Laid-off journalists seek jobs and support at the 2026 national conference
Luisa Beltran had been here before. Just eight months earlier, she had been pulled into a virtual meeting by her employer, Fortune magazine, in which she learned she was being laid off.
Now, it was happening again. As she sat in the room with the chief executive of Sportico, she could hardly believe it. Two layoffs, in less than a year.
Beltran is one of hundreds of journalists who have lost their jobs this year as media companies constrict and restructure. At the National Association of Hispanic Journalists annual conference in New Orleans, talks of recent layoffs were unavoidable. Those whose jobs had been cut prowled the career fair. Others commiserated in the halls. Rumors and fears of future eliminations swirled.
The Washington Post laid off nearly half its newsroom via email and webinar in February. The Associated Press eliminated roughly 60 United States-based positions in May. CBS laid off roughly 70 employees after announcing the closure of its radio division in March and controversially fired several veteran 60 Minutes correspondents, including Scott Pelley and Mexican-American journalist Cecilia Vega, the show’s first Latina correspondent.
Beltran had more than 20 years of experience covering private equity for organizations like MarketWatch and Barron’s before she was hit with one layoff after another this past year.
“When you get laid off, you go through what happened to you over and over and over again,” she said. “You do this whole, ‘Maybe if I’d covered something this way, maybe if I’d broken more, maybe if I’d been nicer,’ you know. All these things you could have done.”
In response to cuts in the industry, NAHJ created a layoff-support initiative that has provided free memberships, comped travel to the conference and provided financial assistance with registration. Since January, the organization has given 13 journalists free membership and 12 professionals free conference registration and a $250 travel stipend, according to Isabella Di Giglio, the program registration and member engagement manager.
By providing membership to laid-off journalists, Di Giglio said, NAHJ can offer access to resources like its professional development workshops and online career portal, where members can search for job openings and shop their resumes around to recruiters.
New members who have recently been laid off are granted complimentary membership via application, while existing members are able to email NAHJ officials to request a membership extension, she said.
To address the mental and emotional toll that layoffs can take on those impacted, NAHJ has sought to include more mental health programming and support at this year’s conference. NAHJ Executive Director Yaneth Guillén-Diaz added that the organization has partnered with the Media Resilience Network to offer one-on-one counseling support for journalists experiencing hardships. In-person sessions were offered daily throughout the 2026 conference.
Beltran will also be at the national conference, where she is speaking on a Saturday morning panel called, “Life After Layoffs: How We Bounce Back.” At the session, she will dispense advice to people who have been through layoffs, and those who fear they might be next.
“You don’t know, and that’s what I tell people,” said Beltran, who now works at Morning Brew. “You don’t know. I thought I was safe at Sportico. I’m not safe. I don’t think anybody’s safe.”
Beltran received one of NAHJ’s scholarships to attend this year’s conference, which covers registration and includes a $250 travel stipend.
Vega, the former 60 Minutes correspondent, will be interviewed by veteran TV journalist and NAHJ Hall of Fame honoree John Quiñonez on the second day of the conference about her controversial departure from CBS.
Efrain Robles also lost his job at CBS. The former CBS News Sunday Morning photographer and video journalist said that when he was cut from the network last year, it felt like part of his identity was gone.
He always saw himself as a storyteller, a documentarian and took pride in his professional achievements, he said.
“Separating myself from Efrain, who works at Sunday Morning and has the identity of a staff photographer with multiple Emmys, to Efrain who’s just a storyteller was something that took me weeks to sit with and let that pass through me,” Robles said. “But much like everything else in life, I’ve survived harder things.”
Nikole Valiente is a senior at Florida International University. She is a rural reporting fellow at Boyd’s Station in Berry, Kentucky, and aspires to become a general assignment reporter covering her hometown of Hialeah, Florida. Reach her at nikolev1023 [at] gmail [dot] com or @ni.kole.v.
