Microsoft lays off the remaining MSN team
Microsoft fired all of the remaining Microsoft News/MSN staff globally, shortly after they implemented Microsoft Start, a personalised news feed based on MSN providers available on Windows properties.
In the spring of 2020, Microsoft had laid off half of the workforce of journalists and editorial workers at the Microsoft News aka MSN organizations, as the shift to artificial intelligence only curation had started.
A half and a year later, the remaining slimmed-down organisation felt safe and optimistic, given also the launch of Microsoft Start, until a sudden group call was put in their calendars last Friday.
On Monday morning, in regional team calls, the final dismantling of the Microsoft News human resources was announced.
While it makes sense for a company like Microsoft not to use editors and depend only on technology instead, which in a way lets publishers keep their editorial advantage, it is a sad development for an organisation that had fought hard to reach editorial quality on Microsoft properties and render fair and significant revenue shares to the publishers.
Also, thanks to the MSN revenue share model and the relationships the teams had with the news publishers, the company has stayed clear from all copyright battles and fines, that Google and Facebook are involved in.
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