Disney to Lay Off 200 Employees As Focus Shifts
By Movieguide® Contributor
Disney will lay off almost 200 employees across its company, according to multiple sources. The majority of the layoffs will hit ABC News operations.
Variety reported, “The cuts at ABC News come about as the result of combining different groups of staff through moves that had been previously unveiled. All units of ‘Good Morning America’ — including the flagship program, ‘GMA3’ and ABC News’ overnight broadcasts — report to executive Simone Swink. ABC News Live and several specialist units report to Seni Tienabeso. ABC News combined units devoted to long-form programming that makes up ‘20/20’ and ‘Nightline.’”
Per Deadline, ABC will also shutter 538, its data analytics site.
G. Elliott Morris, director of data analytics, wrote on X, “As reported, everyone at 538 was laid off this morning. It’s a monumental loss for the political data industry, and my heart breaks for my colleagues. There’s no closer-knit group or sharper analysts of U.S. elections — I recommend them all. I’m hopeful the averages will return.”
Nate Silver, who founded 538, was laid off in 2023.
“The basic issue is that Disney was never particularly interested in running FiveThirtyEight as a business, even though I think it could have been a good business,” Silver said. “Although they were generous in maintaining the site for so long and almost never interfered in our editorial process, the sort of muscle memory a media property builds early in its tenure tends to stick. We had an incredibly talented editorial staff, but we never had enough ‘product’ people or strategy people to help the business grow and sustain itself.”
The news comes after Disney disbanded many of its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (aka DEI) initiatives after President Donald Trump sought to squash them on the federal level.
“Disney has finally backed down after years of treating people differently based on characteristics like race and sex,” said Will Scolinos, counsel America First Legal.
According to Forbes, Disney implemented these intitiatives:
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Disney’s chief human resources officer, Sonia Coleman, penned a letter to the company’s 230,000 employees explaining changes in corporate culture to more closely “align our initiatives with our business goals and company values.”
Related: ‘Cancel Disney Plus’ Trends as Price Hike Reveals Growing Dissatisfaction
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Executive compensation, weighted 70% on reaching financial targets and 30% on other performance factors, will no longer include “Diversity & Inclusion,” as another performance factor, and will be replaced by a “Talent Strategy.”
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The company has rebranded its “Reimagine Tomorrow” website, which explained Disney’s diversity, equity and inclusion positions and actions, to “MyDisneyToday” to attract the “best, most talented” people to contribute to business success.
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Disney maintains inclusion as a core value – Integrity, Creativity, Collaboration, Community, Inclusion – but the memo emphasizes belonging instead of diversity and substitutes equity by referencing to its corporate culture where “everyone can excel.”
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