ESPN has decided to let go almost 150 of their employees following a round of job cuts earlier in the year which had cost more than 100 jobs. This comes in the continuation of lay off by media firm Buzzfeed which decided to let more than 100 of its talents in a series of job cuts.
Amid of speculations by Mckinsey that Automation might cut more than 800 million jobs by 2030, ESPN and BuzzFeed have started to feel the pressure, the reasons being Changing Consumption habits and a ‘diversifying revenue model’ adopted by them.
Earlier in the year during the spring, ESPN had counted more than 100 of its on-air talent positions from across the network. The follow up lay off might be from the Production, technology and other digital positions mainly. The memo released by John Skipper, ESPN President, reads:
‘A necessary component of managing change involves constantly evaluating how we best utilize all of our resources, and that sometimes involves difficult decisions. Our content strategy—primarily illustrated in recent months by melding distinct, personality-driven SportsCenter TV editions and digital-only efforts with our biggest sub-brand—still needs to go further, faster…and as always, must be efficient and nimble. Dynamic change demands an increased focus on versatility and value, and as a result, we have been engaged in the challenging process of determining the talent—anchors, analysts, reporters, writers and those who handle play-by-play—necessary to meet those demands. We will implement changes in our talent lineup this week. A limited number of other positions will also be affected and a handful of new jobs will be posted to fill various needs. Thank you as always for your continuing dedication to our work.’
As per Deadspin, the company will provide ‘severence, a 2017 bonus, the continuation of health benefits and outplacement services’ to employees affected today.
As per the Wall Street Journal report, BuzzFeed, the techno-media giant will also be cutting jobs close to 100 in the number who are mostly located in U.S. and U.K. offices. If we consider the memo released by the CEO and Founder Jonah Paretti – members of the business team which also includes the sales, creative, client services, marketing, and others will also be impacted from the job cut as that division has been completely restructured. This is necessary for accordance with the ‘diversifying revenue model’. As part of the restructuring, President Greg Coleman will also be assigned a new role for which no new specifications have been given. Here is the memo released by the CEO of BuzzFeed-
‘As our strategy evolves, we need to evolve our organization too – particularly our Business team, which was built to support direct-sold advertising but will need to bring in different, more diverse expertise to support these new lines of business. Unfortunately, this means we have to say goodbye to some talented colleagues whose work has helped us tremendously. In the US, we are restructuring select functions of the Business teams, including sales, creative, client services, Ad solution and Marketing to better support our diversifying revenue model. In the UK, we are realigning the organization to focus on content for global audiences and our core UK news beats- investigation, politics, media and social justice- and intend to make reductions across Buzz, Commercial, News, and Admin as a result. We will communicate today with everyone impacted by these changes. I would like to thank the departing employees for their many contributions to BuzzFeed. They will be missed and I know the will go on to do big things in the future’.
If we remember a year ago, the editorial staff of BuzzFeed’s UK team has requested the opportunity to unionize. Paretti, on the other hand, had disagreed with the request with Wall Street Journal citing the job cut to its missed expected revenue target for the year 2017 by 15 to 20 percent. The global initiatives led by BuzzFeed would be in turmoil unless the whole restructuring is complete.