Summary

NBC laid off 85 employees across its entertainment studios, CNBC, and CNBC.com as part of a broader plan to cut up to 600 jobs — between 5 and 10 percent of its 6,000-person workforce. The retrenchment was driven by a weakening advertising market and reduced spending by internet companies.

Source document circa 2001 preserved as-is

Saturday, February 17, 2001

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

NEW YORK (AP) -- NBC laid off 85 employees as part of a previously announced belt-tightening aimed at offsetting a sharp slowdown in advertising revenues.

Jobs will be eliminated at the company's entertainment studios in Burbank Calif., the CNBC financial news network and CNBC.com, which is being folded back into CNBC as part of a management revamp there.

Further job cuts will be made at the NBC network and the 13 local television stations it owns, but the amount and timing of those reductions have not yet been determined, NBC spokesman Cory Shields said Thursday. The cuts are not expected to affect on-air personalities.

The retrenchment at General Electric Co.'s NBC, which was announced last month by NBC chairman Robert Wright, calls for trimming between 5 percent and 10 percent in all divisions, which would mean a total of up to 600 jobs being cut out of a work force of 6,000.

NBC blamed the cuts on a weaker advertising market, which is being hurt by an overall slowdown in economic growth and a pullback in promotional spending by Internet companies.

Thursday's action will affect 40 jobs at NBC's entertainment and syndication studios in Burbank, Calif., which produce shows such as ``Will and Grace'' and ``Providence.'' The cuts there represent 8 percent of the unit's 500-strong work force.

The 19 job cuts at CNBC, which has been enjoying strong ratings and revenue growth, represent 4 percent of its work force, a relatively smaller portion compared to cuts in other parts of NBC. CNBC is also letting go a number of freelancers, but the company did not say how many.

CNBC.com is losing 26 jobs, or 26 percent of its work force, as the network combines the online unit with its television operations under a management reorganization plan announced last week.

As part of that plan, Pamela Thomas-Graham, who had been president of CNBC.com, will become president of CNBC. She replaces Bill Bolster, who is assuming the new title of chairman.

Separately, NBC's online subsidiary has also been slashing staff as it struggles to achieve profitability. NBC Internet, which announced a fourth-quarter operating loss of $51 million this week on revenues of $26.1 million, has already cut 320 jobs over the past year.