NBC News Axes NBC Asian America Among Other Cuts in Restructuring

NBC News recently laid off 150 staffers in what the company is calling a necessary restructuring tied to the split between NBC News and MSNBC, as reported by The Wrap and The Advocate. The team behind NBC Asian America, a group of dedicated journalists who spent years telling stories about our community that mainstream media often overlooked, was included in the layoff.

For many of us in the Asian American community (and other marginalized groups) this move is more than just corporate housekeeping. It’s a significant step backwards.

NBC Asian America offered thoughtful reporting on culture, politics, identity, and lived experiences in one of the fastest growing and most diverse populations in the U.S. It created space for nuance. For community. For truth. With the reorg, NBC didn’t just dissolve this team. It also cut its identity-focused editorial groups like NBC BLK, NBC Latino, and NBC OUT, which centered Black, Latino, and LGBTQ+ voices.

NBC says that stories from these communities will now be “integrated” into the broader newsroom. But folding identity-specific coverage into the general news feed could lead to fewer stories, less depth, and more missed opportunities that speak to communities that actually deserve the attention.

The cuts are part of a recent trend burning its way across the media landscape. Diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, especially ones that are tied to editorial coverage, have increasingly been put on the chopping block. And when those go, so does a lot of the essential reporting that helps make sense of who we are, where we’re going, and what voices get heard along the way.

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