Less than six months into 2023, news and media companies are withering at an incredible rate.
The internet boom brought with it many new third-party news outlets that began reaching viewers in new ways that legacy media had never dreamed of prior to their existence.
Now, many of these outlets are suffering a tremendous shaking in the industry, which has been prophesied by multiple faith leaders prior to the collapse.
Here is a short list of the layoffs compiled by Emily Washburn of Forbes:
- Jan. 4 – Gannett fires 50 employees in Indiana while closing a printing press in Greece, New York affecting 108 workers.
- Jan. 12 – NBC News and MSNBC lay off 75 employees.
- Jan. 13 – Mail-Tribune out of Medford, Oregon, shuts down affecting an unknown number of workers whose severance packages are tied into signing a non-disclosure agreement, per the Oregonian.
- Jan. 19 – Fandom lays off an unspecified number of people at the outlets of GameSpot, Giant Bomb, Metacritic and TV Guide four months after acquiring the properties.
- Jan. 21 – Vox Media fires 7% of its staff, resulting 133 people losing their jobs.
- Jan. 23 – AdWeek lets go of 10% of their staff, resulting in 14 layoffs.
- Jan. 24 – The Washington Post shuts down the video game and kid sections leading to 20 people being laid off.
- Feb. 9 – News Corp, owners of the Wall Street Journal and HarperCollins, announces 1,250 firings by the end of 2023, according to Chief Executive Robert Thomson.
- Feb. 17 – The Takeaway is cancelled on New York public radio station WNYC after 15 years on air. Twelve people involved in the production lose their jobs.
- Feb. 26 – The Birmingham News, The Huntsville Times and the Press-Register, three print newspaper in Alabama, fire 100 staff due to a decline in print circulation.
- March 19 – Sea Coast Media and Gannett close another printing press, this time in Portsmouth, New Hampshire resulting in 34 people laid off.
- March 21 – New England Public Media, an NPR affiliate, fires 20% of its staff. This resulted in 17 employees laid off.
- March 23 – NPR cancels four podcast series, resulting in 100 employees losing their jobs to reduce their $30 million budget deficit.
- March 29 – Salem Media Group announced they would be firing 3% of their 1,436 employees.
- April 20 – Insider Inc., formerly known as Business Insider, announced a reduction of staff by 10% according to Forbes.
- April 20 – It is announced that Buzzfeed News will be shut down by Buzzfeed CEO Jonah Peretti.
- April 27 – Vice Media is expected to lay off approximately 100 employees and shut down Vice World News.
- May 9 – Paramount Media Networks announces a cut to 25% of its workforce, including shutting down MTV News.
These massive and unprecedented cuts to media organizations does not even include the biggest shakers in the industry when it comes to layoffs in 2023:
- 7,000 layoffs from Disney
- 21,000 layoffs from Meta (since Nov. 2022)
- 12,000 layoffs from Google
- 18,000 layoffs from Amazon (since Nov. 2022)
- 10,000 layoffs from Microsoft
And there are many, many more.
The New Year brought with it prophecies from many Christian leaders, including Christian apologist Dr. Michael Brown, who believes that God is going to shake the institutions of America to its core:
“Just as the nation is massively divided politically now. And just as the ideological divide between left and right is growing deeper, and the divide between the believer and the world growing deeper, I believe God is going to continue to shake the things that we’re putting our trust in,” Dr. Brown says.
Millions of Americans put their hope in the media establishment, and they are currently witnessing the demise of traditional media as the world knows it. In its place, citizen journalism is flaring up to discuss topics and expose corruption that the legacy media simply will not tolerate.
Apostle Alexander Pagani declared that “digital Jehu’s” would arise and reform world systems.
This is exactly what is happening with Tucker Carlson following his historic split from Fox News.
Recently Carlson announced he would have a new show that is going to be broadcast on Twitter, now considered the last true public square of free speech.
“I believe the Holy Spirit has impressed upon my heart…the rise of the Jehu’s,” says Pagani.
“It will be a time and the rise of the Jehu’s, the ‘Wild Ones,’ who will be sanctioned by God [and] be able to confront systems that has been oppressing God’s people, and they’re not going to have that religious, piety and policy mindset,” Pagani adds.
The tearing down of certain structures while others rise in their place, and the speed at which this is occurring, are indicative of the word given by Pastor Greg Locke.
“I’ve really been seeking into the Lord about the word ‘acceleration’,” Locke says.
Locke believes that the Lord is using “suddenly moments” to spur the church to action and no longer be silent against the assault of the enemy, but to declare the truth of the Lord, in the physical and digital world.
There are few systems as oppressive and restrictive when it comes to addressing matters of good and evil, spirituality and salvation in Jesus Christ as the modern-day media and social media. Now, the shakings are just beginning.
God has much more planned and Christians are called to take part in the plan, to be proactive and stand for the name of Jesus.
James Lasher is Staff Writer for Charisma Media.
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