Current Media Lays Off 60
Current Media, the social media cable channel, made layoffs today, cutting 30 employees and moving 30 more employees to new positions, ending up with a total staff of 410.
The company attributed the staffing adjustments to a new cross-platform programming strategy that will debut early next year. The channels, which will include news, comedy, music and technology, will each have both a TV show and a web presence. In the past, Current’s web and TV projects and their overlaps had been more scattershot (and real gems like Sarah Haskins and Brett Erlich seemed to get a bit lost).
According to a report on BNET, “As part of the impending transition at Current TV, one source says the company is going to drop its shorter (user-generated content) videos in favor of the more traditional 30-minute programs that have long dominated television programming across all channels.”
San Francisco-based Current said in a statement sent via email, “[T]hese changes enable Current Media to reduce its cost structure, thereby assuring that it will be comfortably profitable in 2009 regardless of the depth and length of the recession.”
Other companies in the online video space that have recently cut staff include BitTorrent, Veoh, Spot Runner, and many more. Layoffs have also hit plenty of traditional media companies.
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[...] September is too lengthy to list here, but in just the past month, Akamai, Qik, Strands, TiVo, Current and BitTorrent have let people [...]
Viacom to Lay Off 850 Positions « NewTeeVee
— 6:41 AM on December 4, 2008
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[...] Break, Revision3, Smashface, 60Frames, Vuze, Spot Runner (twice), Veoh (twice), BitTorrent (twice), Current Media, Qik, Strands, Brightcove and DivX. (Not to mention public companies like TiVo, Netflix, Akamai, [...]
The Outlook for Video Startups in 2009 «…
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[...] to include services like Twitter and 12seconds.tv in its live news coverage. In November, Current got rid of 60 positions and said it would tighten the bonds between its web and TV efforts by nailing down key content [...]
Current Hires New Media Pres « NewTeeVee
— 9:03 PM on February 17, 2009
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[...] site hybrid Al Gore built has announced layoffs on that day in the double digits. But while last year, the eliminated jobs were attributed to “a new cross-platform programming strategy,” [...]
Current TV Cancels Some Shows, Lays Off 80
— 3:00 PM on November 11, 2009
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As of Thanksgiving weekend, Current has been dropped by DirecTV, one of their biggest US distributors. Maybe this knowledge had to do with the layoffs. In 2004, DirecTV’s decision to drop Trio all but killed that network.