For any consumer of sports media (and certainly anyone who works in sports media), it was tough to watched Wednesday as dozens of front-facing ESPN employees were laid off.
And while the brunt of the layoffs became public either Wednesday or Thursday morning, it’s like a few more will emerge.
According to Sports Business Daily’s John Ourand, several employees are currently negotiating new deals with ESPN, and if the sides cannot agree to terms, they could depart the network.
The “vast majority” of ESPN’s 100 layoffs occurred yesterday, a source said. That means that the phone calls telling talent that they were being let go have been completed. The reason a source termed it a “vast majority” instead of “all” is because some of the talent are in the process of negotiating new deals and ultimately still could wind up leaving the network.
In addition to ESPNers who might be trying to negotiate new deals right now, it’s very likely that we’ll hear from more people who were laid off Wednesday but haven’t yet revealed their status—because they haven’t wanted to, because they don’t use social media or for any other reason.
Of the supposed 100 layoffs, Awful Announcing has tallied about 70 that have been made public.
ESPN has told Awful Announcing it will not confirm layoffs of people who have not announced their status themselves.
About Alex Putterman
Alex is a writer and editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. He has written for The Atlantic, VICE Sports, MLB.com, SI.com and more. He is a proud alum of Northwestern University and The Daily Northwestern. You can find him on Twitter @AlexPutterman.