Oil Prices to Blame For Next Wave of Media Layoffs Coming to Al Jazeera

Just as the American media branch of Al Jazeera prepares to shut its doors for good at the end of April, it would seem that not all is well with the Qatar-based organization.

On Sunday the company announced that it would be letting go an additional 500 people — from its current workforce infrastructure of about 3,500 — beginning today. CNN cited the declining price of oil as a rationale for Qatar’s decision to impact Al Jazeera.

The move comes two months after the global network announced that it would shut down American operations after two-and-a-half years in business. At the time, Al Jazeera noted the AJAM faction was “no longer sustainable.”

In an internal memo, Mostefa Souag, the Al Jazeera Media Network Director, wrote that the decision was coming at the end of a long period of research and evaluation by the network, saying in part, “Over the past few months, we have carefully evaluated every option available to the network in order to ensure that we are best positioned in light of the large scale changes underway in the global media landscape.” Souag continued:

“In order to support the long-term sustainability and market leadership of Al Jazeera while continuing our recognized commitment to high quality, independent and hard-hitting journalism around the world, we have embarked on a workforce optimization initiative… Prior to embarking on his workforce optimization initiative, we explored every possible option available to us.”

[h/t CNN Money]

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