MEDIA

Variety - The Associated Press is making cutbacks in staff as the not-for-profit news organization seeks to “accelerate” its digital-first focus, according to Daisy Veerasingham, the AP’s president and CEO.The AP will reduce its workforce by 8% through a combination of voluntary buyout offers and layoffs, Veerasingham wrote in a memo to staff Monday, a copy of which was obtained by Variety. A rep for the AP declined to disclose how many employees the organization has.

The reductions are necessary as the AP “must evolve to align with changing customer and market needs,” she wrote. “We all know this is a time of transformation in the media sector. Our customers — both who they are and what they need from us — are changing rapidly. This is why we’ve focused on delivering a digital-first news report. We now need to accelerate on this path. Doing so will require making some difficult changes so we can invest more fully in our future.”

 Where many people get their news

Pew Researchout one-in-five Americans – including a much higher share of adults under 30 (37%) – say they regularly get news from influencers on social media.

• News influencers are most likely to be found on the social media site X, where 85% have a presence. But many also are on other social media sites, such as Instagram (where 50% have an account) and YouTube (44%).
• Slightly more news influencers explicitly identify as Republican, conservative or pro-Donald Trump (27% of news influencers) than Democratic, liberal or pro-Kamala Harris (21%).
• A clear majority of news influencers are men (63%).
• Most (77%) have no affiliation or background with a news organization.

How many Americans get news from influencers, and what is their experience?

• About one-in-five U.S. adults (21%) say they regularly get news from news influencers on social media, according to a survey of 10,658 Americans conducted in summer 2024. This is especially common among younger adults: 37% of those ages 18 to 29 say they regularly get news from influencers. But there are minimal differences between Republicans and Democrats on this question.

Jump to more findings from the survey of U.S. adults, or a broader analysis of Americans’ news habits on social media.

Most news influencers are on multiple sites, but X is the most common

• Far more of the news influencers in our study have an account on X than any other social media site: 85% are on the site, compared with 50% who are on Instagram, the next-most popular site.