These layoffs are because the Media houses are not making profits and the money needed to keep these operations going. Ever since the new Government, it's no secret that the funding of media has been cut off from the Government, due to which it is apparent that the media outlets are not being able to sustain due to their clearly horrible structure, it's no wonder that there were so many private media outlets in Pakistan and no matter how tasteless, useless and out of function they were; they were surviving.
You can check tweets from a journalist who said that the Government should take responsibility and do something about the media houses since they are lacking funds, to which the Government replied that it is not their fault that the private businesses are not able to sustain themselves.
So, is it really the Government? Had it been the case, the first jumper on the news would've been DAWN news, any anti-state rhetoric is considered a jackpot in DAWN news probably. Fairly easy to determine that it's the private businesses running on failed models that cannot sustain without adequate Government funding via advertisements and yet are trying to lecture political players, regardless of whoever it is, on what is wrong with their policies and their governance.
