Tech news site CNET has laid off a dozen staffers

Tech news site CNET is doing layoffs that include several longtime employees and total about a dozen staffers, reports Mia Sato of The Verge.

Sato writes, “The layoffs began Thursday morning and were announced internally via email by Red Ventures, the private equity-backed marketing-turned-media company that bought CNET in 2020. In the email, a Red Ventures executive suggested the cuts were made to focus CNET on areas where the site can succeed at bringing in traffic on Google search — a top priority for the company.

“‘To prepare ourselves for a strong future, we will need to focus on how we simplify our operations and our tech stack, and also on how we invest our time and energy,’ wrote Carlos Angrisano, president of financial services and the CNET Group at Red Ventures.

“Angrisano says implicitly what Red Ventures’ — and CNET’s — focus will be going forward: coverage areas where the company has ‘a high degree of authority, relevance, differentiation’ and can ‘make a large difference in the lives’ of audiences.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.