Disney Layoffs May Affect 75 Staffers at ABC News, Other Local Stations

Around 75 staffers in Disney’s ABC News and local-station operations will be laid off, part of a series of moves across the large media landscape that focus to cut costs amid a difficult operating environment. 

Employees got a notification Wednesday of the staff depletion, according to a person related with the matter, and the jobs were most likely to be split evenly between the national news gathering arm and local-media business.  Disney’s ABC owns eight stations in different cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and San Francisco. ABC News takes full responsibility for flagship ABC programs including “Good Morning America” and “World New Tonight”.

Disney has been examining its staffing and operations and has laid off employees in other parts of its portfolio in recent weeks. In late September, the company eliminated about 300 jobs across different corporate departments. On Monday, the company merged some of its TV studios, merging previously assigned to develop scripted comedy or dram at ABC or Hulu.

"Across the various ranks of ABC News, a limited number of our colleagues are being impacted by staff reductions. As you know, this has been happening across the broader company and the industry at large in recent weeks and months," said Almin Karamehmedovic, president of ABC News , in a note to employees Wednesday. "For us, it means shaping a team that embraces the new media landscape and evolves along with it, which we must do to continue serving our viewers."

"It's no secret that our industry is undergoing a transformation unlike any other, and we're seeing headlines every day about streamlining across every major media company," said Chad Matthews, president of ABC's station group, in a memo Wednesday. "While we're not immune to the pressures facing this business today, we have been - and will continue to be - strategic with decisions about our organization's future. 

Like its rivals, Disney is struggling with a transformation of the media business, which faces a fast migration of viewers from linear Tv to streaming-video services. While Disney operates streaming hubs such as Hulu and Disney+, and is innovating a new ESPN stand alone services, it does so as the economics of traditional TV, which is based on ad sales and transmission fees, are eroding. 

According to a person familiar with this matter, none of the anchors assigned to ABC News most of the programs are anticipated to be affected at current. Management believes that layoffs will not affect any national or local programming and no specific employee teams or groups are being eliminated as part of the downsizing.