Reddit to Lay Off 5% of Workforce, Citing Company Restructuring

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The government of Malaysia said Friday that it will prosecute Meta Platforms for the failures of Facebook to comply with its requests to remove content. In a statement, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission said that Facebook “has recently been plagued by a significant volume of undesirable contents” relating to the aspects of “race, royalty, religion, defamation, impersonation, online gambling as well as scam advertisements.” It said that it had asked Facebook to remove some content.

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.

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.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Hong Kong icon Johnnie To will head the jury of the sixth edition of the Malaysia International Film Festival (MIFFest) next month. Other jurors include: Truong Ngoc Anh from Vietnam, Ryuichi Hiroki from Japan, Zizan Razak from Malaysia, and Eric Khoo from Singapore. The event will open with the world premiere of “Eraser,” directed by Mark Lee See Teck. The Malaysian film features the final on-screen appearance of the late Adibah Noor, a beloved Malaysian gem known for her timeless charisma. MIFFest will play “See You at the Rally,” directed by Taiwanese filmmaker Kanny Chang as its closing title. The festival is set to take place at LaLaport BBCC from July 23-29 and will play a total of 42 films from 15 countries.

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.

2014 disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has stoked outrage in Malaysia and Singapore — but the US comedian who told it isn’t saying sorry.Jocelyn Chia, a Boston-born, American-Singaporean stand-up comedian, performed the bit at Manhattan’s Comedy Cellar back in April. This week, social media users were incensed after the club posted a clip of the joke in which Chia made light of the historical tensions between Malaysia and Singapore.The now-viral joke dives into the historical separation of the two nations, noting that Singapore has become a “first world country” while Malaysia has remained a “developing” one.She then likened the split to a romantic breakup and imagined Malaysia trying to woo Singapore back, saying that it hadn’t visited because “my airplanes cannot fly,” she said in the video clip, adding: “What? Malaysia Airlines going missing not funny?”She then quipped, “Some jokes don’t land.” Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 was traveling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, China, in March 2019 when it disappeared with 239 passengers aboard.

Sophia Scorziello editor Paul Geoffrey, an English actor known for his roles in “Excalibur” and “Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes,” has died. He was 68. Geoffrey died on June 3 in Santa Fe, N.M. from a battle with cancer, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported. “A thespian to the core, Paul continued to act for the remainder of his life. He loved French wine and food, had a stunning grasp of history, was a life-long Arsenal fan, and excelled at being the sweetest guy in the world,” the Santa Fe New Mexican said of Geoffrey. Throughout his acting career, Geoffrey starred as Perceval in the 1981 film “Excalibur,” a medieval fantasy film that retells the legend of King Arthur and the knights of the round table. The film won best artistic contribution at Cannes in 1981 and received an Oscar nomination for best cinematography.

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.

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.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Reddit, the internet community discussion powerhouse, is cutting 90 jobs, laying off about 5% of its total employee base, as it restructure operations to position itself to break even in 2024. The job cuts were announced by Reddit CEO Steve Huffman in an email to staffers Tuesday. “We’ve had a solid first half of the year, and this restructuring will position us to carry that momentum into the second half and beyond,” Huffman wrote. Along with the layoffs, Reddit is reducing its hiring plans for the rest of 2023 to about 100 additional employees (previously it expected to hire 300). Reddit currently has around 2,000 employees worldwide.

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.”

Taylor Swift is shaking off an unsavory moment from her latest performance, when she accidentally swallowed a bug on stage. During Sunday's show on the Chicago, Illinois, leg of her at Soldier Field, Swift became visibly flustered and had to recover for a moment after gagging and telling the audience, «I swallowed a bug, I'm so sorry.» Calling the mishap «so stupid,» Swift joked that it was «delicious» as she caught her breath. «Is there any chance that none of you saw that?» she bantered.Stammering, she continued: «It's fine, it's all, it's — I've swallowed it.» With a laugh, she added, «So I'm just gonna try not to do as many of those. This is gonna happen again, there's so many bugs.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Coldplay — along with Billie Eilish, Dave Matthews Band, Jack Johnson and others — are among the most environmentally friendly major touring artists in the world, and the group has provided an update on the sustainability initiatives in their “Music of the Spheres” World Tour, which began in March 2022 and has so far sold more than 7 million tickets. According to the report, the current tour: – has so far produced 47% less CO2e emissions than their previous stadium tour in 2016-17; – 66% of all tour waste has been diverted from landfills;

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Malaysian National Film Development Corporation (FINAS), the government-backed agency that oversees the country’s film industry, has dismissed its CEO Nasir Ibrahim after less than two years in the job. It follows the return of Kamil Othman who was appointed chairman in February.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Disney reached its 7,000 layoffs goal, handing out notices to the remaining employees impacted in its third round of job cuts last Friday ahead of the Memorial Day holiday weekend, Variety has confirmed. The Mouse House’s target was to conclude these companywide layoffs, which focused most heavily on the media divisions and left the parks largely untouched, ahead of the summer. The company still has plans to eliminate more roles internationally over a period of time, according to a source close to the situation, but Disney has now concluded the benchmark it set in February, soon after Iger’s return as CEO upon the ousting of Bob Chapek.

George Michael and Clayton Kershaw agree on one thing: “Ya gotta have faith.”

A high heart rate in May is almost an annual tradition for Stockport County manager Dave Challinor.