After the COVID-19 pandemic, two strikes in Hollywood and with the impact of streaming and the advent of A.I, the media landscape has continued to shift and consolidate, as Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav predicted at the 2024 Allen & Co. Sun Valley Retreat.
Zaslav knows whereof he speaks, with his own company undergoing successive waves of post-merger layoffs over the past two years, the most recent coming in May of this year when the company closed its TV and streaming service Newshub in New Zealand. More than 300 jobs were lost.
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Paramount likewise targeted a 3% reduction in its global headcount earlier this year, with additional synergies likely if the Skydance deal closes.
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The Fourth Estate has been hit hard. Politico’s estimate counts over 500 journalist layoffs this year alone. That largely began in January with the Los Angeles Times cutting more than 20% of its newsroom. Shortly after that, Time underwent layoffs as well, cutting 15% of its newsroom, according to CNN.
As the unfortunate trend looks to pick up as the entertainment industry still recovers from an avalanche of compounding factors, Deadline aims to keep track of changes. They are listed chronologically from newest to oldest below.
SK Global
The independent studio behind Anyone But You and Crazy Rich Asians went through layoffs in November with less than 20 employees affected by the cuts.
ABC News
ABC News went through a round of layoffs early in October 2024, which affected 75 employees across ABC-owned stations. The job reductions are split evenly between the two divisions, according to a person familiar with the situation.
Disney
Disney went through another wave of layoffs that affected around 300 people across corporate, legal, finance, communications and HR. Parks, ESPN and Disney Entertainment Television are safe for now. This followed a round of layoffs at the end of July.
ABC Signature has been folded into 20th Television under President Karey Burke with ABC and Hulu Originals scripted drama and comedy teams merging under ABC/Freeform EVP Simran Sethi, who is know President of Scripted Programming for Hulu Originals and ABC Entertainment.
RELATED: Disney Entertainment Television Consolidates Casting Of ABC-Hulu-Onyx & 20th TV-ABC Signature
Tracy Underwood stepped down as President of ABC Signature and took an overall producing deal with Disney Television Studios. SVP Erin Wehrenberg, ABC’s Head of Comedy, also stepped down.
The layoffs at Disney Entertainment Television affected 140 people, around 2% of the workforce. National Geographic was the hardest hit with abut 60 people let go, making up 13% of its staff.
Animation studio Pixar reduced 14% of its staff, around 175 employees affected, in May.
Paramount Global
Co-CEO of Paramount Global Chris McCarthy confirmed a second round of layoffs heading for 15% of the entertainment company’s States-side staff. The cuts were made to Paramount Television Studios as the production company was shuttered all together in August.
In September, veteran Tina Koyanagi-Rosener and eight of her colleagues who worked on content strategy were laid off as part of the forecast 15 % cut.
RELATED: Nickelodeon Marketing Exec Sabrina Caluori Exiting Ahead Of Broader Paramount Layoffs
The studio downsized in February with the departure of several key executives who left. The move impacted over 800 employees.
A+E Networks
A+E Networks underwent layoffs in August with cuts to the Lifetime and the History Channel’s programming teams. SVP of Unscripted Development and Programming at Lifetime Amy Savitsky as well as VPs Kim Chessler and Cat Rodriguez were affected as well as A&E’s Peter Tarshis and Zach Behr, VP of Unscripted Programming for History.
Merit Street Media
Dr. Phil McGraw’s news and entertainment network Merit Street media laid off nearly a third of its employees at the beginning of August. The company was partnered with Christian-based Trinity Broadcasting for distribution.
Hearst’s Very Local Streaming Service
Hearst Television let go dozens of employees in early August, Deadline exclusively reported.
RELATED: Paramount+’s Communications Team Dissolved As Layoffs Hit Streamer Hard
Fox Entertainment
Fox Media has undergone staff reductions, cutting 30 employees in July.
The layoffs involve employees across all three divisions, the first two headed by Michael Thorn (network) and Fernando Szew (studios). The search for a new head of worldwide content sales is ongoing, with Tony Vassiliadis leading the team in the interim.
Lifted Entertainment
TheITV Studios-owned production company, which produces Love Island had 15 to 20 roles come under scrutiny. The number represents around 10% of the circa-160-staff Lifted Entertainment operation.
Warner Bros. Discovery
The company has begun another round of layoffs across production, business affairs and finance. This comes a year after a round of layoffs that led to the departure of a number of network executives in its cable business.
