The Texas Tribune, the pioneering digital news organization, laid off 11% of its staff Wednesday, renewing worries about the sustainability of local nonprofit journalism. While layoffs in the moribund local news sector are routine at this point, the Tribune’s business model has largely insulated it from cutbacks that have whittled local and regional journalism in recent decades. These are the first layoffs in its 14-year history.
The company’s union objected, noting that journalists covering climate change, policy and tech are among those affected.
More than half of the jobs at the flagship BBC Two political program to be lost as the corporation diverts money to digital platforms. Pictured: Kirsty Wark on the Newsnight set.
Vice Media Group is beging a restructuring process that will see the departure of a number of employees. The youth-skewing broadcaster is undergoing its latest round of layoffs this year as it winds down a number of long-running news programs. Sources saud that less than 100 people are impacted.
Dish Network is cutting jobs as the company moves to reduce operational costs and expenses throughout the business. Dish has been restructuring the company since 2020, and this is not the first round of layoffs to have occurred since. Dish has laid off around 3,000 employees in recent years. The total number of the most recent cuts is unknown, but it is reportedly a major round of layoffs, with some employees claiming up to 20% of the staff was cut.
Netflix has laid off a handful of executives in its drama and overall deals divisions including Alex Sapot and Pete Corona. Sapot has been with the company for over seven years and was director, original series. Corona was director of drama series and was with the company for over five years.
Exclusives
Starz, the premium network and streaming service that will soon be its own publicly traded company, is laying off more than 10% of employees and is exiting Australia and the U.K. Starz CEO Jeffrey Hirsch announced the news in an email to staff obtained by CNBC on Friday. Starz has about 670 employees. He also addressed staff in a companywide town hall.
Google cut dozens of jobs in its news division this week, downsizing at a particularly sensitive time for online platforms and publishers. An estimated 40 to 45 workers in Google News have lost their jobs, according to an Alphabet Workers Union spokesperson, who didn’t know the exact number.
LinkedIn is laying off more than 660 workers across its engineering, product, talent and finance teams, the employment-focused social media site announced Monday. This marks LinkedIn’s second round of major layoffs this year, after it announced its plans to cut more than 700 jobs in May amid efforts to make “changes to our Global Business Organization and our China strategy.”
The staff reductions come after Post leaders determined that recent revenue projections were overly optimistic.
TVN FOCUS ON JOURNALISM
Altice Lays Off Up To 40 At News 12
“It was an extremely chaotic day,” says one laid-off staffer of the cuts and how they were handled at the company’s metro New York area news channel.
There has been a round of layoffs at the daily syndicated entertainment newsmagazine Entertainment Tonight. About 10% of the staff at the CBS Media Ventures program were affected, sources say. The layoffs are said to include the head of graphics, post supervisor, head of photography and some producers. The cuts stemmed from a reduction in the ET digital programming footprint over the past few months, sources said.
ESPN is laying off some of its biggest stars, including Jeff Van Gundy and Jalen Rose, in a purge that is expected to result in around 20 on-air personalities being let go Friday as the network hopes to save tens of millions of dollars.
The Los Angeles Times has opened up its offer to buyout the contracts of editorial staffers to anyone who wishes to volunteer as the newspaper moves forward on plans to lay off dozens of employees amid declining advertising revenue.
Layoffs have begun at Penske Media’s The Hollywood Reporter, multiple individuals with knowledge say. At least one digital media writer, J. Clara Chan, has been let go, while another individual with knowledge says at least two more staffers were laid off last week.
The layoffs affected around a dozen employees, a person with knowledge of the situation told Insider on Thursday. One staffer who was affected by the cuts said Manoj Shamdasani, a news-gathering executive at Cheddar’s parent company, Altice USA, informed workers about the status of their jobs.
