Plucking Party at NBC News
Oct. 27 2008, Published 7:07 a.m. ET
The massive layoffs at NBC that we predicted a month ago were announced this morning: The network will eliminate 700 jobs company-wide over the next year. And RadarOnline.com has learned just how bloody a day it will be for the news division: NBC News plans to fire 220 staffers.
It's unclear how the cuts will be distributed across NBC News, but that number includes employees of the news staffs at the network's owned-and-operated local stations. The job cuts are part of "TV 2.0," a network-wide re-evaluation that NBC executives have described as updating the network for the 21st century and insiders call an excuse for massive layoffs.
Among the hardest hit areas will be MSNBC's production staff—NBC is expected to move MSNBC's operations from Secaucus, N.J., and consolidate with either CNBC in Englewood Cliffs or NBC's headquarters in Manhattan—and Dateline NBC. An NBC News spokeswoman did not immediately return a call for comment.
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