Entertainment Tonight
As reported by TheWrap, Entertainment Tonight revealed a round of layoffs that would impact the news desk in TV and editorial departments. The layoffs will take place Sept. 7 ahead of Season 44.
CNN reduced its staff by 100, laying off about 2.9% of its workforce, including media critic Brian Lowry and senior tech writer Samantha Murphy. CNN Worldwide CEO Mark Thompson revealed the strategy of merging linear and digital newsgathering with the announcement of cutting 100 staffers.
Chicken Soup for the Soul
Redbox owner Chicken Soup for the Soul originally filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection at the end of June. July 10 saw the parent company of the movie distribution kiosk product shift to a Chapter 7 filing, meaning it would liquidate its business.
The company had around $1 billion in debt, and around 1000 employees went without pay for two weeks and longer in certain cases. Deadline exclusively reported the delays in pay as well as the suspension of medical benefits.
Over 24,000 kiosks shut down as a result of the decline.
Media Matters for America
Layoffs at Media Matters for America affected more than a dozen staffers in May.
Allen Media Group
Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group underwent layoffs in May across all divisions of the company, including The Weather Channel, TheGrio and a motion picture division.
RELATED: Skydance Deal In Hand, Paramount Lays Out What Happens If A Rival Offer Emerges
Noah Media
Producer of Netflix’s 14 Peaks and Sky’s Villeneuve Pironi went through a round of restructuring, laying off a small number of staff.
Netflix
Netflix laid off 15 people in its film department as part of reorganization after Dan Lin took over for Scott Stuber.
Marvel
Marvel made a small round of cuts that affected 15 employees across Marvel Entertainment in New York as well as Marvel Studios in Burbank.
Fifth Season
The studio that produces shows like Severance, Nine Perfect Strangers Season 2, Tokyo Vice and Life and Beth made a round of layoffs at the end of March that impacted nine employees.
RELATED: Roku To Lay Off 10% Of Staff & Launch “Strategic Review Of Content Portfolio”
The Messenger
Less than a year after The Messenger launched (May 2023), the digital news site shut down at the end of January. According to founder Jimmy Finkelstein, every option to raise sufficient capital for profitability was exhausted.
The startup had around 175 journalists employed, and advertising lead to its downfall. Finkelstein faced a class action law suit for nixing 300 employies “effective immediately” with no notice, severance or healthcare.
Time Magazine
Time magazine also slashed its workforce in January 2024. CNN reported that the outlet had laid off roughly 30 employees across editorial, technology, sales and studios departments.
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times Guild criticized the newspaper for the “brutal and inhumane” handling of making cuts to its staff. Media Guild West president Matt Pearce first revealed that 94 guild members were notified of intended layoff, which made up about a quarter of the newsroom. The total number of cuts made came it at around 100.
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated was issued a warning earlier in January before the 70-year-old print and online publication shut down completely due to a missed payment that Authentic Brands Group reported, revoking the magazine’s publishing license.
YouTube
YouTube laid off over 100 people in January. The moves came after Google laid off more than 1,000 workers across several divisions, including engineering, services and voice-activated product Google Assistant.
RELATED: NBCU SVP Content & Consumer Insights Sumithra Barry Departs Amid Division Layoffs
Pitchfork
Pitchfork parent Condé Nast announced that it would roll the music website into GQ Magazine after laying off staff. The Publishing house’s chief content officer and global editorial director of Vogue emailed a memo to staff explaining the plan moving forward. Pitchfork’s editor-in-chief Puja Patel as well as eight unionized staffers were laid off.
NBC News
NBC News underwent a series of layoffs in January, which affected a double digit number of employees. A source familiar with the plans said that the number of those laid off would be in the 50 to 100 range out of several thousand employees.
Hallmark Media
The home of premier holiday movies went through layoffs early this year in the exec suites. Four jobs were eliminated.
RELATED: Great American Media Undergoes Layoffs; CFO, Head Of Marketing & Corp Comm Among Those Cut
Great American Media
The faith and family-focused Great American Media went through layoffs at the beginning of this year. Roughly 13 people were cut from top jobs.
Amazon Studios
Several employees across Prime Video and Amazon Studios were laid off in early January. Senior execs let go included Nancy Cotton, Arturo Interian, Marcy Kaplan, Chris Castallo and Uri Fleming across different divisions. Most of the exits resulted from the integration of Lindsay Sloane’s MGM Scripted Television team alongside MGM+ and the Barry Poznick-led MGM Alternative TV under Chris Brearton, VP, Corporate Strategy, Prime Video and Studios