Today is another sobering day for the tech and media world. Current TV has confirmed that 80 people are being let go, leaving the company with 300 employees worldwide. We heard multiple reports of significant layoffs at Current TV earlier in the day. One source, whose spouse works at Current TV, warns of a “major bloodbath today at CurrentTV, across all departments,” with cuts hitting “most of the people in the LA production office, as stuff is being outsourced.”
Current Media’s COO, Joanna Drake Earl told me over the phone that the layoffs are due to a shifting of programming strategy and are not a cost-cutting measure. Current is shifting away from in-house production and towards out sourcing segments, which will be done via acquisitions, co-productions, and the use of outside studios. Layoffs took place in Current’s San Francisco, Los Angeles, London and New York offices, but the cuts were mostly made in the production and programming areas. Earl added that this year is set to be Current’s most profitable year since its launch. See the entire statement issued by Current below.
A year ago to date, the media company, which was co-founded by Al Gore and Joel Hyatt, eliminated 60 positions. The media company also recently canceled its $100 million IPO that was originally announced in January 2008. Current said in a statement that market conditions and the recession forced the company to abandon the IPO. And this summer, Current Media got a new CEO, Mark Rosenthal, who replaced Hyatt. Rosenthal was the former president and COO of MTV networks and was also vice chairman and president of media platforms at SpotRunner.
Current made headlines this year after two of its reporters were detained by North Korea in a relatively high-profile incident (the reporters were eventually released after former President Bill Clinton intervened).
Cable channel Current TV is broadcast internationally to 59 million homes with markets in regions including the United States, Italy, and the UK. Current also has a strong web presence, tapping into popular social media services like Digg and Twitter for special events like the 2008 presidential election.
The Guardian Media Group announced news of layoffs this morning and yesterday brought news of other tech layoffs, with Adobe cutting 9 percent of its staff. This week also brought announcements of from Electronic Arts and Sprint. We’ve added Current’s layoff to the TechCrunch Layoff Tracker.
Here’s the entirety of the email that was sent to us by a representative for Current:
Current Media has made changes to its organization, most notably in the area of television programming. Current will be shifting away from short-form programming and daily in-house production and towards proven 30-60 minute formats from a multitude of sources, including acquisitions, co-productions, outside studios, as well as Current developed and produced content.
With this change, Current made the difficult yet necessary decision to eliminate certain daily, weekly, and non-regularly scheduled programs, including “Current Tonight,” “Current Takeover” and “Current Exposed.”
As a result of these cancelations, and the shift away from a reliance on daily in-house production, Current Media eliminated 80 positions worldwide associated with the affected programs and related support personnel in the company.
This re-organization was not the result of a need to cut costs. Current Media will have its most profitable year. This financial stability will allow the company to re-allocate resources in order to put further emphasis on areas of the business believed to best position Current Media for continued long-term growth. Part of this investment will be the immediate creation of new executive positions, and teams in program development, licensing and acquisitions, talent management, research, marketing, affiliate relations and advertising sales.
As part of the re-organization, Current Media will be consolidating television production and programming development activities together under one roof in Los Angeles with new facilities at LA Center Studios.
Funny that Current was taking such a top-down approach to bottom-up media. They became a typical lame-o production company and now must find their edge again by tapping the creativity of the prosumer masses. Expect many top-down cable companies to follow suit. It’s been a bloodbath of a year here in Hollywood.
The shift from the shorts-based format to a more traditional 30- and 60-minute format is a shame, but not really surprising. I don’t have Current right now, but I used to watch it semi-regularly a few months ago; despite having a great deal of pretty neat content it was difficult to just sit down and watch, which I think is a major liability for a TV channel.
Still, it’s a shame, and I wonder if it will wind up just turning into another vague Science/TLC/NatGeo/Discovery/History Channel mishmash or if it will maintain its identity.
“as stuff is being outsourced”
no comment …
Outsourcing is good despite popular belief. Our economy needs outsourcing. If every company were to be monolithic, we would have no business opportunities. People often confuse outsourcing with ‘offshore outsourcing’. That’s what eliminates U.S based jobs, and therefore understandably seems like a bad idea. If you work at a profit motivated company, they most likely provide services for other companies; that is outsourcing. They most likely consume resources from other companies, that too is outsourcing.
It’s more important than ever to build quality relationships with suppliers. Current TV is a media channel, producing all their own media adds unnecessary weight to the company. Providing contracts with animation studios, design studios, programming firms, etc. will help them focus on the function of the company – providing a good experience and content. While doing this, they help smaller companies grow, providing more jobs, and possibly stimulating smaller economies locally. Not only is outsourcing smart, it’s good for the economy.
Sure, it sucks they cut down immediate staff, but they are still creating jobs and putting money in the pockets of other people.
In-house reporting is expensive if you compare it with small local studios, freelancers of every kind all over the world who just need a great editor who guides them.
If I had an editor, I would write much more blog posts, I guess.
Let me tell you something about CurrentTV. I worked there for 3 months in late 2007. I was on the upstairs online team(we were maintaining the old website while the guys on the Embarcadero team in the basement were working on the new one). I came in to work on Sept 14 and was there for about half an hour when I was led into Al Gore’s office(he wasn’t there) and was let go. They offered no explanation and refused to tell me why I was being laid off. My experiences working there were good at the time, but I got the overall sense the company didn’t have any direction. The worst part of being laid off wasn’t the fact that they treated me INCREDIBLY unprofessionally, it was that they laid off several other people the same day in much the same manner. One of the guys that was on my team was in QA. A couple of days after they fired him (again, without giving cause), he jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge to his death.
