CBS owned stations have begun laying off creative services staff as part of a restructuring around its design team across all of its owned stations.
In a story first reported by FTVLive, CBS Dallas (KTVT) general manager Raquel Amparo sent an email telling station staff “today we made some changes to our Creative Services department, specifically the graphics division.”
Those changes included laying off two from the graphics department.
“As of June 12, a newly-formed Group Design Team will begin to create and share assets for all of our stations,” wrote Casey Kespohl, svp of brand strategy and development. “This team includes several of our top designers from across the group who had focused on one market and now will create assets that benefit all stations. The team members will report to Sean Walkup, our recently appointed Vice President – Group Design Director.”
Read the complete memo from Kespohl below:
Hello, everyone.
I am reaching out today to share with you our reimagined structure for the graphics design function across CBS Stations. As of June 12, a newly-formed Group Design Team will begin to create and share assets for all of our stations. This team includes several of our top designers from across the group who had focused on one market and now will create assets that benefit all stations. The team members will report to Sean Walkup, our recently appointed Vice President – Group Design Director.
Sean and I are pleased to announce the eight colleagues from across our station group who have been promoted to the Group Design Team: Judy Flook and Lara Klinkhammer (group art directors), Bill Ritchotte and Robinson Fernandez (motion designers), Jo-Anne Scotto, Manny Torres and Nate Finston (Chyron specialists), and Random Luttrell (graphics systems specialist).
While CBS Stations is certainly not the first group to reimagine its design function, our approach is unique. Instead of a traditional “hub,” we have created a decentralized structure that will allow Judy, Lara, Bill, Robinson, Jo-Anne, Manny, Nate and Random to remain at the station that has been their home base. And it’s important to note that we will continue to have designers on the ground in each of our markets who will exclusively serve the day-to-day needs of their stations.
Going forward, all of the designers across our stations and on the Group Design Team will build one cohesive design ecosystem that not only benefits our stations, but also the designers themselves as a new and more collaborative work community takes shape.
That said, this new approach also means we are reducing the number of design team members at the local level. I know you all join me in being deeply grateful to our colleagues who will be leaving us. We thank them for their years of service and dedication to their craft, their stations and their communities.
In closing, we know you and your colleagues will have questions about this new structure. Please know your GMs and CSDs as well as Sean, Peter Masucci, Tina Veon and I will stay close to you in the days and weeks to come, and we look forward to continuing to support all of your needs.
Casey
CASEY KESPOHL
SVP Brand Strategy + Development