Key facts about digital-native news outlets amid staff cuts, revenue losses

Digital-native news outlets – those “born on the web” – have seen a wave of cuts since the outbreak of the coronavirus as financial troubles continue to roil the news media. Quartz laid off 80 staffers as its advertising revenue declined by over half. BuzzFeed shut down its divisions in the UK and Australia while furloughing dozens in the United States, and Vox furloughed about 100. The Outline has shut down entirely. Here are key facts about digital-native news organizations. All data predates the current downturn related to the coronavirus:

• Traffic to digital-native news sites has plateaued in recent years.
• A majority of digital display ad revenue goes to two tech companies. In 2019, about half (53%) of digital display ad revenue went to Facebook (42%) and Google (11%).
• Employment at digital-native news outlets was steadily rising before the outbreak but was still far lower than at newspapers or broadcast TV (local and network). 
• Digital-native news organizations in 2018 were about half as likely to undergo layoffs as newspapers, despite a spate of high-profile layoffs in digital media that year. While 27% of large newspapers experienced layoffs in 2018, only 14% of digital-native news outlets did.