ABC News staffers got a memorandum Tuesday that promises to leave no part of the organization untouched, and will lead to massive personnel reductions by the end of 2010.
Although the memo from ABC News President David Westin specified no numbers, it was believed the goal for cutbacks is as high as one-quarter of the ABC News staff, which currently totals about 1,400.
“We will likely have substantially fewer people on staff at ABC News,” Westin said in his memo.
He said personnel reductions would begin with voluntary buyouts to be offered employees in the days ahead. If the target number isn’t reached, layoffs will likely follow.
“We anticipate that between now and the end of the year, ABC News will undergo a fundamental transformation that will ultimately affect every corner of the enterprise,” Westin said.
The memo listed several provisions of the news division’s restructuring plan, including an expanded use of digital journalists (who both produce and shoot their own stories), the combination of weekday and weekend operations for both “Good Morning America” and “World News,” and, at the newsmagazines and other long-form programming, “a more flexible blend of staff and freelancers.”
“The time has come to anticipate change, rather than respond to it,” Westin said in the memo.
In a phone interview, Westin would not disclose his cost-saving objective, and would say only that the projected staff reduction would exceed the 140 range.
He said the plan had been ironed out in the past three or four months, a period during which “we wanted to think it through and get it right.”
He said three factors prompted Tuesday’s announcement.
The economic downtown in the advertising market last year “focused the mind quickly on the business realities we face,” he said.
This was followed by the realization that the newsgathering business is going through irreversible changes in the digital age.
Third, he said innovations in technology offered “not a just a challenge but an opportunity” to do more with fewer people and “get to stories you couldn’t get to with a traditional crew.”
“I would not be pursuing this if I thought we would be compromising the news,” Westin said.
At the same time, he acknowledged that the transformation would be painful for many.
“I’m very mindful of the men and women who will be leaving us, voluntarily or otherwise, particularly in this job market,” he said.
The drastic moves and cutbacks, which were not unexpected, echo those two years ago at NBC News, which also saved money by closing facilities in New Jersey and bringing CNBC and MSNBC staff to work at the company’s Rockefeller Center headquarters.
CBS News is currently going through a round of layoffs.
Unlike NBC, neither CBS nor ABC have the advantage of a cable-news network to bring in additional revenue and amortize expenses.
ABC, a unit of The Walt Disney Co., is further hobbled by the fact that its news division’s flagship morning and evening newscasts remain in second place in the ratings behind NBC.
Ron Cicero and Bo Clancey Launch Production House 34North
Executive producers Ron Cicero and Bo Clancey have teamed to launch 34North. The shop opens with a roster which includes accomplished directors Jan Wentz, Ben Nakamura Whitehouse, David Edwards and Mario Feil, as well as such up-and-coming filmmakers as Glenn Stewart and Chris Fowles. Nakamura Whitehouse, Edwards, Feil and Fowles come over from CoMPANY Films, the production company for which Cicero served as an EP for the past nearly five years. Director Wentz had most recently been with production house Skunk while Stewart now gains his first U.S. representation. EP Clancey was freelance producing prior to the formation of 34North. He and Cicero have known each other for some 25 years, recently reconnecting on a job directed by Fowles. Cicero said that he and Clancey “want to keep a highly focused roster where talent management can be one on one--where we all share in the directors’ success together.” Clancey also brings an agency pedigree to the new venture. “I started at Campbell Ewald in accounts, no less,” said Clancey. “I saw firsthand how much work agencies put in before we even see a script. You have to respect that investment. These agency experiences really shaped my approach to production--it’s about empathy, listening between the lines, and ultimately making the process seamless.” 34North represents a meeting point--both literally and creatively. Named after the latitude of Malibu, Calif., where the idea for the company was born, it also embraces the power of storytelling. “34North118West was the first GPS-enabled narrative,” Cicero explained. “That blend of art and technology, to captivate an audience, mirrors what we do here--create compelling work, with talented people, harnessing state-of-the-art... Read More