HOUSE OF STEPHANOPOULOS SUFFERS SHRINKAGE: ABC News to lay off dozens, merge ‘Good Morning America’ and ‘GMA3,’ ax ‘538’ data site.
ABC News staffers are bracing for imminent layoffs while the division will restructure its programming including the merging of its “20/20” and “Nightline” programs and the consolidation of its “Good Morning America” productions, according to reports.
The Walt Disney Co. is set to lay off around 200 people from its ABC News Group division as well as its Disney Entertainment Networks unit — a move that constitutes cutting some 6% of the combined staff of the two units, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Almin Karamehmedovic, president of ABC News, circulated a memo to employees on Wednesday morning confirming the changes.
“As we’ve often talked about, streamlining our operation to best serve our viewers and continue to position ourselves as a leading news organization has been a goal for some time,” the ABC News boss wrote in the email, a copy of which was obtained by The Post.
“Rethinking the way we work to future-proof our team regrettably includes reductions to our extraordinary staff,” Karamehmedovic wrote, adding: “These decisions are incredibly challenging and today will undoubtedly be difficult for our organization.”
Related: Coal miners being taught HTML coding as a second career.
—ABC News, May 7th, 2018.
UPDATE: Here’s 538’s final poll before the 2024 elections. It’s neck and neck!
