ESPN Is Laying Off 100 Employees, Including Many On-Air Personalities

ESPN is reportedly laying off more than 100 employees on Wednesday, including quite a few popular on-air personalities.

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ESPN is reportedly planning on laying off about 100 employees on Wednesday, including many on-air personalities and ESPN.com writers. ESPN president John Skipper sent a memo out to employees on Wednesday morning notifying them about the changes that are coming.

"A necessary component of managing change involves constantly evaluating how we best utilize all of our resources, and that sometimes involves difficult decisions," Skipper wrote in the memo, before pointing out that ESPN content needs to be more "efficient and nimble" moving forward. "We have been engaged in the challenging process of determining the talent—anchors, analysts, reporters, writers and those who handle play-by-play—necessary to meet those demands. We will implement changes in our talent lineup this week."

The layoffs don’t come as a total surprise as ESPN announced that they could be a possibility as recently as March. ESPN’s TV viewership is reportedly down, and shows like SportsCenter are having difficulty maintaining the ratings they once had. That has had an impact on ad sales, which were reportedly down 7 percent in the final three months of 2016.

It’s already becoming clear that the layoffs are going to have a huge impact on the way ESPN functions in the near future. Shortly after the news about the layoffs broke on Wednesday, ESPN’s Ed Werder, who has spent almost two decades covering the NFL for ESPN, took to Twitter to announce that he was among those laid off:

Other ESPN employees have started to make similar announcements on Wednesday:

Football Analyst Trent Dilfer

Baseball Writer Jayson Stark

Radio Host Danny Kanell

espnW Reporter Jane McManus

Hockey Columnist Scott Burnside

Football Reporter Paul Kuharsky

College Basketball Reporter Dana O’Neil

Hockey Columnist Pierre LeBrun

College Basketball Reporter C.L. Brown

Soccer Writer Mike L. Goodman

College Football Reporter Brett McMurphy

Hockey Writer Joe McDonald

ESPNU Anchor Brendan Fitzgerald

College Football Recruiting Analyst Derek Tyson

College Football Reporter Austin Ward

Big Ten Reporter Brian Bennett

ESPN Dallas Columnist Jean-Jacques Taylor

College Football Reporter Jesse Temple

Baseball Reporter Mark Saxon

College Football Reporter Max Olson

College Basketball Reporter Eamonn Brennan

Baseball Analyst Jim Bowden

College Football Reporter Ted Miller

Dodgers Reporter Doug Padilla

College Football Recruiting Reporter Jeremy Crabtree

College Football Reporter David Ching

ESPN Columnist Johnette Howard

SportsCenter Anchor Jay Crawford

NBA Reporter Ethan Strauss:

ESPN Chicago and ESPNW Writer Melissa Isaacson

Rockets Reporter Calvin Watkins:

NFL Reporter Ashley Fox:

College Basketball Analyst Len Elmore:

Radio Host Robin Lundberg:

Pac-12 Reporter Chantel Jennings:

Pelicans Reporter Justin Verrier:

SportsCenter Anchor Jaymee Sire:

SportsCenter Anchor Darren Haynes:

SportsCenter Anchor Jade McCarthy:

SportsCenter Anchor Chris Hassel: 

ESPNU Producer Josh Parcell:

Premier Boxing Champions Host Marysol Castro:

Golf Commentator Dottie Pepper:

 

Whether you love ESPN or not, it’s definitely a sad day in the sports media world. Stay tuned for further updates.

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