“ESPN announced Thursday it is eliminating about 500 jobs worldwide, including about 300 through layoffs. The cuts amount to about 10% of the employees at the sports network and are due largely to the impact of the pandemic on its business and the “tremendous disruption in how fans consume sports.” “In the short term, we enacted various steps like executive and talent salary reductions, furloughs and budget cuts, and we implemented innovative operations and production approaches, all in an effort to weather the COVID storm,” Jimmy Pitaro, ESPN’s chairman, wrote in an email to employees. “We have, however, reached an inflection point.” In addition to the layoffs, the company is planning to leave about 200 vacant positions unfilled. ESPN did not say how many of the job cuts would come at its Bristol, Connecticut, campus, but said they would not be concentrated in any one area. On-air talent, the vast majority having personal contracts, is not expected to be heavily affected. But some of those contracts could be allowed to expire. The company said it has more than 5,000 employees, including about 4,000 in Bristol. The Disney subsidiary has recently been moving toward more direct-to-consumer offerings, including its ESPN+, a streaming service that has grown to about 8.5 million subscribers. Pitaro said the discussions on how to reposition the company in a changing media landscape predate COVID-19, but said the pandemic had accelerated those discussions. “Placing resources in support of our direct-to-consumer business strategy, digital, and, of course, continued innovative television experiences, is more critical than ever,” he wrote. “However, building a successful future in a changing world means facing hard choices. Making informed decisions about how and where we need to go – and, as always, in the most efficient way possible — is by far the most challenging job of any leadership team.” The layoffs come three years after ESPN cut about 250 jobs, including journalists and on-air talent.
Major Jewish Group Joins Fight Against Trump’s Massive Middle East Weapons Sale
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["Illustration: Damon Dahlen/HuffPost; Photos: Getty J Street, a prominent Jewish American organization working on Middle East issues, is joining the growing push to stop President Donald Trump from sending $23 billio...
7 Nursing Home Residents Die From COVID-19 After Staff Attends Massive Wedding
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["Staff members at three Washington state nursing homes attended a massive wedding with more than 300 guests last month, and now at least seven residents at the facilities have died from COVID-19, health officials sai...
A New Coronavirus Relief Deal Is Finally Gaining Momentum In Congress
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["WASHINGTON ― After months of little to no movement, Congress is finally making strides toward another coronavirus relief package ― and all it took was Democrats embracing half of a deal that was already on the table...
America Is Having A Third Coronavirus Wave. Some Countries Are Having Their First.
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["The world is losing the battle against the coronavirus. As of last week, COVID-19 caseloads were rising in 115 countries and falling in just 83. Of the countries with rising caseloads, 26 saw new cases double over t...
Supreme Court Orders Review Of California’s Coronavirus Restrictions For Churches
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["WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a lower federal court to reexamine California restrictions on indoor religious services in areas hard hit by the coronavirus in light of the justices’ recent r...
UK Approves Pfizer/BioNTech Coronavirus Vaccine For Emergency Use
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["The Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine has been approved for use in the UK and will be made available from next week, U.K. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said. U.K. regulators are the first to approve Pfizer’s vaccine ...
U.S. Coronavirus Cases Soar Past 13 Million As Holiday Season Kicks Off
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["The United States has now recorded more than 13 million coronavirus cases, representing around 4% of the country’s total population, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Nearly 265,000 people acro...