|
CNBC to cut staff
|
 |
February 15, 2001: 3:36 p.m. ET
Business cable channel to chop 26 Web site staffers, 20 more from TV side
|
NEW YORK (CNNfn) - CNBC, the business cable channel, confirmed Thursday that it cut 26 percent of its full-time Internet staff as well as 4 percent of its television personnel.
CNBC.com, which competes against CNNfn.com, laid off 26 of its 100 employees in an effort to trim costs and consolidate its TV and online groups. The online finance site will also lay off some part-time and freelance employees.
CNBC, the television unit, let go about 20 employees. The television cuts are the result of NBC's overall cost-cutting strategy. CNBC is a unit of NBC, which is owned by General Electric (GE: Research, Estimates).
The layoffs will come from all departments and offices.
"CNBC.com is being folded into the larger CNBC business," said company spokesman Paul Capelli. "As part of that, today we did have reductions."
In January, NBC announced that it plans to lay off up to 10 percent of its work force in a cost-cutting move The cuts are expected to affect between 280 and 560 of the company's work force of 5,600, and will be carried out in the current first quarter.
CNBC's TV unit employs about 500 people while the Web site employed about 100 full-time staff before the cuts, Capelli said. In addition to the 26 layoffs at the Web site, some staff were also transferred to other business units, Capelli said.
The layoffs are part of an overall reorganization imposed by NBC, which plans to cut 5 percent to 10 percent from each unit. Total layoffs at CNBC came to 4 percent, Capelli said.
"CNBC is doing well," he said. "The 4 percent reduction is less than what was expected."
CNBC is the latest media outfit to announce substantial staffing reductions. CNN, a unit of AOL Time Warner (AOL: Research, Estimates), also pared down its 4,000-member work force last month, while News Corp. (NWS: Research, Estimates) and TheStreet.com (TSCM: Research, Estimates) also recently cut staff.
"New economy" publication the Industry Standard expects to announce another round of layoffs next week. 
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
