ABC News hit with 75 layoffs as corporate parent Disney slashes costs
ABC News and its local stations group got hit with 75 job cuts Wednesday as part of an ongoing restructuring at parent company Disney.
ABC News president Almin Karmehmedovic broke the news to staffers in a memo obtained by The Post, telling them that the network has had to make some “tough decisions.”
“Across the various ranks of ABC News, a limited number of our colleagues are being impacted by staff reductions,” he said. “As you know this has been happening across the broader company and the industry at large in recent weeks and months.”
The exec — who was promoted to the role of president in August after serving as executive producer of top-ranked “World News Tonight with David Muir” — said his task is “shaping a team that embraces the new media landscape” who “evolve along with it.”
ABC News did not comment on the layoffs.
A source familiar with the situation confirmed that the layoffs impacted 75 jobs across ABC News and ABC’s stations group, split about evenly.
The source added that no on air talent has been impacted at either division.
Programming will not be impacted and no entire teams will be eliminated, the person said, adding that the company is making the changes to be “sustainable, efficient and future-forward.”
Under CEO Bob Iger, Disney has been in the throes of cost cuts and restructuring in recent months.
Last month the company made cuts to its corporate structure and it reorganized its TV studios group with all its scripted programming being folded into one division, including ABC Signature studio shuttering and being folded into 20th TV.
In late July, The Post reported that staffers at ABC News’ “Good Morning America” were bracing for layoffs amid demands to reduce its bottom line ahead of the close of Disney’s fiscal year on Sept. 30.
At the time of the report, layoffs hit the Disney’s TV group, slashing 140 jobs at its networks including NatGeo and Freeform.
Earlier this year, Disney-owned animation studio Pixar slashed some 175 jobs and last year, the Mouse House underwent a massive reorganization, cutting roughly 7,000 jobs.