Warner Bros. Discovery to Reportedly Lay Off Hundreds of Employees

Source: Warner Bros. Discovery

Warner Bros. Discovery will reportedly lay off hundreds of people on Tuesday.

This is the first of numerous rounds of layoffs, according to Axios, which first reported the development on Monday.

The layoffs come months following the merger of Warner Bros. and Discovery.

“About 30 [percent] of the combined ad sales teams across WarnerMedia and Discovery are expected to be cut over the next few weeks,” reported Axios, citing sources, which told the outlet that, as Axios put it, “the cuts will be coming from both the WarnerMedia and Discovery ad sales teams.” That would mean that around 1,000 people would be laid off given there are 3,000 employees altogether on the Warner Bros. and Discovery ad sales teams, according to The Information, which first reported in June the 30 percent cut in the ad sales teams.

Warner Bros. Discovery “closed its upfront with $6 billion in ad commitments, trailing competitors like Disney and NBCUniversal, which booked $9 billion and $7 billion in upfront ad commitments, respectively,” according to Axios.

Additionally, the iconic entertainment show Extra, which Warner Bros. Discovery distributes for syndication, recently let go of 15 employees “and staffers are concerned this could be the final year of the Hollywood tabloid show’s existence,” reported The Daily Beast on Monday.

The cuts won’t be the first since Warner Bros. Discovery was formed in April. The company, which oversees CNN, shut down the streaming service CNN+ a month after its launch.