More Layoffs Hit Disney as Part of Its “Cost-Saving Initiative”

More layoffs have hit Disney employees.

2024 has, unfortunately, been a year of layoffs for the Walt Disney Company. Pixar reduced their staff by 14% in the spring, followed by a further 140 cuts to Disney Entertainment Television in the summer. Now, another round of layoffs has been confirmed. 

In late September 2024, Deadline reported that Disney is initiating another wave of layoffs as part of their ongoing “cost-saving initiative.” The outlet reports that approximately 300 U.S.-based positions in corporate operations divisions including legal, HR, finance and communications will be cut in the next few days. As of now, Parks, ESPN as well as Disney Entertainment are not impacted at this time. 

Disney released a statement to Deadline on the latest round of layoffs, saying, “We continually evaluate ways to invest in our businesses and more effectively manage our resources and costs to fuel the state-of-the-art creativity and innovation that consumers value and expect from Disney. As part of this ongoing optimization work, we have been reviewing the cost structure for our corporate-level functions and have determined there are ways for them to operate more efficiently.”

The latest round of cuts are part of a larger cost-cutting strategy that Disney has engaged in since Bob Iger retook the reigns of the company in late 2022. It began with the elimination of 7,000 jobs (over 3% of the workforce at the time) in 2023, and smaller waves of layoffs have happened regularly since. 

Disney’s layoffs fit into the larger issues plaguing so-called traditional media companies as the media industry continues to adapt to the switch to streaming, the decline of pay-TV subscriptions, and the migration of advertising budgets to digital platforms. In addition to Disney, this has led to staff reductions and rounds of layoffs at Paramount, Fox, and Warner Brothers Discovery. 

Unfortunately, another round of layoffs is coming to the Walt Disney Company, with another group of over 100 cuts coming to the company. Stay tuned to AllEars for further coverage of Disney’s business changes. 

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