Microsoft lays off editorial staff at its News and MSN divisions, reportedly affecting around 50 US and 27 UK jobs, as it increases use of AI for news curation
Microsoft News and MSN is increasingly being run by robots — Microsoft is laying off dozens of journalists and editorial workers …
The VergeTom Warren
Context & Ripple Effects
This is an early data point in a pattern the related coverage makes explicit: after Microsoft's 2017 sales-force cuts of thousands of roles outside the US, the company has repeatedly trimmed specific functions rather than announcing one sweeping restructuring — and the 2020 MSN move is distinctive because the stated driver is swapping human curators for AI on its news properties.
Read against later rounds, the arc sharpens: by 2023 Microsoft had also laid off the responsible-AI team assessing OpenAI-related risks, and by 2024 was cutting hundreds in Azure including the Azure for Operators group. Function-by-function reduction — including the people evaluating the technology driving it — became routine rather than exceptional.
First-order effects
Roughly 50 US and 27 UK journalists and editorial workers at Microsoft News and MSN lose their jobs now, with AI-driven curation taking over story selection for the homepage and feeds they used to run.
Publishers whose traffic depends on MSN placement immediately lose their human advocates inside the platform — what surfaces next is decided by ranking systems, not editors who could be pitched or lobbied.
Second-order effects
For publishers and content syndication partners, algorithmic curation reshuffles homepage exposure without any renegotiation of deals, changing the value of an MSN relationship overnight and pressuring rival portals to match a much lower curation cost base.
Internally, the move signals to other Microsoft divisions that automation can be cited directly as the justification for headcount reduction — a template the later Azure and responsible-AI cuts followed.
Third-order effects
If the sequence holds, AI adoption functions less as a product feature than as a standing rationale for recurring, function-targeted layoffs — with the notable extension that oversight roles themselves (the responsible-AI team cut in 2023) are not exempt.
Structurally, news aggregation drifts toward fully machine-curated distribution at major platforms, leaving no dedicated human editorial layer accountable for what mass audiences are shown — a shift with obvious regulatory salience once auditors are among the laid off.
The trend: Major platforms are replacing human editorial judgment with automated curation, and the resulting job losses arrive function by function rather than as one announced restructuring.
What tech giants should be thinking: we're paying journalists just to pick stories, shouldn't we be funding journalists who actually report stories? What tech giants actually think: this app scrapes whatever looks like news into a page with “News” at the top, that's good enough h…
Platforms believe they will have an easier time with Washington if they fire the editorial staff & say “the algorithm” when regulators ask questions https://twitter.com/...
Some more journalists lost their jobs in the middle of this awful pandemic and that's the sad news. I regret that it was used in this article to purposefully feed the lazy & IMO rather useless narrative of “the robots are stealing our jobs”. Here's why. 1/ https://twitter.com/...
't Is zover: “I spend all my time reading about how automation and AI is going to take all our jobs, and here I am - AI has taken my job.” https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
Impossible as a journalist not to be a little alarmed by “a global shift away from humans”. Thinking of those losing jobs. It will be interesting to see how this works. The fact that dozens of people were employed to select stories shows you it isn't a simple job. https://twitter…
Microsoft sacks journalists to replace them with robots. Time for quality media to show the world why journalists should select the news - and maybe how AI can support them in that rather than replace them. https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
As a journalist formerly employed (indirectly) by Microsoft, I have many thoughts. I'll share a few disorderly ones, on MSFT doing news, on AI curation and on the plight of tech contractors. (I see you, reporters: Don't look for insider info here, I've got none.) 1/ https://twitt…
Microsoft is sacking its 27 homepage journalists and replacing them with AI. This feels like both a big reputational risk and bad PR to save a couple of quid from a company that had income of $126billion last year. https://twitter.com/...
AI tech is replacing human labour and sometimes jobs in every area of working life. This is a rare example of a complete 'news ‘service’ being replaced. Our research (cited in the article) shows most AI/ML in journalism replaces boring, repetitive work or complex data tasks https…
so the company famous for debuting their super-intelligent chatbot that turned into a nazi after less than 24 hours online is now firing journalists and replacing them with AI. should be fine 🙃 https://www.theverge.com/...
Gotta respect Silicon Valley's commitment to putting journalists out of work. Not satisfied with starving traditional media, they're going the extra mile by hiring journalists to fire themselves. https://twitter.com/...
In other AI news: “The sources said the recent move is the latest in an ongoing shift by the tech giant to AI and away from human editors and original content in its news properties.” https://www.businessinsider.com/ ...
“We didn't do it. It was an algorithm.” The hunt for a punching bag is only going to get worse before it gets better. https://www.businessinsider.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
Little known fact in the news industry is that Microsoft News has (or had) one of the largest editorial staffs around. They curate news articles from news orgs but also created original content. That seems to be changing https://twitter.com/...