ISLAMABAD: One of Pakistan’s largest media group Dawn has decided to shut down its Urdu website and has laid off all of its 12 employees.
According to the affected employees, they have been told to either resign with immediate effect of serve their notice period of one month.
The website will completely shut down from December 6, 2025. Financial constraints has been given the reason for the shutdown, according to the employees.
Earlier, Dawn Media Group had been facing a continuous drop in income and limited advertisement availability. In March 2025, the group claimed in an editorial that the federal and Punjab governments had withheld their advertisements for the past five months.
For years, the Dawn Urdu website has been one of the leading digital platforms providing news and analysis in Urdu.
This is the second major development in Pakistan’s media industry in recent days. The sudden layoffs have sent a wave of concern amongst the journalist community.
Earlier, the private digital platform Nukta had also laid off 37 employees, but later, Federal Information Minister Attaullah Tarar announced that all 37 would be offered government job
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