UPDATED: NBC News went through a round of layoffs on Wednesday, impacting about 150 staffers, as the network cuts costs as it prepares for the split of most of Comcast’s cable networks into Versant.
The job reductions are scattered throughout NBC News. They represent about 2% of the NBCU News Group workforce and a single-digit percentage of NBC News, according to a source familiar with the plans. Status newsletter, the first to report on the pending cuts, put the figure at 7% of the network’s workforce.
The cuts were across the board, and included those to teams devoted to issues of diversity, but those online verticals, such as NBC Out and NBC Blk, will continue, a source said.
Staffers are being told that the layoffs are taking place because NBC News no longer will be providing newsgathering for two networks, not just MSNBC but CNBC. The two networks will be part of the collection of cable channels under the Versant umbrella. Also cited is the economic climate, as linear networks have been trimming staffs amid advertising shifts to other platforms.
The impacted employees, who are being informed of the elimination of their roles on Wednesday, will receive severance and outplacement services, and 60 days notification and benefits support, per the source. They will be able to apply for 140 openings across the newsgroup. About a dozen of the eliminated positions are being repurposed into new roles, and those laid off also can apply for those jobs.
The NBC Digital News Guild, which represents staffers including reporters, editors and video journalists, has not received any official notice from management, a spokesperson said. In a statement, Susan DeCarava, president of The NewsGuild of New York, said, “What’s clear: NBC management is prioritizing corporate profits at the expense of our hard-working members, without whom there would be no NBC News.”
Comcast announced last year that it would spin off most of its cable networks, including MSNBC and CNBC, into a new company, later branded as Versant. The spinoff is expected to be completed by the end of the year, with MSNBC building up its own newsroom given that it no longer will have NBC News as a sister network.
On Oct. 6, MSNBC no longer relied on NBC News correspondents and crews in their coverage, with the exception of Washington, D.C. operations. Those ties are expected to be severed next week, on Oct. 20. MSNBC also will be taking on a new name, MS NOW, or My Source, News-Opinion-World.
In a memo to employees last week, Cesar Conde, chairman of the NBCU News Group, said that a planned NBC News subscription service will launch later this year, while NBC News will expand its sports hub as events like the Super Bowl, Winter Olympics and World Cup approach. He also said that NBC News would be launching a new marketing campaign.
More to come.
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