Mozilla Foundation Announces 30% Staff Reduction, Closes Public Relations and Internet Advocacy Departments

The Mozilla Foundation, a non-profit organization, has announced another significant round of layoffs, cutting 30% of its workforce. This reduction primarily affects the public relations and internet advocacy departments, which have been central to the foundation's mission of promoting Mozilla and advocating for privacy and an open internet.

Compared to larger tech companies, the actual number of employees laid off by Mozilla may not seem large, given the foundation's smaller size and previous rounds of layoffs. However, a 30% reduction is substantial for the organization.

The decision to cut the public relations and internet advocacy departments is not entirely surprising, as many companies tend to reduce marketing and public relations staff first during layoffs, before moving on to product and research and development teams if necessary.

In an official statement, Mozilla's Vice President of Communications said:

"The Mozilla Foundation is restructuring its team to increase agility and impact, accelerating our work to ensure a more open and equitable future of technology for everyone. Unfortunately, this means we will have to end some of our past work and eliminate related positions to focus more on the future.

We want to clarify that this reorganization does not mean we are abandoning our advocacy and public relations efforts. On the contrary, advocacy and public relations remain core principles of our work at the Mozilla Foundation. We are reevaluating our approach."

The statement suggests that Mozilla will continue its advocacy and public relations efforts, but it raises the question: how will these efforts be carried out with the responsible departments now closed? Perhaps Mozilla will choose to outsource this work, as outsourcing may be more cost-effective than maintaining an in-house team.

This news follows a substantial layoff in February of this year, which saw around 60 employees from the product development team let go.