Business publisher and content marketing brand Raconteur appears to have seen dramatic staff cuts following its purchase by Technology Advice last year.
Two sources spoke to Press Gazette on background about the changes that have taken place at the UK-based business publisher, which was bought by US-based B2B technology media publisher Technology Advice in September 2024.
In summer 2022, then Raconteur CEO Will Brookes told Press Gazette the company was on course to hit 82 staff later that year.
Press Gazette understands that the brand had 32 staff when Technology Advice took over and it is now down to around 15.
Raconteur is best known for publishing ad-funded print supplements which appear in The Times and The Sunday Times. But it also has its own website covering HR, technology, finance and marketing.
According to one source, who asked not to be named, sales has been the worst affected team, with finance staff, marketing and data teams also cut.
The source said the six-strong editorial team has been halved since the takeover, with one redundancy and two leavers not replaced. Some Raconteur staff are understood to have been absorbed into Technology Advice.
A second well-placed source confirmed there had been widespread cutbacks at Raconteur and a big reduction in headcount.
The title is currently hiring for a client director in sales. Design and commercial content teams are believed to have been spared from cutbacks.
Company-wide layoffs at Technology Advice have also reportedly taken place in recent weeks.
Senior Raconteur leavers include CEO Will Brookes and head of audience marketing and digital experience Kyri Rousou.
Technology Advice acquisition ‘designed’ to ‘scale’ Raconteur
At the time of the Technology Advice takeover in 2024, Brookes said on Linkedin the acquisition was “designed” to “scale Raconteur further” and increase “our global audience reach and enhance our demand-generation capabilities”.
“Over the last few years, we’ve worked hard to transform Raconteur from a print-first B2B publisher to a fully-fledged marketing services business with a suite of award-winning digital products and solutions. I believe the quality of our content and the results we are delivering for our customers are at their highest-ever levels…
“TA [Technology Advice] is a US-based media business that specialises in demand- and lead-generation services. It employs over 400 staff globally and commands an audience of over seven million business decision-makers every month.
“Raconteur will continue to operate as an independent business and our brand and leadership team remain unchanged. Our readers can rest assured that our commitment to creating best-in-class content for B2B decision-makers is stronger than ever.”
Brookes said the acquisition would “increase the rate of investment” to Raconteur.
The changes at Raconteur follow extensive cutbacks in the world of business and technology journalism this year: in June Business Insider cut more than 100 staff from its UK and London teams and Techcrunch axed its team of around ten staff in the UK and Europe.
In July, 19 staff were cut at tech news and reviews site CNET, Fortune made its UK-based editorial team covering Europe redundant and cut 10% of its global workforce, UK-based technology newsbrand Digital Frontier closed making 16 staff redundant, and Informa Techtarget announced plans to cut 10% of its workforce.
Raconteur almost went bust in 2016 amid a failed print magazine launch. Press Gazette previously reported that it reached profit of £2m in 2021 on turnover of £9.27m.
This year, Technology Advice has acquired RTInsights, an online publication and community for IT professionals, and The Neuron, a daily AI-newsletter media company.
Use of AI and tracking software
Press Gazette was also told Technology Advice senior leadership has pushed for its titles to use AI to reduce article writing time and to create newsletters.
Press Gazette has seen a slide from a company presentation showing a sample AI prompt to generate “a clear, publishable, 2,000-word how-to style article”.
In addition, tracking software Activtrak has been installed on employee laptops, with websites visited and time spent away from screen monitored.
Press Gazette has seen evidence of an employee dashboard tracking “workload balance” and productivity, which a source said has been “messing with everyone’s heads”.
The system considered “news and entertainment” to be an unproductive use of time, while social media sites like Reddit were categorised as productive.
Days were measured as “healthy” or “underutilised”..
Technology Advice has not responded to requests for comment.
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