ESPN Will Lay Off 150 Employees Today

Here’s the memo, hot off the presses, from ESPN President John Skipper:

Today we are informing approximately 150 people at ESPN that their jobs are being eliminated.

We appreciate their contributions, and will assist them as much as possible in this difficult moment with severance, a 2017 bonus, the continuation of health benefits and outplacement services. They will also appreciate your support.

The majority of the jobs eliminated are in studio production, digital content, and technology and they generally reflect decisions to do less in certain instances and re-direct resources.

We will continue to invest in ways which will best position us to serve the modern sports fan and support the success of our business.

John

Unlike April’s 100-plus layoffs, which were entirely among on-air staff, today’s will be behind-the-scenes employees, most of them based in Bristol. Between the two rounds of layoffs, that’s more than three percent of ESPN’s entire workforce getting let go this year (not including new hires).

It’s been a brutal year for ESPN, which is feeling the same pressures as all media organizations but has also garnered some very avoidable bad PR.

Last month, John Skipper’s contract was re-upped through 2021.