Media shuffling sparks outrage over AANHPI, POC representation: Part 3 of 3

Washington Post journalists protest the layoffs.

As an editor at several ethnic and mainstream media outlets, I had the enjoyable privilege of mentoring approximately two-dozen journalists and students throughout my 30-year career. Of that group, today, only one of them is still employed in traditional media. 

Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) journalists—along with other journalists of color—are being severely impacted by the sweeping waves of layoffs, corporate buyouts,  media mergers and disillusionment as the Fourth Estate undergoes a major shift as major outlets get weaponized by corporate and political interests.

When major media conglomerates restructure to cut costs or prepare for corporate spinoffs, diversity verticals, identity desks, and foreign bureaus are frequently the first to face the chopping block. While corporate leadership often frames these decisions as necessary structural adjustments to offset declining print and ad revenue, advocacy groups argue that the "last hired, first fired" nature of these cuts erodes decades of hard-won newsroom representation.

FYI: This the third installment of a 3-part analysis of America's Fourth Estate and how it affects AANHPI communities.
Part 1: CBS News suffers a million cuts.
Part 2: Billionaires want to control the US narrative

According to tracking data from Media Copilot, the media industry lost over 3,400 jobs in 2025, and the pace accelerated dramatically heading into mid-2026 due to corporation's economic concerns and affecting the aspirations of scores of young AANHPI journalists. 

The statistical reality of layoffs

While complete, aggregate newsroom demographic data for every 2025–2026 layoff is difficult to capture in real time, specific localized data and statements from newsroom guilds reveal a clear trend: AANHPI and diverse journalists are being disproportionately affected.

Data and specific case studies outline the scope of the impact of the changing journalism landscape:

• The Los Angeles Times: During its massive restructuring, the Los Angeles Times Guild released data showing that cultural minorities bore the brunt of the layoffs. While Asian American journalists made up 14% of the guild’s newsroom staff, they accounted for 19% of those laid off. . Similarly, Latino journalists made up 21% of the guild but accounted for 25% of the cuts.

• The Washington Post: The South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA) reported that a significant number of South Asian journalists were swept up in mass restructurings, which wiped out entire bureaus and gutted critical beats, including the Delhi South Asia bureau and national correspondents covering technology, healthcare, and film.

Prominent journalists and role models were recently released by their employers. 

• NBC News / Paramount Spinoffs: NBC News laid off over 150 staffers and dissolved its dedicated identity desks, including the NBC Asian America editorial team, alongside NBC BLK, NBC Latino, and NBC OUT. Media monitoring groups like the Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA) noted these cuts coincided with a broader corporate maneuver to spin off cable assets (like MSNBC and CNBC) into a separate entity.

• CBS News / Paramount-Skydance Merger: Following the massive merger between Paramount and Skydance, thousands of corporate positions were cut, including award-winning journalists Lisa Ling and Elaine Quijano, severely impacting diversity verticals and race/culture reporting units at CBS News. Their exits have amplified a growing alarm that representation in media is being systematically rolled back.

• MSNOW casualties: Hosts Katie Phang and Alex Wagner lost their hour-long slots to "restructuring." While Wagner is still with the network as one of their many correspondenets, Phang has chosen to move her no-holds-barred commentary to the Katie Phang News YouTube Channel and through her Substack newsletter.

• The Vanishing Foreign Desk: As major legacy outlets slash foreign bureaus under the guise of stabilizing finances, international reporting has collapsed. An analysis by the Al Jazeera Media Institute highlighted that when Western newsrooms downsize global desks, institutional memory of complex geopolitical regions disappears—disproportionately affecting journalists with deep cultural and language ties to those areas.

When the Trump regime began attacking affirmative action programs and DEI initiatives, the media industry was quick to eliminate or downsize those programs meant to create access for underrepresented communities to the profession.

I remember early in my career being the only Asian American in news meetings, the only AANHPI copy editor, the only Asian American news editor, the only managing editor. By the time I left the industry, there was a slightly better presence of AANHPI journalists, many of whom were encouraged to tell the stories of their communities because no one else will do it.

FYI: The Asian American Journalists Association has a number of programs for people considering a career in journalism. Click here.

For veteran journalists who fought to get a foot in the door decades ago, these structural changes feel less like standard network formatting and more like a coordinated step backward.

Stepping backwards in representation

The industry as a whole is failing to reflect changing US demographics; people of color comprise only about 22% of US newsroom staff, falling drastically short of the news industry's historical "2025 parity goal," which is supposed to proportionately  reflect the diversity of the population as a whole.

A study by the Institute for Independent Journalists (IIJ) revealed that journalists of color accounted for 42% of those affected by recent newsroom layoffs and buyouts, despite making up just 24% of the total journalism workforce. Because many AANHPI and other journalists of color were hired during the post-2020 DEI surge, they lack the seniority to survive corporate restructuring.

If you think the data above is bad, corporate media is actively making it worse. Under massive economic pressure and political shifts, mainstream journalism is in full-scale retreat from its post-2020 diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) commitments.

When the Trump regime started dismantling DEI programs in the federal government and began attacking those programs in business, it didn't take long for legacy media to abandon the initiatives. The quickness that some print and broadcast corporations did away with DEI makes you wonder how sincere they were in trying to diversity their staffs in the first place.

The rollback of these programs creates a less supportive workplace environment, limits career-advancing opportunities, and frequently results in the disproportionate loss of journalists of color during newsroom downsizing. As a result, journalists of color report a loss of the formal mentorship and sponsorship networks that are vital for advancing one's career.

According to the "Breaking Through" study by the Asian American Journalists Association, modern AANHPI media workers report persistent barriers to entry and a rollback of diversity hiring initiatives. Media professionals continually emphasize that it is difficult to retain young talent without institutional mentors.

View from the edge

The departure of seasoned veterans has caused a "mentorship crisis" in some newsrooms. To fill these gaps, young professionals are leaning into peer-to-peer networks, digital mentoring programs, and student journalism outlets to build the supportive communities they need to thrive.

While mass layoffs and shifting industry models have understandably made young people cautious, they are not entirely dissuaded from pursuing journalism. Instead of abandoning the field, aspiring reporters are actively reshaping it — challenging traditional newsroom hierarchies, utilizing AI as an assistive tool, and bypassing legacy platforms to build independent communities.

I never intended to get rich being a journalist. Except for some high-profile broadcasters, the medium salary of a reporter is average for a college graduate. I believe that most people continue to enter the field with a set of ideals of making this a better world by exposing the wrongs of the world, celebrating the good. The satisfaction of accomplishing this — even in small human interest stories — is what makes the job so worth it.

Of course, not every story is going to change the world. Along the way, there are a lot of obits, cute pet stories and standard police reports to write up. That's a small price to pay.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news, views and chismis from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X, BlueSky or at the blog Views From the Edge. If you find this perspective interesting, please repost.