Wednesday - February 24, 2010

Newspeak

ABC News said Tuesday that it plans to substantially cut its staff as part of a “fundamental transformation” of the news division at the Walt Disney-owned US television network.

ABC News president David Westin, in an email to ABC News employees, said all news department staffers would receive buyout offers in the next few days.

“The response to this voluntary program will determine the extent to which we will need to make further reductions,” he said.

Westin did not say how many jobs the company was seeking to eliminate but he said the restructuring of the news operation to take advantage of digital technology will result in “substantially fewer” people on staff at ABC News.

The Los Angeles Times, citing unidentified newsroom employees, said the network was looking to cut as many as 300 jobs, or around 20 percent of its total staff of around 1,400. The New York Times put the figure at up to 400.

“We anticipate that between now and the end of the year ABC News will undergo a fundamental transformation that will ultimately affect every corner of the enterprise,” Westin said.

Like other US television news operations, ABC News has been suffering from the weak advertising market and is looking to cut down on the costs associated with deploying a traditional two- or three-person crew for news assignments.

At the network level, ABC cut 31 of the 575 jobs from its Broadcast Operations & Engineering group in January. As many as 40 more may be cut before the end of the year. 

And it couldn’t happen to a nicer, more honest bunch of people. Another nail in the coffin for Old Media.

Posted by Drew458     on 02/24/2010 at 04:10 PM   
Filed Under: • Media-Bias •  
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