In the United States, media has lost 200,000 jobs over the past four years, or 15% of the total workforce, claims Joshua Brown, CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management, citing Wall Street Journal data. And that is before AI. In the UK, The Guardian launched a voluntary redundancy programme for editorial staff in 2024 after forecasting losses of roughly GBP 39 million.
A different movement is under way in parallel. Studios, meanwhile, are signing creators precisely in order to take over their cost model. The most successful American television creator of the moment is leaving the studio that gave him a platform. The reason is structural.
Sheridan and the end of approval processes
Taylor Sheridan, the creator of Yellowstone, 1923, Tulsa King and Special Ops: Lioness, was shooting twelve shows at once for Paramount and CBS. According to Brown, his contract with Paramount contains a clause forbidding both networks from asking to read scripts. „Know how many people at Paramount / CBS have the job of reviewing or approving his scripts? Zero. His contract says they can't even ask to. That would have been fifty high-paying executive jobs five years ago," wrote Brown.
In October 2025, Deadline confirmed that Sheridan is leaving Paramount. He signed five-year overall deals for films, television shows and streaming with NBCUniversal. The contract takes effect on 1 January 2029, after his current arrangement with Paramount expires. According to Deadline, the new deal could reach roughly a billion dollars, compared with the roughly USD 200 million at which his previous Paramount contract was estimated. Sheridan's production partner David Glasser and his 101 Studios are moving to NBCUniversal as well.
„Sheridan's next gig at NBCUniversal is to create twenty shows for a billion-dollar guarantee. A decade ago this would have meant hundreds of white collar gatekeepers in glass office towers overseeing and approving each episode. Not anymore," wrote Brown.
11 people and tens of millions of views
Brown's own media company, The Compound, works as an example from the other end of the spectrum. The company employs 11 full-time staff and generates tens of millions of views, downloads and impressions a month. „The employees are the stockholders. We answer to our own audience. They're in charge," wrote Brown.
The Compound publishes podcasts and videos directly for its own audience, without an intermediary. The holding that grew to USD 425 million around a single podcast follows the same path. The operating overhead of a traditional television studio makes it impossible to replicate such a model. The fixed costs of institutional infrastructure are too high.
Where media economics is shifting
„America is not producing less media. The equation of how it's being produced and how it's being consumed and who is capturing the economics is the thing that's changed," wrote Brown.
The cuts at The Guardian are a response to viewership shifting faster than media houses can cut costs. In Europe, regulation is not stopping this trend. The European Media Freedom Act (in force since May 2024, applicable from August 2025) protects editorial independence and regulates the ownership of public service media. But the structural shift of audiences towards creators and platforms is not covered by any regulation.
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