Following in the footsteps of many other companies across the nation, ABC News plans to cut back the number of employees they currently have. Everyone who works at ABC News was notified Tuesday that they should expect major change within the company.
ABC News said that they plan to “leave no part of the organization untouched.” By the end of this year, all employees will be affected by the layoffs.
ABC News president David Westin did not mention exactly how many employees he plans to lay off, but the whisper around the company is that they will lay off at least a quarter of the company. This is about 1,400 employees.
ABC News plans to start asking for voluntary buyouts in the next few days. Following this, if their goal number has not been reached, they will lay off more people.
They plan to rely more heavily on digital journalists while employing fewer people. Digital journalists are those who can write and film stories. ABC also said they are going to rely on “a more flexible blend of staff and freelancers.”
ABC News has been working on hammering out the details of this plan for three or four months. Westin said that there were three key influences in making this decision.
The first is the economic downturn in advertising. Advertising is the driving force behind the news because it is what funds their operations.
Without these funds, they do not have enough money to pay the entire staff. As a result, some of the staff has to be cut.
Second, ABC News has also begun to realize that the form of news must evolve with the change into the digital age. Part of their restructuring plan will rely less on traditional news and more on digital based news.
Third, they also realized that with the switch to a more digital news base, they will need fewer people to do more. Technology allows a lot more to be done with fewer people.
Westin is confident these changes will not affect the quality of the news and that the changes will be hard for many. He said,”I would not be pursuing this if I thought we would be compromising the news…I’m very mindful of the men and women who will be leaving us,voluntarily or otherwise, particularly in this job market.”
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To read more about ABC News’ layoffs visit:
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/media/story/2010/02/24/abc-news-cuts.html
