• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, 5 hours ago

Faced with a continuing erosion of its news business, including the pending loss of Lee Enterprises as a client, The Associated Press (AP) is offering buyouts to U.S. journalists and working to change its business model.

More than 120 employees have received buyout offers. But AP executives hint that layoffs could ensue depending on how many people accept these offers. 

The legacy news organization plans to reduce global head count by less than 5%, AP adds.

Last year, two major news chains, Gannett (now USA Today Co.) and McClatchy, said they would stop buying news from AP, in Gannett’s case ending a relationship that had lasted more than a century. Lee Enterprises is seeking an early exit from its agreement, which expires at the end of this year. 

Newspaper revenue has declined by 25% over the past four years, and now accounts for only 10% of AP’s revenue, AP continues.

“We’re not a newspaper company and we haven’t been for quite some time,” said Julie Pace, AP's executive editor and senior vice president.

In 2023, AP signed a deal with OpenAI to lease its text archive. It also has entered the data business, launching Snowflake Marketplace and AP Intelligence, the latter of which will focus on selling data to financial and advertising companies.

But the buyout offer did not sit well with the News Guild, the organization representing AP union workers. 

The News Media Guild, “The AP employs hundreds of talented journalists who are willing and able to adjust to the changing media landscape,” the union said in a statement, according to AP News. “However, the company refuses to offer them appropriate training and tools. Instead, AP continues to get rid of experienced staff and flirt with artificial intelligence — ignoring the opportunity to differentiate AP news stories as ones that are and always will be created by human journalists.”

The current buyout plan was in the works before learning about Lee Enterprises.

Last year, AP sought to reduce its head count by about 8%, offering buyouts to some and laying off others. 

What kind of packages can people taking buyouts expect? That was not known at deadline, but in the 2025 round, they received severance pay and partial health benefits for 18 months, AP said at the time.