated publisher Authentic, who terminated an agreement that resulted in the entire staff being laid off.

In 2023 NPR canceled four of its popular programming podcasts and laid off around 10% of its workforce. Reportedly, the nonprofit news organization experienced a budget shortfall of around $30 million.

The L.A. Times was forced to deeply cut its staff because of financial losses being suffered. Just days before the cuts, the LA Times Guild organized a walk-off protest at the newspaper organization.

CNN reported that the iconic publication decided to lay off 15% of its unionized staff. The number of employees who were laid off from the incident totaled around 30, many of them being journalists.

The results of the restructuring were that several news shows were canceled, and around 100 staff members were let go in the final round of layoffs, according to CNN.

CEO Jonah Peretti wrote in a memo to staff “While layoffs are occurring across nearly every division, we’ve determined that the company can no longer continue to fund BuzzFeed News as a standalone organization.”

“Unfortunately, this also means we need to scale back in some areas of our organization,” Peng wrote.

Also, the recent economic downturn and declining revenue has made business leaders in these organizations rethink staffing levels in this environment.

However, unions can only do so much to protect employee salaries when the industry is going through an upheaval. No amount of collective bargaining can ultimately fix declining business revenue, these media businesses need to be able to fund their operations first.

Instead, they simply plan to utilize freelance writers and editors. Freelance jobs will be available on a project-to-project basis, meaning that some will simply be employed to write one-off articles, whereas others may stay on board for several weeks or even months. 

Essentially, staff employees are just far more expensive than freelancers. From annual salaries to benefits and healthcare, permanent employees can cost a fortune. But freelancers are only paid per project and don’t receive any bonuses, benefits such as 401ks, or insurance. 

Several members of staff took to X, formerly Twitter, to post about the changes. Most wrote about their fantastic experience working for Nat Geo, as well as their dissatisfaction with the decision. @Douglas_Main/X wrote, “National Geographic is laying off its staff writers, including me. It’s been a wonderful five years—an honor and a joy. Very proud of the work that my colleagues and I have done here.”

They said, “Staffing changes will not change our ability to do this work, but rather give us more flexibility to tell different stories and meet our audiences where they are across our many platforms.” 

Instead, they will be focusing on digital media entertainment, such as their website and social media accounts. And while many are extremely disappointed in this reality, the truth is that print is simply going out of style.

But the publication hopes that its adjustment from staff writers and printed magazines to freelancers and online content will not only cut costs and allow them to continue their important work but also improve subscriptions and customer engagement. 

Instead of simply receiving a magazine in the mail, Nat Geo subscribers will now get exclusive daily content, unlimited access to the digital archive, downloadable stories on their ad-free app, and even a weekly newsletter for $19 a year. 

And hopefully, by cutting down on costs and focusing its energy on digital media, National Geographic will be around for another 136 years, telling the world everything they need to know about the planet we live on.