Reddit Laying Off 5% of Workforce, Trims Hiring Plans

Paul Dano leads the way in taking over the GameStop stock in the first trailer for Dumb Money.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music In what may be the first AI-specific senior executive role in the music industry, Sony has hired former BPI CEO Geoff Taylor as executive vice president of AI, according to an internal memo obtained by Variety. In his new role, Taylor, who was CEO of the British Phonographic Industry trade organization for 15 years and is a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), will report to Sony Music Entertainment COO Kevin Kelleher. According to the memo, Taylor’s responsibilities will include coordinating the company’s business efforts surrounding artificial intelligence, and coordinate across the global digital business and business and legal affairs division.

EXCLUSIVE: Hasbro-owned Entertainment One is undergoing a round of layoffs sources tell Deadline. The reduction is said to impact about 20% of the indie studio’s film and television staff.

were first announced in late January as part of the company’s end-of-year and quarterly earnings reports, in which Hasbro reported a 9% year-over-year drop in revenue.“This workforce reduction is part of the ongoing transformational changes Hasbro announced in January to substantially reduce costs and increase growth rates and profitability,” said Hasbro spokesperson Roberta Thomson.Hasbro is also currently planning to sell off a majority stake in eOne, which co-produces films based on Hasbro IP as part of a production deal with Paramount including recent releases like “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” and “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” as well as TV shows like Showtime’s “Yellowjackets.” Lionsgate and Legendary are among the contenders to purchase the majority stake, which was estimated by Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks to be sold by the end of this quarter.

Kourtney Kardashian is pregnant!

EXCLUSIVE: APA’s Head of Music Bruce Solar is among a few music agents who are leaving the agency. A replacement for Solar will be announced shortly.

When “Game of Thrones” showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss wrapped up the award-winning/acclaimed HBO fantasy series they were originally tapped to tackle their own “Star Wars” films only to bail when Netflix offered them a hefty $200 million deal to develop streaming projects.

McKinley Franklin editor Season 5 of Netflix’s historical drama “The Crown” covers Peter Morgan’s reimaginations of some of the most polarizing experiences endured by the royal family in the ‘90s. Elizabeth Debicki, who plays the beloved Princess Diana, tells Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast that she felt the “heaviness” and “weight” of playing the late icon. “It’s a unique experience playing a character where this tragedy is looming,” says Debicki. “It’s a strange, heavy place to exist in.” On this episode of the podcast, “The Crown” star Elizabeth Debicki talks to Adam B. Vary about playing a tragic real-life figure like Princess Diana, including the research that went into the role, and how she captured the voice of the former Princess of Wales. But first, on the Awards Circuit Roundtable, we look at the race as Emmy phase 1 voting begins. What shows benefitted from the FYC campaigns? And so much more. Listen below:

The impact of the ongoing writers strike on the talent agencies continue. APA has laid off a number of assistants. Junior agents, primarily in the lit department, which is the most affected by the work stoppage, have been asked to share assistants, sources tell Deadline.

K.J. Yossman “Lord of the Rings” owner Embrace Group has unveiled a dramatic company restructure including the appointment of a new COO, a new CSO, studio closures and lay-offs. “Today we announce a comprehensive restructuring program that will enable us to realize untapped potential in Embracer Group and better optimize the use of our resources. Across the group, we are now initiating multiple actions to strengthen our cash flow generation and leverage our portfolio of IPs to become a stronger company and setting out on a stable future to build even greater games to the benefit of gamers and fans across the globe ”, said Lars Wingefors, CEO and co-founder of Embracer.

reported the news for The New York Times.. “At the end of this process, we will have more than 100 beat reporters on teams.”Coverage of the NFL and English Premier League will remain similar because those stories attract a lot or interest from readers.

Elizabeth Olsen isn’t looking back.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Elizabeth Olsen is currently on a break from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and she’s definitely enjoying it. During a conversation with “The White Lotus” star Meghann Fahy as part of Variety’s “Actors on Actors” series, Olsen got honest about not missing her Scarlet Witch days. “Do you miss doing Wanda?” Fahy asked. “No, I don’t,” Olsen responded. “I think it’s been almost 10 years of playing her. And I’ve loved it. And I think the reason why I am not calling Kevin Feige every day with ideas is because I’m really proud of what we were able to do. I think ‘WandaVision’ was a really surprising opportunity.”

The Los Angeles Times announced newsroom layoffs today for the first time since biotech billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong bought the paper in 2018. The cuts include 74 positions, representing about 13% of the total newsroom headcount.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor The Los Angeles Times, facing declining ad revenue and readership, is eliminating 74 editorial jobs, representing about 13% of the total newsroom staff. Staffers at the paper learned of the cut in a memo sent Wednesday from executive editor Kevin Merida, wrote wrote that the decision was “made more urgent by the economic climate and the unique challenges of our industry, the L.A. Times reported. The L.A. Times Guild, an affiliate of Media Guild of the West, issued a statement that it was “outraged” by the job cuts and that it was “blindsided by this news.” “We are outraged by management’s announcement this morning that it plans to lay off 57 Guild members across several departments, amounting to roughly 15% of our entire newsroom membership, including several Guild leaders,” Reed Johnson, LAT Guild Unit council chair, said in a statement. “This list of targeted layoffs is not final. Under our contract, management is required to bargain with the Guild over proposed layoffs. Management also so far has failed to offer buyouts to staff as is required by our contract.”

Reddit is joining a growing list of tech companies contracting due to the bumpy economy, telling workers it plans to lay off 5% of employees and scale back new hiring.

Wall Street Journal broke the news, revealing that Reddit’s laying off employees and looking to cut down on costs in an effort to break even next year. Furthermore, the company’s previous projections of hiring 300 people by the end of 2023 have been slashed down to 100.A Reddit spokesperson declined to share the original memo but confirmed WSJ’s reporting in response to TheWrap’s request for comment.Other tech companies reduced their staff earlier in 2023, including Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Spotify is undertaking a “strategic realignment” of its podcast division, laying off about 200 staffers. Sahar Elhabashi, Spotify’s VP, head of podcast business, announced the job cuts in a memo to employees Monday that was shared publicly. The 200 employees represents about 2% of the audio streamer’s worldwide workforce. The layoffs come after Spotify cut 6% of its total headcount earlier this year and saw the exit of Dawn Ostroff, chief content and advertising business officer, who had previously headed Spotify’s podcast business “We are expanding our partnership efforts with leading podcasters from across the globe with a tailored approach optimized for each show and creator,” Elhabashi wrote. “This fundamental pivot from a more uniform proposition will allow us to support the creator community better. However, doing so requires adapting; over the past few months, our senior leadership team has worked closely with HR to determine the optimal organization for this next chapter. As a result, we have made the difficult but necessary decision to make a strategic realignment of our group and reduce our global podcast vertical and other functions by approximately 200 people, or 2% of Spotify’s workforce.”

Emmy Rossum spoke about playing Tom Holland’s mother in “The Crowded Room” during a chat with ET Canada’s Morgan Hoffman.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor N’Jeri Eaton, former head of audio at Netflix and head of content at Apple Podcasts, is joining Wondery as head of co-productions for limited series. Eaton reports to George Lavender, head of creative production for limited series at Wondery. Eaton will oversee the podcast studio and network’s external collaborations, managing multiple shows from their initial idea through production and launch. For its original limited series, Wondery — a division of Amazon — has collaborated with partners including the Boston Globe’s Spotlight Team (“Gladiator”), NBC News (“Do No Harm”) and Bloomberg (“The Shrink Next Door,” which was adapted as an Apple TV+ show).