Ziff Davis announced it was laying off 23 people across a number of its sites Wednesday in the latest media force reduction of 2025.
A statement from the Ziff Davis Creators Guild and the News Guild of New York revealed 23 people from Lifehacker, Mashable, ZDNet, and particularly CNET were being laid off. CNET in particular is facing the hardest cuts just a year after being acquired by Ziff Davis for $100 million.
“Under CNET’s previous owner, Red Ventures, CNET editorial workers faced three major rounds of layoffs in two years, including the gutting of its essential news and culture teams in 2023,” the statement read. “At a time when CNET is still building back its reputation after a damaging AI scandal under Red Ventures, Ziff’s decision to further undermine CNET’s human authority is disturbing.”
The statement continued: “It’s clear what’s truly motivating Ziff Davis executives’ decision to lay off our colleagues: maximizing corporate profits and greed to the detriment of our members, while dismantling the structures that preserve the quality of our work. This massive reduction in force is the direct result of Ziff Davis’ poor management and decision-making, choosing to prioritize anything but investing in the workers who keep its existing brands running.”
The Ziff Davis announcement is only the latest in a troubling 2025 trend of media layoffs. Just last week, the Chicago Tribune announced it was cutting 8 people, or 10% of its newsroom staff. IndieWire, Forbes, Vox, The Washington Post, Scripps and the Huffington Post are just some of the outlets that have laid off employees in 2025.
TheWrap’s previous reporting shows a marked increase in media job cuts in recent years. Between 2021 and 2022 there were 7,735 job cuts, a figure that skyrocketed 368% to 36,206 cuts between 2023 and 2024.
