Forbes has announced layoffs affecting approximately 5% of its workforce, with CEO Sherry Phillips attributing these cuts to unmet financial goals for 2024. This downsizing aligns with a broader trend in the media industry, where companies like CNN and The Washington Post have also reduced staff amid significant changes in search traffic driven by Google's updated policies and the impact of AI. Forbes has been particularly affected due to its strong affiliate program, and this decline in organic traffic has also threatened its advertising and subscription revenues while it attempts to sell to Koch Inc. for about $570 million.
Unfortunately, as most of you know, we didn't meet our financial goals in 2024. As a result, we are reprioritizing resources and reorganizing some areas to further increase efficiency.
The updated SRA policy, along with changes to search traffic prompted by the proliferation of artificial intelligence, have led dozens of publishers to lose a substantial portion of their organic traffic.
Forbes was the most heavily impacted of the affected publishers, in part because it had built one of the most robust affiliate programs in the media ecosystem.
This loss in traffic translates to declines in advertising, affiliate, and subscription revenues.
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