The Fresno Bee laid off up to 40% of its workforce today as part of a nationwide sweep of papers in the McClatchy Media Company. The Bee’s labor union lead worries the cuts are part of a push to have AI write Fresno’s news.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Seven reporters and one editor were laid off Thursday, according to Josh Tehee, a Bee reporter and co-chair of the Bee News Guild.<\/p>\n
“We are losing positions that I do not think will be replaced within the news landscape,” said Tehee. “This is a loss for the entire city.<\/p>\n
“It’s not quite half the newsroom, but it’s a substantial amount. It’s maybe around 30-40%.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Among those laid off, according to GVWire<\/a>, was the Bee\u2019s Melissa Montalvo, whose groundbreaking investigation into the death of a man at Mary\u2019s Chicken in Sanger triggered a state investigation<\/a>.<\/p>\n Fresno Bee Editor Christopher Kirkpatrick did not respond to a request for comment on what The Bee’s future looks like.<\/p>\n Layoffs for reporters were announced nationwide across McClatchy<\/a>, which is owned by a hedge fund called Chatham Asset Management.<\/p>\n McClatchy’s Miami Herald — the paper who broke the Jeffrey Epstein story which led to his arrest in 2019 — announced layoffs<\/a> today too. Around 30% cuts<\/a> were also announced at McClatchy papers in Idaho and Washington, with even more in Kentucky, South Carolina, Kansas City, and Charlotte, among others.\u00a0<\/p>\n Tehee said The Fresno Bee is down to roughly a dozen staff members to cover California\u2019s fifth largest city and a county larger than six states.<\/p>\n The New York Times reported in May<\/a> that McClatchy was experimenting with AI to “spit out” articles.\u00a0<\/p>\n In April, more than 30 staffers<\/a> at The Sacramento Bee, which is also operated by McClatchy, refused to put their names on stories written by McClatchy’s new “content scaling agent.”<\/p>\n McClatchy started rolling out the AI bots in March, according to the Wrap<\/a>, which \u201callows Bee editors to produce summarized and repurposed versions of its reporters\u2019 work under new headlines.\u201d<\/p>\n