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March 28, 2024

ABC's Job Cut of 300: Throwing in the Towel on the Old Business Model

First, the Recession. Now, the Reckoning. Yes, the storm’s left town, but there’s so much damage to pick through.

ABC’s apparent cut of 300 jobs in its newsroom — or 20% of its 1400-staffer newsroom — is another sign that the changes wrought by technology and business model revolution are now picking up speed, their lessons further hammered home by the recession. Littered in the Matea Gold’s post on the cut are the signs of change: “one-man-band” operations, “hand-held cameras, “leaner, more nimbler.” I’ve placed ABC among the Digital Dozen companies, those with more than 500 news staffers, those with the potential of creating bigger digital businesses given their global distribution power — if they can restructure their costs in line with still-meager, but growing, digital revenues. ABC is a good case in point; it costs a lot of behind-the-scenes cost to put on five minutes or an hour of air — or web. The tools are now here, and being used nascently by start-ups to produce video, much more cheaply.

CBS, one of ABC’s head-to-head competitors recently did a deal with GlobalPost, the start-up international news supplier to get share content. That gives CBS an advantage — and better ability to cut the 90 jobs it recently. The simple goal of CBS, ABC, the Journal, the Times, Bloomberg and the rest of the Digital Dozen: lots more high-quality content at a much lower price point.

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