layoffs

Around a dozen Netflix employees are leaving after Dan Lin worked on the re-org with Bela Bajaria, outside partners and film heads

Deadspin has laid off its existing staff after G/O Media agreed to sell the sports news site to European startup Lineup Publishing. G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller revealed the update in a company-wide email on Monday.

Almost every week in 2024 has featured news of media layoffs (more than 800 so far by one count, which would place the sector on pace for 10,000 jobs lost this year, according to Fast Company) and left many professionals penning eulogies for the news industry while asking hard questions.

Vice, which filed for bankruptcy last year before being sold for $350 million to a consortium led by the Fortress Investment Group, is also looking to sell its Refinery 29 publishing business, CEO Bruce Dixon said in his memo to staff. It’s the latest sign of financial problems buffeting the media industry.

The cuts at Snapchat’s parent company come after layoffs across Google, Microsoft and Amazon.

If 2023 felt tumultuous, 2024 seems to have gone completely off the rails. Poynter’s media business experts dig into the causes — and effects.

The media world in general shed more than 830 jobs in a brutal month for media, tech and finance.

The Wall Street Journal is planning to restructure its Washington bureau this week, sources say. The changes will include a small number of layoffs as well as some new roles. The reorganization will also move some Washington-based economics coverage to New York. Some of the people whose roles are eliminated will be able to apply for new jobs.

British media company Sky Group is planning to cut 1,000 jobs over the next year as the company transitions to internet-based TV from satellite. The majority of jobs cut will be concentrated in the Comcast-owned company’s engineering teams, primarily impacting those who install and service the satellite products, and will result in a reduction of about 4% of the business. It comes as the company says more of its customers are choosing to use the company’s streaming box Sky Stream and its new line of televisions, Sky Glass.

Amazon, Google, Microsoft and other tech companies have been on a layoff spree this month, with the latest cuts differing from last year’s mass reductions.

In an internal note about the job cuts, the company’s chief executive cited its plan to shift focus solely to news coverage of business, tech and innovation.

The Forbes editorial union is planning a three-day walkout, starting on Thursday morning and ending on Monday, to protest management negotiation tactics and layoffs hitting around 3% of staff. “To meet our 2024 business goals, like many companies, we needed to reprioritize resources, resulting in the difficult decision to reduce less than 3% of staff,” a Forbes spokesperson said.

Blizzard President Mike Ybarra has also decided to leave, and Blizzard’s survival game has been canceled.

The Los Angeles Times announced Tuesday that it was laying off at least 115 people — or more than 20% of the newsroom — marking one of the largest workforce reductions in the history of the 142-year-old institution. The move comes amid projections for another year of heavy losses for the newspaper.

Amid speculation about its future, Paramount Global is proceeding with a new wave of staff reductions in February, according to sources who say the cuts will affect hundreds of employees across the entire company. For the past several days, there has been chatter that Paramount layoffs of about 800 are imminent. It followed a Wall Street Journal report in December that the company was mulling the potential elimination of more than 1,000 jobs in early 2024 to rein in costs. According to sources, the extent of the cuts will not be quite as big, but the layoffs will be in the hundreds, affecting virtually every division. Senior executives have been given reduction targets to hit.

The company’s owner has been plunged into a maelstrom in recent weeks as its senior executives have been forced out.

The cuts are arriving after Arena Group Holdings failed to make a licensing payment to Authentic Brands Group, according to a securities filing.

The L.A. Times Guild called an emergency meeting on Thursday after leadership was told that the newspaper intends to “imminently execute another major round of layoffs,” according to a memo. The Bargaining Committee told members that it can’t say exactly how many staffers the company is intending to lay off, however, in the memo obtained by the New York Times, the union says “This is the Big One.”

YouTube Chief Business Officer Mary Ellen Coe announced the changes in a memo to staff Wednesday.

Walt Disney’s Pixar Animation Studios is set to cut jobs as the studio has completed production on some shows and now has more staff than it needs, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters on Thursday. TechCrunch reported earlier that Pixar was set to undergo layoffs as high as 20% this year, with the studio’s team of 1,300 people reduced to under 1,000 over the coming months.

This follows the company’s announcement of laying off “hundreds” of jobs in its in its Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios division.

NBC News implemented a series of layoffs on Thursday, affecting several dozen staffers. The network currently has 150 new and open positions and the employees impacted by the layoffs have been encouraged to apply, according to a person familiar with the details.

Amazon‘s gamer-centric streaming outlet Twitch is laying off 500 staffers, CEO Dan Clancy told employees in a memo Wednesday morning. The move is being made in sync with cutbacks at corporate siblings Prime Video and Amazon Studios. Bloomberg had reported the layoffs at Twitch on Tuesday. Clancy said the news had “leaked,” suggesting that the Amazon division had to hold off on confirming any details or answering employee questions in order to co-ordinate today’s announcement with that of the other divisions.

“It’s important that we prioritize our investments for the long-term success of our business,” division leader Mike Hopkins writes in an internal memo.

Great American Media, the faith and family-focused company that launched in 2021 under Bill Abbott, is the latest to get hit with layoffs. Roughly 13 people were cut from top jobs on Monday, including Loren Schwartz, chief marketing officer; Jamie Kramer, EVP digital & strategic growth; Max Pinigin, CFO; Angela Sullivan, VP corporate communications; Brian Pancarik, EVP user experience & operations; Michael Hough, head of financial planning and analysis; and Nicole Gardner, Pure Flix creative director.

Channel 4 is drawing up plans to cut potentially as many as 200 jobs in its biggest round of layoffs in more than 15 years, as it seeks to make savings to weather the worst TV advertising downturn since 2008. The broadcaster, which has undergone a rapid expansion in recent years with staff numbers swelling to a record level of more than 1,200, aims to dramatically reduce a wage bill that now stands at more than £108 million a year.

The “post-cable” news network said “unforeseen internal and external factors” caused the sudden work stoppage.

Layoffs have hit the ad sales ranks in the CBS owned-and-operated TV station portfolio as a long-term restructuring effort takes effect. Tuesday’s cuts come after new ad sales staffers were hired over the past three months. The exact number of employees affected could not be determined, but sources say the net number of departures across recent hires and other staffers is about 17 people, one in each of the markets where the 28 CBS-owned stations are based. A number of ad sales positions also remain open. The layoffs are confined to the ad sales divisions of the stations and are part of a year-long restructuring, the sources say.

The tech company announced earlier this year it would be slashing 20% of its workforce by 2024.

CBC/Radio-Canada said on Monday that it plans to cut about 600 union and non-union positions over the next year, as the national broadcaster implements cost-saving initiatives. The proposed job cuts will help manage about C$125 million (US$92.32 million) in budget pressures forecast for the 2024–25 fiscal year, the broadcaster said. CBC and Radio-Canada will each reduce about 250 jobs, while the remaining roles will be trimmed from the technology and infrastructure divisions. Additionally, about 200 current vacant positions will be eliminated.

Headcount will be reduced across the company, founder and CEO Daniel Ek said in a blog post.

The company’s union objected, noting that journalists covering climate change, policy and tech are among those affected.