Can’t help but think (ironically) if Al Gore had been elected President maybe the economy wouldn’t be where it is such that CurrentTV would have to lay off 80 employees.
But, then again, CurrentTV might not exist at all if Al Gore had been too busy to found it
really?
I tend to agree with Paul K. If Al Gore were the president we wouldn’t have gone to some stupid war with Iraq and collected billions of dollars in debt, and that’s just one of the many variables that would have been different and could have avoided this depression.
So… yea… really
At least you feel good saying it.
Yeah and if I won the lottery last week I could live in a mansion. So whats your point? Why bother with the what-ifs.
“Current Media will have its most profitable year.”
I love it when companies are having a killer year and still fire people so some executive can get a bigger bonus.
Capitalism, it works.
*shrug* I think I watched Current TV once, for about 12 minutes … and that was on accident, because I was drunk.
I’m within Current’s target demographic and I can’t stand watching Current TV, either. So if I ever find myself watching it, it’s because I landed on that channel and got distracted by something else. Then maybe I’d change it once I realized what was on.
Interesting you can’t stand watching it but you “landed on that channel and got distracted by something else.” So you actually get interested but when you realize it’s “Current” you have to switch away.
There might be some medication for that kind of denial behavior. Or you could just come out of you conservative closet and admit to the world that you enjoy things liberal.
It is sad this is happening – I like the content up there, but wonder how well it can compete against the likes of Discovery, etc.
Nino
EarthTechling
http://www.earthtechling.com/
I used watch CURRENT TV regularly, but as of late, they have become really lame. “Infomania” was really good though, but SuperNews was some Super-Douche crap…it’s like, dude! I don’t get it.
The underlying truth here is; TV is fading from being the dominant source of visual entertainment.
***I strongly urge entrepreneurs to start thinking about what’s next***
ironic that i just watched last night the southpark episode where al gore is hunting for manbearpig.
Maybe if their staff stopped wandering into hostile countries they could’ve focused on their bottom line this year.
terrible news.
current is losing what made them unique and successful. 30 and 60 minute pieces suck.
this is good news for making money for a few people, bad news for quality programming.
Ah, the demise of _current.
Too many stories on “global warming”,
far too few on what really matters.
nice try Randy, if you knew anything about the channel you would know the majority of stories are about how Al Gore invented the internet….
Evidence that no one wants to listen to the far left, lame-stream media. More ratings for Fox News. RIP drive by
I can’t believe current is going to become like all other programs. I find it very easy to “sit down and watch” current TV. What I find the best format is broadcasting shorts that are of the same theme within an hour block, kind of what has happened on “still up”, al though the actual hosts are horribly unfunny
I love Current.
Current should partner with web production companies like Revision3 to air some of their shows.
As I read my severance agreement, I realized that Current is not mentioning an important bit of information. Their actions have triggered the WARN Act. Moreover, when Current says that they’ve laid off 80 employees, they’re not mentioning that they plan to lay off, at least, 20 more. One of the factors that triggers the WARN Act is when a company lays off a third of its workforce. Current had about 300 US employees before today’s layoffs, so letting go of 80 employees does not set off WARN. Letting go of 100 would.
Why do I think that Current’s workforce reduction falls under WARN? Because in addition to a promised severance payment, I continue on Current’s payroll for 60 days with benefits – even though I have no obligation to perform work. What Current is doing is getting around the 60 day notification provision under WARN by continuing pay and benefits for laid off workers. In addition, my Termination Agreement states that I would release the company from any claims that it has violated the WARN act.
While Current deflects questions about more lay offs in the coming months, they’re actions cannot hide the fact that they plan to, at least, have a total of 100 employees gone by the next few months.
Always hate to see layoffs. Particularly gauling to see it at companies owned by and proclaiming to be somehow any different than other profit-seeking organizations. Demonstrates again how Limousine Liberals who preach one thing when it concerns “others” but act in their own selfish interests are as insufferable as those folks on the “religious right”. Preaching and hypocrisy is the same whether left or right.
WoW! lay offs suck!! at least they have a place to vent about it at http://www.ventnation.com !!
Current is a good idea poorly executed. Hyatt is gone, and Drake Earle should be next. The pair lacked vision, the ability to execute, or an understanding of media. But, bet on Rosenthal – long track record of building TV brands. Hope he wins.
Still beta?? Come on, even Google gave up on that. I hope these guys paid in advance for their plot in the deadpool.
“Outsourcing” is one word.
Well it doesn’t surprise me but it does offer opportunity for talented people to look at other opportunities – we have them at Nextvoice247.com and a new venture JuJu.com (wejuju.com – startup in beta test now) for creatives, sales and development – reach out @nextvoice247 for details — I hope Current finds a foothold – it has been a model that has been a cool reference point – a user-generated biz when the user is often forgotten
I think it is one of the greatest programs ever. I have stopped watching CNN pretty much. I love Vanguard. I always get goosebumps watching it. I love Max and Jason also. They are incredible. Infomania is hilarious and so is SuperNews hehe