4/11/14, "Layoffs at Al Jazeera America," Jordan Charlton, Mediabistro
In an email to staff we obtained, network President Kate O’Brian said the network has reached a “steady-state level of operations, and we are bringing our staffing levels into alignment with our long-range plan as per our original business case.”
“As a result, certain parts of our organization will expand or contract and staff levels and resources will be recalibrated.”
The network has struggled in the ratings to date, and O’Brian told us last year that “our ratings will come as people are watching.”
O’Brian’s full email to staff after the jump.
Dear Al Jazeera America Colleagues,
As we prepared for our launch over the past year we set ambitious and aggressive goals. In the seven months since launch we have built a channel that it took other networks years to do. As you all know, that required extensive effort, planning and resources. We always understood that we would need considerable resources to meet our goals. We never wavered in our commitment because we knew that a surge in our capacity was essential to a successful launch of Al Jazeera America.
As a result of this extensive planning and investment, we met our own deadlines. We should all be very proud of what has been built in such a short time. Now it is time to set our sights on new goals, requiring different levels and areas of investment and resources. We have reached what I will call our steady-state level of operations and we are bringing our staffing levels into alignment with our long-range plan as per our original business case. As a result, certain parts of our organization will expand or contract and staff levels and resources will be recalibrated.
This will have an immediate impact on some staff, freelancers, independent contractors, and other project-oriented individuals who have been with us for several months. Those that are effected have been sent a note with information on meeting their supervisors and HR representatives later today.
These colleagues have provided a valuable service to us for which we are deeply grateful.
On behalf of the entire senior management team, I’d like to thank our departing staff and freelancers for all the work they did to get AJAM up and running.
You will recall Ehab’s letter last month where he affirmed the long-term commitment to Al Jazeera America. We have more than 800 staff around the country and I hope you are seeing that we’re continuing to build a strong distribution network. Our relationships with distributors, advertisers, and the media industry as a whole are strong. In addition, we are working to be a part of the community everywhere we operate.
We are continuing to build a sustainable and high-performing news organization in the tradition of the Al Jazeera Media Network. And it all starts and ends with the journalism. Our recent awards are a testimony to the high level of work Al Jazeera America is producing, day in and day out. I’m proud to work with you.
Kate" Image via Mediabistro
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"Al Jazeera America is averaging just 15,000 total viewers, roughly half those who tuned in to its predecessor, Current TV, according to Nielsen figures."...
4/11/14, "Al Jazeera America’s ratings struggle leads to layoffs," NY Post, Claire Atkinson
"Cable channel Al Jazeera America, which launched less than a year
ago, is slashing expenses and laying off staff as it struggles to gain a
foothold in the US.
The news outfit is letting go of scores of staffers after its Mideast backers spent millions getting the channel off the ground, according to sources close to the company.
“They’re not making their numbers or the revenue they thought,” said a source. “They have a really convoluted background of people in from Qatar [headquarters]. They really don’t get the US market.”
Al Jazeera America is averaging just 15,000 total viewers, roughly half those who tuned in to its predecessor, Current TV, according to Nielsen figures.
The channel draws fewer than 6,000 viewers in the 25-to-54-year-old target audience for news.
Thanks to the deep pockets of the owners, Al Jazeera America spent freely in a bid to challenge its all-news TV competition.
It hired 800 journalists, including former ABC news-gathering chief Kate O’Brian, and blanketed the US with a dozen bureaus.
In a memo to staff on Friday, O’Brian suggested that the channel was scaling back after the initial rush to hire.
“Now it is time to set our sights on new goals, requiring different levels and areas of investment and resources,” she wrote in the memo obtained by The Post.
She continued: “We have reached what I will call our steady-state level of operations and we are bringing our staffing levels into alignment with our long-range plan as per our original business case.
“As a result, certain parts of our organization will expand or contract and staff levels and resources will be re-calibrated.”
The network’s financial backer, the government of Qatar, paid a hefty $500 million in January to purchase Current TV and gain US distribution.
The news outfit is letting go of scores of staffers after its Mideast backers spent millions getting the channel off the ground, according to sources close to the company.
“They’re not making their numbers or the revenue they thought,” said a source. “They have a really convoluted background of people in from Qatar [headquarters]. They really don’t get the US market.”
Al Jazeera America is averaging just 15,000 total viewers, roughly half those who tuned in to its predecessor, Current TV, according to Nielsen figures.
The channel draws fewer than 6,000 viewers in the 25-to-54-year-old target audience for news.
Thanks to the deep pockets of the owners, Al Jazeera America spent freely in a bid to challenge its all-news TV competition.
It hired 800 journalists, including former ABC news-gathering chief Kate O’Brian, and blanketed the US with a dozen bureaus.
In a memo to staff on Friday, O’Brian suggested that the channel was scaling back after the initial rush to hire.
“Now it is time to set our sights on new goals, requiring different levels and areas of investment and resources,” she wrote in the memo obtained by The Post.
She continued: “We have reached what I will call our steady-state level of operations and we are bringing our staffing levels into alignment with our long-range plan as per our original business case.
“As a result, certain parts of our organization will expand or contract and staff levels and resources will be re-calibrated.”
The network’s financial backer, the government of Qatar, paid a hefty $500 million in January to purchase Current TV and gain US distribution.
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