Politico Lays Off 3% of Staff, Offers Buyouts to Several Newsroom Divisions

Politico is laying off 3% of its staff, a source familiar with the matter told TheWrap.

The layoffs are expected to only affect 10 people in its newsroom, but more journalists may still exit the publication. The company plans to offer employees in several newsroom divisions a voluntary separation package, global editor-in-chief John Harris told staff in a memo on Tuesday, according to Semafor.

The newsroom divisions include energy and E&E teams, Politico Magazine, the central editing desk, visuals, data and graphics and the interactive teams.

“Let us all acknowledge forthrightly that in some cases change is uncomfortable,” Harris wrote. “People should also recognize that in many ways these moves also represent continuity”

The buyouts, he said, were not cost-cutting moves but an effort to let the staffers decide whether they want to remain on teams with “new structures and new mandates.”

A spokesperson for Politico did not comment.

In a separate note, Goli Sheikholeslami, CEO of Politico Media Group announced several organization changes and the launch of unit focused on new groth opportunities

“You will soon hear more about a new subscription business this unit plans to launch in 2026: tailoring Politico’s best-in-class politics and policy reporting for investment professionals – such as hedge funds, private equity firms, investment banks, and asset managers – who are increasingly seeking insight into the political and policy developments that reshape the value of companies, sectors, and entire markets,” she wrote. “We believe that this has the potential to be as meaningful to Politico as the launch of Pro in 2011.”

German media giant Axel Springer, which also owns Business Insider, bought Politico in 2022 for reportedly more than $1 billion.

Harris, who co-founded Politico two decades ago and remains in a leadership role, wrote that “since taking the plunge in the fall of 2006 to start a new publication, I have had many exhilarating days at Politico, and some occasional hard ones. As you can appreciate, today falls into the latter category – even as I am confident that these moves will help us push the publication forward in important ways.”

Politico’s legacy was a topic of discussion earlier on Tuesday as Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen, who were instrumental in starting Politico and later launched Axios, reflected on the news organization and “20 years of media revolution.”

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