In 2023, fears of job cuts affected a wide range of sports media companies, from print to digital. new york times, The Athleticand sports illustrated Connect to linear and digital networks like ESPN, NFL Network, and more. bar stool sport.
What’s the lowest point?Perhaps it was a precious time times The entire sports department was abolished (most of the staff moved elsewhere) in favor of reporting. The Athletica website acquired in 2002 for $550 million. timesMembers of the Doom sports desk sniffed out a problem and wrote to management asking why sports staff had been left “tossing in the wind” for 18 months after the match. athletic Get.
After the incident, reporter Juliet McCool said: NPR: “Many of us have dreamed of working for a company all our lives. new york times Sports section. And it’s heartbreaking to see it disappear in a matter of minutes. And my coworkers feel sad, betrayed, and angry. ” (Kicker: Before taking over timessports reporting, The Athletic ordered its own layoffs, cutting 20 journalists, or about 4% of its newsroom. “This is my last byline. The Athletic. …You had to buy a subscription to read it,” says fired baseball writer zach buchanan Posted on X. )
The media industry shed 20,324 jobs in the first 11 months of 2023, according to employment firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. This is the highest figure since 2020, when 30,211 reductions were made by November of the same year.
For newspaper publishers and digital companies, the biggest challenge that led to this calculation was the weakening advertising environment. Among those affected are: bar stool sportFounder Dave Portnoy took back control of the company from PENN Entertainment in August and laid off 25% of his staff, or about 100 employees, according to the company. new york post. “We have to get back to break-even,” Portnoy said. barstool radio. “We’ve lost a lot and it’s the worst.”
For sports cable TV networks, an existential threat came in the form of cord cutting and cord shaving. Despite the NFL’s overall success, the league’s affiliate NFL Network laid off several employees in May. “Economic and industry-wide changes have forced us to consider how best to allocate our resources,” an NFL Network spokesperson said. pro football talk.
The number of pay TV consumers ditching their cable subscriptions in favor of streaming continues to accelerate. With the collapse of traditional cable bundles, ESPN’s reach has fallen from 100 million households in 2012 to 72 million this year. Additionally, ESPN is being forced to pay additional rights fees for both (such as $2.7 billion) while subscriber numbers decline. in the NFL (one year through 2033) and talent ($165 million over five years for Troy Aikman and Joe Buck) monday night football. )
To make matters worse, ESPN had to follow Walt Disney Chairman Bob Iger’s directive to cut 7,000 jobs and $5.5 billion in expenses worldwide. result? ESPN was forced to make a series of slow-motion layoffs over several months, destroying morale and leaving its remaining 5,000 employees depressed.
The first pink slip was attributed to respected off-camera executives, including award-winning communications guru Mike Soltis. last dance Producer John Dahl and ESPN+ General Manager Russell Wolfe. Meanwhile, the network’s highest-paid TV and radio talent could only wait to see if they would be included in ESPN’s fifth wave of layoffs over the past decade. The answer came early on June 30th.
At 9 a.m. ET, TV and radio personalities and digital reporters received calls and emails. Within hours, celebrities like Jeff Van Gundy, Keyshawn Johnson, Steve Young, Susie Kolver, Max Kellerman, and Jalen Rose learned they were eligible for cuts. Mark Jackson, Vince Carter, Neil Everett, Andre Ward, Doug Kezilian and Chris Chelios were among those whose contracts were not renewed.
“Today, I join the many hard-working colleagues who have been laid off,” Kolber wrote in X. “It’s heartbreaking, but it’s been a good 27 years at ESPN.”
For decades, ESPN was believed to be Disney’s cash cow, generating more cash and profits from its dual revenue streams of subscription fees and advertising than the Mouse House’s entertainment and theme park operations combined. was. And while Disney has wisely kept ESPN’s finances hidden from sports leagues and college conferences for decades, if they knew the extent of the network’s wealth, they probably would have demanded higher rights fees. would have been.
That changed this year when Mr. Iger decided to seek investors and strategic partners for ESPN and then lifted the hood to give investors a peek into the company’s financials. ESPN had accused its employees of poverty in recent years, but it turned out the company was generating billions of dollars in profits for its parent company, Disney.
During Disney’s fiscal fourth quarter, ESPN’s operating income increased 16% to $987 million from revenue of $3.5 billion. In a previous SEC filing, Disney disclosed that Bristol contributed $2.9 billion in profits to Burbank’s coffers on $16 billion in revenue in fiscal year 2022. hollywood reporter He noted that ESPN made more money in 2002 than Disney’s entire entertainment business.
Some former ESP players are upset about the billions in profits that have been funneled from Bristol to Burbank over the years. Some people think he lost his job because of a mistake at Disney 3,000 miles away.
“A lot of employees are asking, ‘What do you mean?'” said one former ESPNer. front office sports. “We were told internally, don’t travel, don’t have Christmas parties, and lay off, lay off, lay off. Then look at the numbers… and that we made $3 billion. Do you understand?”
The outlook for journalism itself is not so rosy either. Between fewer resources allocated to local reporting, the threat of AI, and an unreliable advertising market, don’t bet on a soft landing in 2024.