Politico has started 2026 by cutting 3% of its staff as it reviewed “how we best harness our resources for the future”.
The Wall Street Journal also announced a restructure that will involve the departure of some staff.
They are the first entries in Press Gazette’s new page for rolling updates on journalism industry redundancies and layoffs in 2026.
This page will be kept updated throughout the year.
In 2025, we found at least 3,434 journalism job cuts in the UK and US.
In 2024, the tally was at least 3,875 and in 2023 it was about 6,000.
Journalism job cuts in 2026: Tracked
January 2026 journalism job cuts
Wall Street Journal – Unknown number
15 January: The Wall Street Journal is carrying out a “strategic restructure” of its features and weekend teams.
WSJ editor-in-chief Emma Tucker said the title is continuing to shift from being a “print-centric organisation to a more nimble, topic-driven structure designed to serve our readers wherever they engage with us – across the site, the app, our four weekly newsprint sections and WSJ. Magazine”.
A new features team will be led by WSJ Magazine editor-in-chief Sarah Ball and will produce the four weekly sections: Mansion, Exchange, Off Duty and Review as well as Sports.
Tucker added: “Inevitably, a restructure of this scale means saying goodbye to valued friends and colleagues. I want to thank all of those departing for their dedication to the Journal.
“These newsroom changes build on our audience-first strategy. By breaking down the legacy silos of physical print sections, we are empowering our editors to produce ‘platform-agnostic’ journalism that delights and surprises our readers every day of the week.”
Politico – Less than 30 people
14 January: Politico has cut 3% of staff, affecting about ten people in its newsroom according to The Wrap. Semafor reported that Politico has a total global staff of around 750 people.
Editor-in-chief John Harris told staff in a memo, published by Semafor media reporter Max Tani, that to prosper in the years ahead news organisations need “a strong sense of who they are and how they deliver distinctive value to their audiences.
“Changes I believe are necessary for Politico to remain in that elite group involve a small number of separations, under generous terms, with journalists I respect and who have my gratitude for the significant contributions they have made to this place.”
Harris said Politico was also offering voluntary separation packages to the energy and E&E News teams which are merging, Politico Magazine, the central editing desk, the visuals, data and graphics team, and the interactives team.
Enterprise reporting for Politico Magazine will become part of the wider newsroom while visual journalists will be “brought into the centre of our news infrastructure”.
He said the buyout offers “are designed to give eligible colleagues a chance to reflect carefully on whether they want to remain here on teams with new structures and new mandates; they are not designed as a cost-cutting measure”.
Harris went on to say that the changes being made were “aimed at making this newsroom – especially our leadership structure, our workflow, and our news report – more tightly aligned to the publication’s strategy over the next several years. This is the only way we will have the resources to grow and respond to evolving audience needs.”
Separately Harris has been appointed chairman and a successor as editor-in-chief will be appointed this year.
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