ABC News — home to “Good Morning America,” “World News Tonight” and “The View” — is getting hit with roughly a dozen layoffs amid broader cuts at parent-Disney, according to a source close to the network.
The cuts are part of a massive 1,000-person bloodbath under Disney’s new CEO Josh D’Amaro, who announced on Tuesday that the company is getting “streamlined” to better deal with the volatile media environment.
The bulk of the jobs will come from Disney’s unified marketing unit under Asad Ayaz, as well as in its studios and TV businesses, ESPN, product & technology, and certain corporate functions.
“Over the past several months, we have looked at ways in which we can streamline our operations in various parts of the company to ensure we deliver the world-class creativity and innovation our fans value and expect from Disney,” D’Amaro told employees.
“Given the fast-moving pace of our industries, this requires us to constantly assess how to foster a more agile and technologically-enabled workforce to meet tomorrow’s needs. As a result, we will be eliminating roles in some parts of the company and have begun notifying impacted employees,” he added.
D’Amaro was tapped as CEO of Disney in February, officially succeeding longtime boss Bob Iger.
Entertainment boss Dana Walden was elevated to president and chief creative officer, in a move that caused some emotional strife at the Mouse House, as previously reported by The Post.
Last month, Walden elevated ABC News boss and close confidant Debra OConnell to a newly created role as chair of Disney Entertainment Television, handing her sweeping authority over the company’s TV operations.
But the new team has gotten off to a somewhat bumpy start, after ABC got ensnared in the lurid fallout from “The Bachelorette” and Disney’s partnership with OpenAI fell through.
Walden and OConnell pulled the show, following the release of a 2023 video showing “Bachelorette” star Taylor Frankie Paul throwing chairs at her estranged partner Dakota Mortensen — and accidentally hitting her child.
The Disney-owned network licenses the show from producer Warner Bros. and could owe the studio anywhere between $50 million and $70 million if the show doesn’t air, experts told Page Six last month.
Disney’s three-year partnership with OpenAI – including its $1 billion investment – was dissolved after the tech firm announced it was shuttering its Sora video generator just months after its launch.
The company’s $1.5 billion investment in Epic Games, which was led by D’Amaro, also faces uncertainty as the video game maker axed 1,000 jobs in March after its new Fortnite games flopped with fans.
Credit: Source link
