Business Insider lays off 21% of staff amid SEO warnings of publishers’ extinction event

Business Insider has laid off one-fifth of its employees. This comes amid a fresh and terrifying report by SEO pros, predicting that 25-40% of mid-tier publishers may become obsolete if they don’t do something fast.

According to an internal memo from Chief Executive Barbara Peng obtained by ADWEEK, the company will lay off 21% of its staff, mostly because of traffic declines.

“If your role is impacted, you will receive an email from the People & Culture team in the next 15 minutes,” the memo sent out on Thursday reads.

The company is launching events and attempting to reduce its reliance on traffic-sensitive business.

“We must be structured to endure extreme traffic drops outside of our control, so we’re reducing our overall company to a size where we can absorb that volatility,” the memo reads.

This comes as no surprise, as many publishers are seeing a significant traffic drop in a zero-click era, accelerated by Google.

This week, SEO veteran John Shehata shared a concerning report urging publishers to act fast if they want to survive.

According to the report, Google’s pivot to AI-first search is disrupting the industry. Publishers are reporting 30-50% traffic losses, and industry revenue losses are projected at $2 billion annually.

“This transition represents more than a traffic source change – it's a complete redefinition of publisher value. Success now requires treating Google as a discovery layer rather than a destination, optimizing for influence rather than rankings, and building direct audience relationships rather than search dependency,” Shehata said.

Business Insider also mentioned that it fully embraces AI. The company wants all of its employees to use Enterprise ChatGPT regularly to work “faster, smarter, and better.”

“Change like this isn’t easy. But Business Insider was born in a time of disruption – when the smartphone was reshaping how people consumed news. We thrived by taking risks and building something new,” the memo reads.

Another company – Duolingo – recently announced it was fully embracing AI, too. The decision quickly backfired. Well, at least, on social media.

Not only did Duolingo’s very vocal social team delete all of its videos on TikTok, signalling it was unhappy with the decision, but it also posted an Anonymous-style video, saying, “Duolingo was never funny. We were.”