"Not because I was a poor performer, or because of any issue with my parent company. In fact, our relationship was, and still is, quite good. I'd been editor-in-chief for nearly four years at HuffPost and had a track record of success. I was very happy there. But like many digital news companies, we struggled to generate revenue as more and more advertisers shied away from news. Eventually, there was simply no way to make up for the shortfalls so many newsrooms,"
"When media was high on the hog, still in its Graydon Carter, multi-million-dollar budget heyday in the late 1990s, it was hard to find any real diversity at the top. Most of us who'd been toiling away for more than a decade in the trenches wouldn't get our chance at leadership until the party was almost completely over. Now, instead of us building our careers, the good-time money and over-the-top investments are long gone, and our industry is rapidly disintegrating while autocracy grows."
Digital news organizations faced steep revenue declines as advertisers retreated, making it impossible to cover financial shortfalls. Leadership and newsroom cuts followed, including voluntary layoffs by senior editors to spare teams. Numerous prominent Black women leaders exited major outlets amid the crisis. The media’s earlier era of large budgets delayed leadership opportunities for many Black women until investments waned. As the industry contracts, representation at the top has diminished, with thousands of Black women pushed out of the workforce. The shrinking diversity occurs at a moment of increased need for journalistic voices while media stability and democracy face growing pressures.
Read at Nieman Lab
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