World News – US – ESPN implements latest round of job cuts

Broadcast sports giant ESPN announces to its employees that pandemic-related layoffs are coming soon In a corporate memo sent to NPR, Jimmy Pitaro, president of ESPN and sports content, revealed that 300 people would lose their jobs He also said 200 vacant positions would be eliminated

« Prior to the pandemic, we had been deeply engaged in strategizing to best position ESPN for future success amid enormous disruption in the way fans consume sports, » Pitaro said in the memo « The significant impact of the pandemic on our activities has clearly accelerated these forward-looking discussions »

Bristol-based ESPN tried to avoid widespread cuts by asking company executives and talent to take a pay cut, while leaving others behind, but it was not enough Pitaro explained in the memo that the layoffs were necessary to allow the company to chart a new course in the delivery of sports content, « placing resources in support of our direct-to-consumer, digital and, of course, business strategy. , continuing innovative television experiences, is more critical than ever « 

This is the latest round of layoffs for a company that has had multiple layoffs over the past decade.The most memorable came in April 2017, where prominent on-air talent was dropped

The company didn’t say anything about who was leaving this time around, other than « outstanding team members, some of whom have been here for a long time. » Workers were told that human resources staff would soon have more updates

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