ESPN Layoffs Gut Production Staff

John Skipper

Wednesday was a sad day in Bristol, Conn., as ESPN began the process of laying off somewhere around 300 employees in the wake of rising television-rights costs combined with demands from parent company Disney to maintain profits amid the cord-cutting that threatens the network’s viewership numbers.

The cuts will eliminate around 4 percent of the company’s workforce.

ESPN President John Skipper explained the rationale for the layoffs in a memo to the staff:

Our 36 years of continuous growth and success has been driven by our consistent willingness to reimagine our future, to embrace change and make the right choices for our business, including hard decisions that affect people who have been integral parts of our efforts. 

Beginning today, we will be enacting a number of organizational changes at ESPN to better support our future goals – a process that will include the elimination of a number of positions, impacting  friends and colleagues across the organization. 

We carefully considered and deliberated alternatives before making each decision. 

The people who will be leaving us have been part of ESPN’s success, and they have our respect and appreciation for their contributions.  We will be as supportive as we can during this transition, including providing a minimum of 60-days notice, a severance package reflective of their years of service, and outplacement benefits to help them find future employment. 

These changes are part of a broad strategy to ensure we’re in position to make the most of new opportunities to build the future of ESPN.  These ongoing initiatives include: 

• Constant and relentless innovation, including integrating emerging technology into all aspects of our business. 
• Enhancing our sales and marketing efforts with new tools and techniques that generate greater data, personalization and customization for our advertisers. 
• Integrating our distribution efforts to better serve current and future distribution partners with our industry leading networks and services. 

No matter how many times we’ve adjusted course to lead the industry over the years, the decisions affecting our employees are never made lightly.  It never gets any easier, but it’s a necessary part of our continued strategic evolution to ensure ESPN remains the leader in sports as well as the premier sports destination on any platform. 

I realize this process will be difficult – for everyone – but we believe the steps we are taking will ultimately create important competitive advantages for our business over the long term.  I sincerely appreciate your professionalism and continued support as we move forward to ensure the continued success of ESPN and assure sports fans everywhere the best is yet to come. 

John

But, according to The Washington Post, don’t expect many names you would recognize from ESPN’s stable of on-air talent. Because most of these 1,000 “public-facing” employees are working under contract, they won’t be included in the layoffs.

Instead, the cuts will come from behind the scenes: the producers who get “SportsCenter” on the air, the editors who shepherd stories to ESPN.com and the network’s magazine, and the program directors who run the network’s local radio stations.