According to reports on Wednesday, Dawn News has laid off several employees at its Islamabad office, including technical workers and NLE staff.
According to the details, assignment editors and technical staff from bureaus across the country have been sent home. Another 10 workers at the Islamabad office have lost their jobs.
Additionally, three assignment editors, Non-Linear Editing (NLE) staff and technical workers have been removed from their positions. Reportedly, the Islamabad bureau once had 16 reporters, and now only four reporters are left.
As per the details, each of the four reporters will receive only 30 litres of petrol. They will use the same fuel to travel from home to the office and cover stories for the organisation using their own motorcycles or cars.
Dawn News Urdu website
Previously, Dawn Media Group had decided to shut down its Urdu website and lay off all 12 employees working for it.
According to the affected employees, they were asked to either resign immediately or complete a one-month notice period.
The website was scheduled to shut down completely on December 6, 2025. The employees said financial problems were the reason behind the decision.
Earlier, Dawn Media Group had been facing a decline in income and fewer advertisements. In March 2025, the group said in an editorial that the federal and Punjab governments had stopped giving it advertisements for five months.
For years, the Dawn Urdu website has been one of the leading digital platforms providing news and analysis in Urdu.
Atta Tarar rejects claims of government ad ban on Dawn
Recently, Federal Information Minister Attaullah Tarar rejected claims that the government had stopped advertisements for the Dawn Media Group.
Speaking to WE News, Tarar said Dawn received Rs8.6 billion in government advertisements over the past 13 months.
He said that the claim that government advertisements for Dawn had been completely stopped was not correct.
He also added that he could provide full details of the advertisements given to the group during this period.
The minister said government advertisements are issued under different campaigns. He added that there is no fixed quota for such advertisements.
Tarar also said a large media group should not depend only on government advertisements for its income.