ESPN is reportedly planning on laying off about 100 employees on Wednesday, including many on-air personalities and ESPN.com writers. ESPN president John Skipper sent a memo out to employees on Wednesday morning notifying them about the changes that are coming.
"A necessary component of managing change involves constantly evaluating how we best utilize all of our resources, and that sometimes involves difficult decisions," Skipper wrote in the memo, before pointing out that ESPN content needs to be more "efficient and nimble" moving forward. "We have been engaged in the challenging process of determining the talent—anchors, analysts, reporters, writers and those who handle play-by-play—necessary to meet those demands. We will implement changes in our talent lineup this week."
The layoffs don’t come as a total surprise as ESPN announced that they could be a possibility as recently as March. ESPN’s TV viewership is reportedly down, and shows like SportsCenter are having difficulty maintaining the ratings they once had. That has had an impact on ad sales, which were reportedly down 7 percent in the final three months of 2016.
It’s already becoming clear that the layoffs are going to have a huge impact on the way ESPN functions in the near future. Shortly after the news about the layoffs broke on Wednesday, ESPN’s Ed Werder, who has spent almost two decades covering the NFL for ESPN, took to Twitter to announce that he was among those laid off:
Other ESPN employees have started to make similar announcements on Wednesday:
Football Analyst Trent Dilfer
Baseball Writer Jayson Stark
Radio Host Danny Kanell
espnW Reporter Jane McManus
Hockey Columnist Scott Burnside
Football Reporter Paul Kuharsky
College Basketball Reporter Dana O’Neil
Hockey Columnist Pierre LeBrun
College Basketball Reporter C.L. Brown
Soccer Writer Mike L. Goodman
College Football Reporter Brett McMurphy
Hockey Writer Joe McDonald
ESPNU Anchor Brendan Fitzgerald
College Football Recruiting Analyst Derek Tyson
College Football Reporter Austin Ward
Big Ten Reporter Brian Bennett
ESPN Dallas Columnist Jean-Jacques Taylor
College Football Reporter Jesse Temple
Baseball Reporter Mark Saxon
College Football Reporter Max Olson
College Basketball Reporter Eamonn Brennan
Baseball Analyst Jim Bowden
College Football Reporter Ted Miller
Dodgers Reporter Doug Padilla
College Football Recruiting Reporter Jeremy Crabtree
College Football Reporter David Ching
ESPN Columnist Johnette Howard
SportsCenter Anchor Jay Crawford
NBA Reporter Ethan Strauss:
ESPN Chicago and ESPNW Writer Melissa Isaacson
Rockets Reporter Calvin Watkins:
NFL Reporter Ashley Fox:
College Basketball Analyst Len Elmore:
Radio Host Robin Lundberg:
Pac-12 Reporter Chantel Jennings:
Pelicans Reporter Justin Verrier:
SportsCenter Anchor Jaymee Sire:
SportsCenter Anchor Darren Haynes:
SportsCenter Anchor Jade McCarthy:
SportsCenter Anchor Chris Hassel:
ESPNU Producer Josh Parcell:
Premier Boxing Champions Host Marysol Castro:
Golf Commentator Dottie Pepper:
Whether you love ESPN or not, it’s definitely a sad day in the sports media world. Stay tuned for further updates.
