Spectrum has laid off all of its news assistants after eliminating the position at all of its news outlets on Wednesday.
“We are always evolving our newsgathering and content creation operations to provide our viewers with even more award-winning hyperlocal news and ‘on the ground reporting’ than ever before,” read a statement sent to reporter Talia Jane, who first broke the story on social media. “We are shifting existing resources to produce more local content in the field rather than keeping them centralized in a newsroom.”
Spectrum says several staff are being reassigned while others are being encouraged to apply for open positions across Spectrum Networks.
According to Jane, source told her the news assistants were considered the backbone of the newsroom.
Just received word that all news assistants at @NY1, across the board, have been laid off without warning.
— talia jane 🕺 (@mxtaliajane) March 17, 2021