Earlier in November, it was reported that ESPN planned to lay off more staff. Today we learned that 150 ESPN employees have been laid off.
Here is a copy of the memo sent to employees form ESPN President John Skipper:
Today we are informing approximately 150 people at ESPN that their jobs are being eliminated.
We appreciate their contributions, and will assist them as much as possible in this difficult moment with severance, a 2017 bonus, the continuation of health benefits and outplacement services. They will also appreciate your support.
The majority of the jobs eliminated are in studio production, digital content, and technology and they generally reflect decisions to do less in certain instances and re-direct resources.
We will continue to invest in ways which will best position us to serve the modern sports fan and support the success of our business.
John
ESPN has been hit hard recently by cord cutting. To counter these layoffs, ESPN has already started to cut back on staffing and adjusted their lineups so they can have fewer live shows at the same time. For example, ESPN has adjusted their college football schedules to reduce the number of halftime shows they need at the same time. One studio can do multiple halftime shows on multiple networks by trying to offset game start times.
Now ESPN is reportedly looking to hire more outside production staff to help lower the cost of production. ESPN has also slowly been cutting back some of their other networks in an effort to focus on ESPN.
Since 2015 ESPN has laid off about 400 staff members according to SportingNews.com.
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