Initiative Lays Off 50

LOS ANGELES — Initiative Media North America is laying off what sources estimate are more than 50 staffers nationwide after the Interpublic Group of Cos. media network parted company with The Walt Disney Co. in a $500-million media review ultimately won by Starcom, Chicago.

Among those let go was Tom Watson, the company’s director of audience research in L.A., who had been with the agency for well over a decade, sources said. An Initiative spokesperson declined to confirm the number of people affected or in which departments and markets the cuts were made, saying, “It is not company policy to release numbers.”