Last summer, the staff at Gannett’s consumer reviews site Reviewed received terrible news: the media giant was shuttering the entire vertical and would be laying off dozens of employees. Effective November 1st, Reviewed would cease operations. Gannett blamed Google’s changing search algorithm, which had “degraded [its] business model.” The shuttering was a blow to the more than 70 employees, who, in Gannett’s words, would be “affected” by the decision. The closure came after an already tumultuous period: in 2023, the NewsGuild of New York, which represents unionized Reviewed workers, publicly accused Gannett of running AI-generated product reviews on the site. The content was pulled after staff outcry.
You wouldn’t know any of this backstory — or that…