GB News told staff in July that it was proposing to cut as many as 90 jobs, roughly a third of its workforce, as it introduced automated production workflows.
A spokesperson said the broadcaster “has led the way in introducing groundbreaking workflows in UK media” and that new positions would be created under the proposed structure. GB News had also introduced AI-generated sports bulletins on its radio service in 2024. But the company did not say AI alone accounted for the proposed cuts, or that it could operate with exactly 90 fewer employees.
The proposal is one entry in Press Gazette’s rolling tracker of journalism job cuts in 2026, which documents layoffs, buyouts, proposed redundancies and newsroom closures across the U.S. and U.K. Press Gazette counted at least 3,434 cuts in 2025, 3,875 in 2024 and about 6,000 in 2023. It has not published a comparable cumulative figure for 2026, so the tracker does not yet show whether layoffs are accelerating this year.
Recent entries show how varied the pressures are. Pink News proposed cutting up to 11 staff members after Snapchat began retiring its Shows and Publisher Stories formats, an important source of revenue for the publisher. Queen City Nerve, the Charlotte alternative publication, shut down after a proposed sale fell through. Walmart-backed gaming site Restart laid off its five-person editorial team. Four music publications also saw their editorial staffs reportedly gutted.
Other cuts have come during changes in ownership or newsroom structure. BuzzFeed cut about 180 employees after Byron Allen acquired the company. At the Chattanooga Times Free Press, more than 50 employees were laid off around the time Firecrown Media’s purchase of the newspaper took effect July 31. The sale had been announced to staff the previous day.
The Associated Press cut 20 U.S.-based journalists in May. In July, Press Gazette reported that the AP was planning up to 30 additional cuts while also planning a production hub in India. Those later cuts and the hub were proposals at the time, not completed changes.
AI is more explicit in some cases outside the tracker. E.W. Scripps eliminated 432 positions this year while CEO Adam Symson described a broader push toward automation and an “AI-powered” broadcast company.
Marketing firm Clickout Media also laid off writers at gaming sites including The Escapist and Videogamer as it shifted toward a smaller staff overseeing AI-generated content. And the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said AI was cited in 15,341 U.S. job cuts announced in March, about a quarter of that month’s total, according to a Media Copilot report.
Those examples show that AI is becoming one factor in newsroom restructuring. But the broader list does not support treating technology as the single explanation for journalism’s job losses.
Distribution remains another pressure point. Pink News depends heavily on Snapchat revenue. In Manitoba, the Free Press Community Review closed after a change in flyer distribution. Newsweek, meanwhile, has faced a steep decline in traffic while expanding other revenue streams. The Reuters Institute has tracked the broader changes in how audiences reach news as platforms and referral patterns shift.
Press Gazette says it will keep updating its tracker through the year. For now, the picture is less a single AI-driven wave than a collection of pressures — automation among them — pushing news organizations to operate with fewer people.
