Laid Off: Senior Reporter at HuffPost
"While I understand the reasons for HuffPost's severe job cuts, I strongly disagree with the decision to deprioritize coverage of climate change and energy."
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In today’s issue, I talk to Alexander Kaufman, a former senior reporter at HuffPost covering energy and climate. He worked there for 11 years before taking a buyout last month.
Last week, HuffPost eliminated 30 editorial roles citing “growing changes” to their business.
Alexander Kaufman, 33, was among the journalists laid off, which was about 25% of the newsroom and more than half of his team.
The first person he told was his wife, Amanda, who was working from home with him that day.
“I walked into the room where she was on a Zoom call, locked eyes with her and mouthed ‘I'm out’ while motioning that my throat was being slit,” Alexander said. “Maybe a little dramatic, but she had been confident my job would be preserved.”
HuffPost had given employees an option to volunteer for a buyout in January ahead of layoffs. About two-thirds reportedly took the buyouts, including Alexander.
“I wrestled with the decision to take a buyout for quite some time because my wife is due with our daughter and first child in early April,” he said. “I was risk averse. Once I learned that my team would be cut in half, and that energy and climate change would no longer be a dedicated beat, I surmised that I would be laid off, since I specialized in that subject.”
What reasoning did they give for laying you off?
HuffPost and its parent company, BuzzFeed Inc., are struggling financially. I learned that my beat, covering energy and climate change, would be eliminated. So I opted for a buyout, which afforded me an extra month of severance.
How did they handle layoffs?
HuffPost management announced roughly one month before the layoffs that about a quarter of the newsroom would be cut by Feb. 7, and offered employees who wanted to take buyouts an extra month of severance. But you had to volunteer for a buyout by Jan. 31. Then, on Friday, Feb. 7, anyone who was involuntarily laid off got the news. Our emails and Slack access were turned off by 9 p.m. that evening.
Did you see it coming?
I had a sense I might be on the chopping block. My work has focused heavily on nuanced, complex issues. When I realized how severe the cuts would be in the HuffPost newsroom, it seemed obvious to me that my work would be seen as a luxury the company could no longer afford.
What was the first thing you did after receiving the news?
I took a deep breath and sat on the bed. I felt a little dizzy. I had been waiting for a sign for weeks about whether I should take the buyout or not. The weight of the uncertainty lifting, coupled with the realization of how much my life was going to change after 11 years at the same employer — right at the cusp of the already-enormous life change of becoming a father — had a physical effect on me. I'm not one to waste time once there's an answer. So the next thing I did before even telling my wife was sign and submit my paperwork requesting the buyout.
Did they offer any other layoff/unemployment benefits aside from severance?
My severance is particularly large because our union contract guarantees two months plus a week for every year of service. On top of that, opting for a buyout gave me an extra month, and BuzzFeed included my already-approved paternity leave pay as well. The company offered access to a job placement service, and will pay the full amount of my COBRA through August.
What did you do about health insurance?
I'm opting to keep the COBRA insurance for the duration of my severance. Depending on where I end up at the end of the summer, my wife and I will either go onto the insurance offered by her employer or use whatever I get at my next job, assuming I have something permanent at that time.
You posted that HuffPost is ending its dedicated coverage of energy and climate change. What are the implications of that in newsrooms? On the public?
While I understand the reasons for HuffPost's severe job cuts, I strongly disagree with the decision to deprioritize coverage of climate change and energy. If anything, the outlet should be expanding beyond what my colleague, Chris D'Angelo, and I were doing. The world just hit 1.5 degrees Celsius, the temperature spike above pre-industrial averages that most countries agreed to try to avert. We are dealing with mounting extreme weather that is buckling our energy systems. We are also facing rising prices for electricity at the very moment when curbing planet-heating emissions requires us to use more electricity for more things than ever before, like cars, stoves and air conditioning. Fortunately, HuffPost isn't the only game in town. But any recession of coverage on this issue is a loss to readers.
What do you predict for the future of media and climate coverage? What do you hope to see?
Over the past few years, we have seen a number of really excellent, specialized publications launch that cover climate change and energy specifically and with great vigor. Those include Heatmap, Canary Media, and Cipher News. There are also existing publications, like Grist, and expanded teams at traditional news outlets like the Financial Times, the Washington Post and Bloomberg. I expect that, as climate change impacts more of our lives in even greater ways, we will see a proliferation of this coverage. I also think we will see it become less siloed into climate "verticals" as the food, beauty products, home goods, travel, financial markets and so much more face the consequences of a warming world.
You helped organize the union at HuffPost and noted that you're benefiting from securities afforded by the union in the wake of the layoff. Can you share how unionizing protects workers at risk of layoffs?
We formed a union with the Writers Guild of America, East, back in 2015. As a result, we brokered a collective bargaining contract that guaranteed salary minimums, annual cost-of-living adjustments, and severance packages like the one I'm benefiting from now in the case of layoffs. When we pitched our colleagues on a union a decade ago, not everyone knew what an organized workforce would mean. It's a simplistic way of framing it, but one analogy I used was that it's an insurance policy for your job.
For those who might want to organize, what first step would you recommend? What would you say to people nervous about retaliation from their employers?
First, find some trustworthy colleagues. A union is all about collective action, and you can't organize alone. Identify who each of you can trust and slowly go around persuading people to support your effort, so that if management does try to retaliate and you're forced to go for an election before the National Labor Relations Board, you have a critical mass of people ready to vote yes on unionizing. Once you have at least a solid group of organizers, I would advise you to seek out and find the union you wish to join. They can help make everything else possible.
As someone in the media industry, you probably know a lot of folks who have been laid off over the years. Have you noticed any recent themes/trends?
The trend toward job cuts in the industry seems to be getting worse. On the upside, it's never been easier to start your own publication and get paid to publish your own work. I started a Substack years ago when a friend of mine posed it to me this way: "You spend all this time on Twitter, where you're a serf. Why not spend time on a platform where you own your mailing list and can take it anywhere?" I recently monetized my newsletter, and I'm looking forward to publishing more stories there as part of the freelance work I'll be doing in the months ahead.
I'm also really impressed with many of the worker-owned publications that grew off platforms like Substack and Ghost. That seems like a positive development. Democracy needs journalism, and the amount of amateur bullshit and AI slop on social media feeds suggests people need journalism now more than ever even just for basic stuff about life, much less knowing how and whom to vote for.
Anything else you'd like to add?
If there's one thing that preparing for fatherhood has taught me, it's the importance of having a diversified life. A decade ago, when I started at HuffPost, all I cared about was my career. That is still a paramount focus for me. But it's not the only or the most important thing anymore. I have met plenty of people who achieve a lot in their careers, but their lives are devoid of love and companionship. What's the point of that? Build a life with meaning and purpose, and it'll be easier to cope with the cyclical ups and downs of the market. You might love your job, but it can't love you back. Invest the bulk of yourself in who or what can, and I promise your capacity to accomplish more in your work life will multiply accordingly. That's how it feels for me right now, and I'm confident I'm going to land on my feet.
Alexander is open to freelance writing and consulting gigs. Subscribe to his Substack newsletter Field Notes. Reach him via his website, on X or Bluesky.
