Nationally-known reporters are among those affected by the CBSViacom layoffs, according to reports. A source with knowledge of the layoffs told TheWrap the cuts affected 300 people, of whom 75 were from the newsroom, “including some senior producers and reporters at top shows.” Journalist Yashar Ali named CBS News’ White House reporter Mark Knoller, Pentagon reporter Cami McCormick and correspondent Dean Reynolds in a series of tweets about the layoffs
Yesterday’s latest round of layoffs at ViacomCBS’s CBS Entertainment Group include the network’s owned stations. Among them: KCBS Los Angeles | WBBM Chicago | KDKA Pittsburgh | WJZ Baltimore. In a letter to staff, CBS News President Susan Zirinsky said: “There isn’t a single person leaving who did a bad job. It’s economics. It is absolutely the financials that has forced us to make these decisions.… I’m really sorry. There is not a person who won’t be missed.”
ViacomCBS plans to institute another round of layoffs that will affect the CBS Entertainment Group. The new round of layoffs come a month after an earlier round of cuts (about 100 people), that included Sarah Babineau, head of content and creative enterprises at Comedy Central, and Smithsonian Networks President Tom Hayden.
It’s getting hard to keep track of the bad news about the news right now. But we have to. Here’s Poynter’s attempt to collect the layoffs, furloughs and closures caused by the coronavirus’ critical blow to the economy and journalism in the United States. It was last updated on May 18.
Exclusives
The layoffs came swiftly last week. At Vice Media, 155 people lost their jobs. Quartz laid off 80. Condé Nast, publisher of glossy magazines such as Vogue, cut 100 people. And as BuzzFeed furloughed staffers at its overseas divisions, its U.S.-based staffers braced for similar cuts. For those who had been watching local newspapers struggle in the era of digitization, these announcements were sobering: Even the media business’s most savvy, innovative and glamorous players are hurting.
Vice Media has laid off roughly 155 employees, according to a Friday memo from CEO Nancy Dubuc. The memo, reviewed by TheWrap, said 55 of the cuts will be domestic and around 100 will be from overseas divisions.
Nearly half the employees at the international business news site will lose their jobs as the eight-year-old outlet emphasizes paid subscriptions over advertising revenue.
With 1Q revenue dragged down across divisions — from the closed theme parks units and film segments, affected by closed cinemas, and TV networks, where advertising started tanking amid the virus crisis despite higher news and other ratings — it is no wonder that management teams have in recent weeks unveiled furloughs, salary cuts and other measures to reduce their cost base.
Layoffs In The Air At NBCU’s WMAQ, WSNS
Faced with unprecedented plunges in advertising revenue at NBC-owned WMAQ Chicago and Telemundo WSNS, employees of the two NBCUniversal stations are bracing for imminent layoffs. At a virtual town hall last week, David Doebler, president and GM of the stations, announced the staff reduction plans in response to the coronavirus shutdown. Doebler, who did not say how many positions would be affected, declined to comment further.
ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish sent an email to staff on Wednesday after the company laid off people across the organization. The newly merged company is still in the midst of cutting costs and streamlining its business following the tie-up between Viacom and CBS. It’s unclear, however, how many people were let go or what divisions were most-impacted.
An internal document at Vice Media Group lays out a plan for substantial layoffs at the new-media company’s websites, as Vice considers a variety of options to deal with coronavirus pandemic. The planning document calls for layoffs of more than 300 people in digital operations, including major cuts at both Vice News and Refinery29, the women-focused digital publisher Vice acquired last year.
The media industry continues to see widespread cuts as Valence Media slashes jobs across several of its brands, including The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard and Vibe. About a third of the company’s media division was laid off on Tuesday, which amounts to more than 100 job cuts, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Dish Network will let go of an undisclosed number of employees as the pay-TV giant looks to weather the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. A Dish spokesperson confirmed the layoffs to TheWrap, but did not elaborate on the number of employees or divisions impacted.
ViacomCBS is planning two rounds of layoffs, an individual with knowledge of the plans tells TheWrap. The first round could of cuts could come as early as Feb. 26 — ViacomCBS is set to hold its first earnings call as a combined company next Thursday — with the second round of layoffs coming at the end of March. The first batch of layoffs could affect as many as 100 people.
