Google has laid off 40 to 45 workers in its news division this week, according to reporting from CNBC.
The report cited an Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) Workers Union spokesperson who did not know the exact number of jobs that were eliminated. A Google spokesperson has since confirmed the cuts.
Google News shows links to top-ranked articles from various publications and publishers to its users.
“We’re deeply committed to a vibrant information ecosystem, and news is a part of that long-term investment,” the Google spokesperson said. “We’ve made some internal changes to streamline our organization. A small number of employees were impacted.”
The cuts come at a particularly tumultuous time for journalists, as media outlets work to report on the Israel-Hamas war.
They come on the heels of a 40% cut in employee costs at DeepMind, the AI lab owned by Alphabet, earlier this month.
Additionally, Google announced in January that it was cutting 12,000 jobs, or about 6% of its full-time workforce.
Contact Andrew Kessel at andrew.kessel@proactiveinvestors.com
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