NBC News is slashing its verticals dedicated to issues surrounding marginalized and minority communities as it lays off roughly 7 percent of its staff amid a restructure as the Peacock Network fully splits from its cable entities.
With about 150 people notified this week that they are losing their jobs, the layoffs are spread across the newsroom as the network will no longer be assisting with the news gathering at CNBC and MSNBC, which were spun off into a separate company, Versant.
At the same time, the network is looking to shed most of the staff that services NBC’s diversity vertical sites, which include NBC BLK, NBC Asian America, NBC OUT and NBC Latino. While the verticals will continue to publish content, it will fall upon two senior editors to produce and curate the articles, as The Wrap first reported.
Meanwhile, out of the nine staffers who are impacted, five may ultimately remain with the network in general roles. While the sites will still exist, the workload for the verticals will largely fall on the newsroom in general, rather than on reporters and writers who are specifically assigned to those areas.
As Status News’ Natalie Korach noted this week, the “retreat from diversity-specific reporting doesn’t exist in a vacuum,” noting that Donald Trump signed an executive order “terminating radical DEI” when returning to office.
“Since then, companies across the country have distanced themselves or diminished diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives to place themselves in alignment with the administration,” she added, referencing the recent elimination of diversity policies at Paramount amid the Skydance merger.
“Today is a hard day. We have had to make some difficult decisions, including the elimination of positions across NBC News. While these decisions are necessary to remain strong as an industry leader, they are not easy and are never taken lightly,” NBCUniversal chairman Cesar Conde noted in a memo to staff. “We have sought to minimize the number of affected team members, and our teams’ decisions should not be seen as a reflection on our colleagues who will be leaving. We will miss them and their valuable contributions.”
Conde also referenced that NBCUniversal News Group, which also includes Spanish-language network Telemundo and the local TV division, is currently hiring roughly 140 positions across the division. Additionally, about a dozen of the eliminated jobs announced this week are being converted to new roles.
While a good chunk of the newsroom was impacted, no on-air anchors were let go. Employees who are being laid off are getting 60 days’ notice, severance and a subsidized benefits package.
NBC News is far from the only news organization that is dealing with slashed payrolls and across-the-board job cuts amid dwindling ad revenues in an ever-shifting media landscape.
The Wall Street Journal, for instance, also announced on Wednesday that it was laying off about a dozen staffers as it looks to restructure in health and science teams.
CBS News, which recently hired The Free Press founder Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief, is preparing to shed up to 10 percent of its staff as new Paramount Skydance chair David Ellison looks to shed $2 billion from the recently merged company’s ledger.
