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The most important thing is to cut 15 percent of the US workforce

Posted on by darion

LOS ANGELES — Media conglomerate Paramount Global announced Thursday that it will cut 15 percent of its U.S. workforce, or about 2,000 positions, as part of a broader cost-cutting plan.

The cuts will be two-fold, including job cuts in marketing and communications, and finance, legal, technology and other support positions, Paramount Global co-CEO Chris McCarthy said during a conference call on second-quarter earnings.

“These actions will be undertaken in the coming weeks and will largely be completed by the end of the year,” he said, adding that “these are difficult decisions to make.”

A second-quarter earnings report released Thursday revealed serious financial challenges for Paramount, owner of CBS, Paramount Pictures and popular cable networks.

The company reported a massive operating loss due to a $5.98 billion writedown of its cable television networks.

This devaluation is related to the planned acquisition of Paramount by Skydance Media, which is scheduled to close on September 30, 2025.

The job cuts are part of a previous cost-cutting plan announced by Paramount’s three CEOs that calls for cutting annual costs by $500 million ahead of the merger with Skydance.

The restructuring comes as Paramount has struggled with declining revenue across its traditional media operations. Total second-quarter revenue fell 11 percent to $6.8 billion, and the company’s television operations — its largest business segment — saw a 17 percent revenue decline.

The decline in TV revenue was attributed to an 11 percent drop in advertising revenue and a 5 percent drop in affiliate and subscription fees. The numbers reflected the challenges traditional media companies face in an increasingly digital landscape.

Amid the financial turmoil, however, Paramount’s streaming business proved to be a bright spot as the company turned a profit for the first time in its history: second-quarter revenue rose 13 percent, and subscription revenue rose 12 percent year over year, according to the report.