Disney to Cut Around 1,000 Jobs Under New CEO Josh D’Amaro — Here’s Why

The Walt Disney Company is planning to lay off 1,000 employees as part of new CEO Josh D'Amaro’s plan to restructure the organisation.

D'Amaro informed employees of upcoming layoffs in an internal email on the morning of April 14, reported Hindustan Times.

Disney Slashes Jobs

According to a Wall Street Journal report, the job cuts will largely affect the entertainment giant’s marketing department. The Statesman, on the other hand, said that Disney's studio arms, TV divisions, ESPN, product and technology teams, and even some corporate functions will also be affected.

Disney is changing its strategy to fit with the fact that streaming doesn't make as much money as regular TV used to. Box office sales have also gone down, and competition from big tech companies like Amazon and YouTube has gotten stronger. Disney has let go of more than 8,000 workers since 2022.

The new round of layoffs is Josh D'Amaro's first big move as CEO. He took over from Bob Iger a month ago.

According to reports, in a memo to employees on the morning of April 14, D'Amaro said that Disney “will be eliminating roles in some parts of the company” and had already begun notifying impacted employees.

The goal, he said, was to foster a more “agile and technologically-enabled workforce”. Citing Business Insider, Hindustan Times reported that the CEO of Disney said the layoffs do not reflect the contributions of impacted employees or of the overall strength of the company.

Marvel Hit Hard

According to Forbes, Disney’s division, Marvel has been hit hard as it is losing staff from both New York and Burbank, across domains related to film and tv production, comics, franchise, finance and legal. This comprises nearly the entire Academy Award-winning visual development team at Marvel Studios.

These are the artists, illustrators, character designers, environment designers and other technical specialists responsible for the look of Marvel’s film and television productions, from The Avengers to Guardians of the Galaxy to Daredevil. Many had been with Marvel for a decade or more.

Almost everyone in the department has been fired. Only a small group of full-time production staff is still there to hire people on a project-by-project basis. Reports and posts on social media about the layoffs started going around public and private channels on Tuesday afternoon.

Forbes further reported that the layoffs were mostly caused by the previously announced cut in the number of Marvel Studios films being made, as well as Disney's general plans to cut costs and jobs. It doesn't look like AI had anything to do with the loss of these specific jobs, even though it has been a factor in other changes in the creative industries.