Disney layoffs have already hit marketing, Pixar, ABC News and ESPN, but there may be more to come; here’s the ‘smaller team’ memo reportedly sent by a top exec
The Walt Disney Company is reportedly preparing plans to overhaul its expansive television business with an internal restructuring expected to trigger hundreds of layoffs and merge operations across separate creative divisions. Citing people familiar with the situation, The Wall Street Journal reported that the senior leadership at the company is shaping the details of the restructuring, which may not be completed until the close of the year. The review represents the latest initiative since former theme parks chief Josh D’Amaro stepped into the CEO role in March, seeking to cut through corporate fragmentation across the media empire.The report said that the planned television changes follow a steady series of workforce reductions that started under D’Amaro’s predecessor, Bob Iger, during his second term as CEO. Over recent cycles, staff departures have impacted Pixar, marketing departments, ABC News, and ESPN. Earlier this week, Disney cut more than 300 employees, primarily across corporate human resources and IT functions.
‘Disney’s legal division facing job cuts’
Additional staff reductions are also being prepared within Disney’s legal and global affairs division, a group that employs roughly 1,000 workers. In an internal staff memo initially reported by Deadline, Horacio Gutierrez, Disney’s chief legal and global affairs officer, notified employees that the division “will be a much smaller organisation than it is today,” pointing to progress in automation as a driver of the shift.The cost-cutting pressure essentially mirrors a broader industry reality: legacy studios are trimming budgets as digital streaming operations struggle to generate the robust profit margins once provided by cable subscriptions. In response to changing consumer viewing, D’Amaro has pushed the company toward operating as a cohesive digital entertainment system rather than a collection of separate cable entities.The strategy has brought significant leadership moves. For example, last month, D’Amaro appointed former YouTube executive Adam Smith as chairman of streaming and brought in Silicon Valley veteran Karandeep Anand as chief technology officer (CTO), marking a level of seniority for pure tech executives at Disney.In August, the company opened a voluntary early-retirement package for executives aged 50 and older with at least a decade of tenure, holding off on finalising the television roadmap until participation numbers were tallied.A central aim of the planned TV reorganisation is aligning production teams around how modern streaming viewers watch content, rather than preserving traditional broadcast structures established decades ago.Addressing the strategy at a Bloomberg event on Thursday (October 1), Disney president and chief creative officer Dana Walden described the shift toward tighter coordination.“There is a need to constantly evaluate how you’re structured and how big is the organization,” Walden said, noting that Disney is taking operations that previously ran independently and “centralising as a television business, not a bunch of silos.”
Division heads and brands in focus
The reorganisation is being directed by Disney Entertainment Television Chairman Debra OConnell, who reports directly to Walden. Her oversight spans an extensive portfolio of production brands and development teams, including assets brought in through Disney’s 2019 purchase of 21st Century Fox, including ABC Entertainment, 20th Television, Hulu Originals, Disney Kids & Family, National Geographic Content and Freeform.Currently, each unit retains its own leadership team to develop and produce shows for Disney+, Hulu, legacy linear channels, and third-party distributors. Insiders indicate that the coming consolidation is likely to impact some of the executives running these individual groups.
