It looks like Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) is cutting jobs again. This time around 1,000 employees across different parts of the company are getting laid off. Finance, TV and movie production, and their streaming service Max are seeing lots of jobs go away.
Most of the cuts are in the finance department. Fewer than 10 people lost their jobs at Max. This comes after WBD’s news channel CNN let go of about 100 people a few weeks ago. That was around 3% of their workforce of 3,500.
These latest layoffs are part of changes WBD has been making since joining with Discovery earlier this year. Thousands of employees have lost jobs with all the brands together. The streaming part of the business has struggled especially. This mirrors problems other Hollywood companies like Netflix have had with streaming.
David Zaslav, the CEO of WBD, talked about earlier layoffs at a big media conference. He said the companies “had never been structured for the future.” Zaslav said they “had to have courage” and redo things. Other big media giants like Disney, Amazon and NBC have also cut jobs lately. One TV executive called what’s going on in the industry right now “a full depression.”
WBD seems to be changing where it shows certain shows too. DC and “It” movies that were meant for Max will now air on HBO instead. This could mean streaming and regular TV will be more balanced going forward.
Investors have had concerns about WBD’s stock price falling over 70% since the merger. One analyst said the company “is not working” as one big public entity. All options may need to be looked at to help WBD with its challenges moving ahead.
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As streaming takes off and viewership habits change, Warner Bros Discovery’s layoffs show how much struggle there is to keep up. We’ll learn more about how their streaming service Max is doing when financial reports come out in early August. It looks like more adjustments may still be coming down the line.