This week’s changes will see the number of employees at TCM slashed from about 90 to about 20, according to insiders, with the responsibilities of overseeing the network distributed among other units under the WBD umbrella. Meanwhile, budgets have already been progressively cut at the network, leading many to wonder what the future will bring. (Pictured: Ben Mankiewicz, TCM program host)
More top brass from Turner Classic Movies are on their way out as Warner Bros. Discovery layoffs are underway across the conglomerate’s TV networks division. Individuals at the network with knowledge of the situation say that Charles Tabesh, TCM’s SVP of programming and content strategy; Anne Wilson, VP of studio production; Dexter Fedor, VP of marketing and creative; and Genevieve McGillicuddy, TCM Enterprises VP, will all exit the company. The latest departures follow news on Tuesday that TCM General Manager Pola Chagnon is leaving the company after more than 25 years.
Warner Bros. Discovery is undergoing another round of layoffs in its television business and it’s started Tuesday. The layoffs, which were described by insiders as “pockets of refinement” rather than wholesale cuts, are happening in its cable TV business, which includes the Discovery-branded cable networks and Turner networks.
Nearly 20 journalists will lose their jobs and more than 20 others will be moved to new assignments.
CBS owned stations have begun laying off creative services staff as part of a restructuring around its design team across all of its stations.
“The restructuring stems from the same persistent economic headwinds facing news media across the country,” the executive editor said in an email to the staff.
Chelios was hired in 2021, which coincided with ESPN acquiring the NHL’s broadcasting rights.
Penske Media Corp.’s Hollywood Reporter is poised to go through a new round of layoffs after misses on revenue targets last quarter, an insider with knowledge told TheWrap. The first quarter represented a tough advertising environment for all the entertainment trades, but was catastrophic for Reporter, one of two legacy publications, the insider said.
Disney reached its 7,000 layoffs goal, handing out notices to the remaining employees impacted in its third round of job cuts last Friday ahead of the Memorial Day holiday weekend. The Mouse House’s target was to conclude these companywide layoffs, which focused most heavily on the media divisions and left the parks largely untouched, ahead of the summer. The company still has plans to eliminate more roles internationally over a period of time, according to a source close to the situation.
CNN will shift the bulk of its operations behind its Spanish-language efforts to Mexico City, scaling back production of content for linear television in favor of work aimed at reaching a younger audience that favors mobile video. The move is likely to mean the elimination of jobs in Miami and Atlanta, but will also result in a ramp-up of jobs in Mexico and Los Angeles, where CNN will aim to add more than staffers, according to a person familiar with the plans, which were disclosed to employees Thursday afternoon.
Meta has begun its third round of layoffs as part of the company’s multibillion-dollar plan to save costs. The latest round of cuts targets members of Meta’s business groups and follows a previous round of layoffs in April that affected employees in technical roles. About 10,000 workers will lose their jobs between the April and May cuts, following the company’s first round in November that affected 11,000 employees.
The company is expected to cut some roles in its cable TV business, which includes the Discovery-branded cable networks. It’s been described as “pockets of refinement” rather than wholesale cuts and sources have said that cable staffers have been bracing themselves over the last couple of weeks.
In the latest wave of industry layoffs, the recently combined Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios as well as Paramount Media Networks, overseen by the division’s President and CEO Chris McCarthy, is reducing its domestic team by 25% today. McCarthy addressed the cuts, which he called a “very hard but necessary decision”, in a company memo. According to sources, the basic cable networks were most heavily impacted, with a number of units being shut down as part of consolidation, mostly on the operations side.
The closing of five news departments at Sinclair stations across the country may just be an effect of one company’s regional sports network gone sideways. It may also signal that a major local TV news shakeup is finally upon us.
Staffers at NBCUniversal Local’s experimental unit LX News got word Wednesday that they’d be shutting down. Some worry that it bodes darkly for news innovation that will connect with new generations of viewers.
Sinclair stations in Ohio, Oregon, Nebraska, Florida and Iowa were given notice last week that their news operations will be shutting down imminently. “Information is power, and we just turned the lights off for many,” said one fired employee.
The TV group’s The National Desk news service will air instead of local news beginning May 15 and 17 news staffers have been let go. Pictured: KTVL host Carmine Gemei speaks with Natalie Webber of the Oregon Department of Forestry.
