For those in the industry, Friday was a fresh reminder of just how cutthroat the business side of sports media can be.
The layoffs at ESPN are continuing, as the network’s latest round of layoffs has claimed some notable names from the network’s coverage. On Friday, Andrew Marchand of the New York Post reported that ESPN had sent out an internal memo Friday morning discussing this and that around 20 on-air personalities were expected to be let go in this new round of layoffs.
The Worldwide Leader has cut quite a lot of prominent figures over the last few months, including executives Russell Wolff and Mike Soltys, as part of wider cost-cutting at parent corporation Disney, has already previously mandated three rounds of layoffs, which cut around 7,000 employees across the wider company.
NBA on ABC/ESPN lead analyst Jeff Van Gundy was the first name to trickle out Friday. Since then, several on-air personalities have been let go by ESPN, in addition to Van Gundy, Jalen Rose, Max Kellerman, Keyshawn Johnson, LaPhonso Ellis, Steve Young, Suzy Kolber, Matt Hasselbeck and Todd McShay have all been laid off Friday.
Needless to say, it was a harrowing day for those who the industry, who either saw their colleagues and peers being let go or have once been a part of these vicious cycles of layoffs themselves.
https://twitter.com/TaylorTwellman/status/1674855744384925696?s=20
Classy statement.
Today's ESPN news is obviously brutal. But for me the larger story are the rounds & rounds of cuts at ESPN (everywhere in media obviously) of the behind-the-scenes people whose names you don't know.
These people were the DNA of ESPN. They bled that place. https://t.co/rjfBAvJBai
— Richard Deitsch (@richarddeitsch) June 30, 2023
https://twitter.com/lindacohn/status/1674848168549441539?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1674848168549441539%7Ctwgr%5Efba35412f4627296a84ea639150263fd4cb5a9d0%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbarrettsportsmedia.com%2F2023%2F06%2F30%2Fsports-media-reacts-to-espn-layoffs%2F
We certainly hope that everyone affected by today’s layoffs can land on their feet.