Layoffs hit NBCUniversal’s E! and Esquire networks on Thursday, individuals with knowledge of the situation told TheWrap.
The job cuts accounted for less than 7 percent of the company’s workforce or roughly between 20-30 staffers. E! Network’s news, digital and marketing teams along with Esquire’s marketing team were the departments hit with reductions.
The cuts were qualified as “a small reduction in headcount to maximize efficiencies,” a spokesperson for E! confirmed to TheWrap. “As previously announced, we have integrated E!’s news and online teams and, separately, the E! and Esquire marketing teams.”
There were no senior management level positions affected in this round of layoffs, said the individual.
In March, TheWrap reported layoffs at NBCUniversal when the E! and Esquire marketing departments first merged. The shakeup came less than a month after TheWrap wrote about impending department mergers and layoffs in a move to save money.
Leigh Anne Gardner and Tim Rosta were casualties of the March round. Prior to those cuts, Gardner was the network’s senior vice president of print, online design, on-air design and special projects at E! and G4. Rosta had been senior vice president of marketing solutions at E!
Even before the Gardner-Rosta round of layoffs, several NBCUniversal employees left the company, including executive director of publicity John Rizzotti and Lorenzo de Guttadauro. Katherine Nelson went to Syfy, which is still under the NBCUniversal umbrella.
Esquire has experienced eight months of consecutive double digit growth and closed its best quarter in Q1 (year-over-year), the network touted. E! hit ratings highs last month thanks to “Keeping Up With the Kardashian’s” Bruce Jenner specials and “The Royals.”