Paramount Global began a massive culling Tuesday that aims to whack 2,000 jobs as the struggling entertainment giant readies to complete a merger with film studio Skydance Media, the company said.
Paramount’s three co-chief executive officers circulated a memo to staffers indicating that the job cuts would be carried out in three phases and would continue throughout the rest of the year.
It is anticipated that 90% of the job cuts would be completed by the end of next month, according to the memo obtained by The Post.
“The industry continues to evolve, and Paramount is at an inflection point where changes must be made to strengthen our business,” the co-CEOs — Brian Robbins, Chris McCarthy and George Cheeks — wrote in the memo.
“We know that having to part ways with teammates whose contributions have been instrumental to our success is incredibly hard,” they added.
“In partnership with our HR leaders, we are committed to providing support to employees transitioning on from Paramount and to our teams who will need to adapt to these changes.”
Last week, Paramount announced it would lay off 15% of its workforce, or 2,000 jobs, and wrote down the value of its cable networks by nearly $6 billion.
Chris McCarthy, who heads Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks, said the job cuts will be primarily in marketing and communications departments at the company with some “right-sizing” in other areas including legal, finance and other corporate functions.
Paramount executives said they anticipated that the job cuts would save the company $500 million in annualized costs.
Ahead of the expected cost-cutting measures, longtime “CBS Evening News” anchor Norah O’Donnell announced she will exit the last-place broadcast after the 2024 presidential election.
The network announced a major overhaul to the nightly news show’s format.
The conglomerate, whose properties include the Paramount movie studio, has been hampered by cord-cutting that has depreciated some of its key assets, including the CBS network as well as MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central.
The stock has lost almost a third of its value so far this year.
Shares of Paramount were flat Tuesday.
Last month, Shari Redstone, the daughter of the late media mogul Sumner Redstone, reached an agreement to sell her controlling stake in Paramount Global to a group of investors led by Skydance founder David Ellison for $8 billion.
A consortium that includes Skydance, RedBird Capital Partners and Ellison’s father, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, will assume control of Paramount Global in the first half of next year.
With Post wires