ViacomCBS is letting go of staff amid a reorganization of its corporate diversity and inclusion department. Sources tell Variety that the cuts are concentrated in CBS’s legacy corporate-diversity department.
More than 3,000 journalists lost their jobs this year. These are some of their stories.
Staff Cuts At WXIN-WTTV Indianapolis
As many as a dozen employees at Fox affiliate WXIN and independent WTTV, including one on-air reporter, were laid off Wednesday, roughly three months after Nexstar Media Group acquired the stations as part of its $4.1 billion deal to buy Tribune Media.
The media company behind Showtime and Nickelodeon is swinging the ax at CBS’s finance department, which is housed in the network’s Midtown Manhattan “Black Rock” headquarters, according to sources.
The teams at website ET Online and digital network ET Live have merged, resulting in layoffs across those Entertainment Tonight-adjacent brands.
The media industry continued to execute cuts in December and November as Gannett, Highsnobiety, and the CBC reduced headcounts. The cuts followed large rounds of layoffs and buyouts earlier in the year from companies including BuzzFeed, Verizon, and Vice Media. The massive cuts this year represent a recent trend in media that has seen upstart companies and newspapers alike shrinking and disappearing.
Amid a restructuring, another round of layoffs are set to impact NBCUniversal’s E!, Bravo, Oxygen, USA and Syfy networks Thursday, a source familiar with the situation tells Variety, not long after the E! network laid off around 20-25 staff in August.
At least 40 people have been let go from AXS TV following Mark Cuban’s sale of his majority stake in the cable network and the channel HDNet Movies to Steve Harvey and Anthem Sports & Entertainment on Monday, three individuals close to the situation say. The company’s Dallas staff is almost completely terminated, while the Denver and Los Angeles offices are also hit hard.
In the further wake of its acquisition of 21st Century Fox’s entertainment portfolio, Disney has laid off nearly 60 employees within its Media Distribution division, affecting those within both Disney and Fox.
Hundreds of senior television ad sales executives have been put out of their jobs in the past year and more are worried that their cushy, well-paid way of life may soon disappear. Blame industry consolidation, cost-cutting and changes in consumer behavior that are cutting into TV ratings and ad revenue.
Access and Access Live have laid off multiple long-serving producers in both New York and Los Angeles. Access — formerly Access Hollywood — has let go supervising music producer Nancy Harrison and senior news producer Christine Fahey, along with supervising producers Ryan Patterson and Adam Jordan and crew coordinator Steve Holt. All had been with the show for two decades. In addition, supervising producer of TV coverage Stephanie Murphy and senior news consultant Diana Dasrath have been laid off as well.
TruTV is laying off a portion of its marketing and programming staffers, who will receive severance packages as part of exit deals similar to those at other units of WarnerMedia.
Just under two months after the Walt Disney Co. officially took control of the majority of Fox’s film and TV assets in a seismic $71.3 billion deal, another round of layoffs are slicing through Burbank and on Pico Boulevard.
CNN staffers are concerned about an impending reorganization or round of involuntary cost-cutting after more than 100 of their colleagues raised their hands to take a voluntary buyout that was described as a “separation program.” “Everybody is bracing for a reorganization,” a senior producer said. “There are all kinds of rumors about impending layoffs.”
A second day of mass layoffs has begun on the Fox lot in the wake of Disney completing its acquisition of 21st Century Fox on Wednesday. Longtime 20th Century Fox Television Distribution President Mark Kaner is among the senior executives who were formally notified with severance details on Friday morning.
The other shoe has dropped: Fox began the process of laying off about 4,000 employees on Thursday, one day after the film and TV studio finalized its multibillion-dollar sale to Disney, according to a studio executive. Senior-level staff will likely be the first impacted by the cuts, the executive said. Fox human resources began calling employees at the senior vice president, executive vice president and presidential level to deliver the news on Thursday.
Layoffs are underway at Lionsgate today. About 20 of of the company’s 1,600 employees, or 1%, are affected. Most of them are said to be in corporate divisions, with a few staffers in TV distribution and the motion picture group also getting pinked slipped.
SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) — Video game maker Activision Blizzard is laying off nearly 800 workers as the company braces for a steep downturn in revenue following the best year […]
