The move to discontinue shows hosted by non-white anchors has been criticized by management by a prominent network star.
According to two persons with firsthand knowledge of the situation, MSNBC has informed most of the staff members who create Rachel Maddow and Joy Reid’s prime-time evening news programs that they would be let go as part of the network’s programming makeover, with the opportunity to apply for other positions.
According to the people, Maddow, the most well-known and highly regarded anchor on MSNBC, will be allowed to retain her executive producer, Cory Gnazzo, as well as a number of other top producers.
However, according to the persons, Maddow’s remaining staff members, as well as producers who worked on the other axed shows, which were presented by JosĂ© DĂaz-Balart, Jonathan Capehart, Ayman Mohyeldin, and Katie Phang, have been offered the chance to reapply for other positions at the network or claim severance pay.
Due to a peculiarity in the way they worked on both Maddow’s and Alex Wagner’s shows, the Maddow team was fired. Maddow reduced the number of shows they hosted to Mondays, while Wagner hosted from Tuesday to Friday.
For the first 100 days of the Trump presidency, Maddow will present five evenings a week; however, on 21 July, she will switch back to Mondays exclusively, and the programming change will take effect. The former Biden White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, will take over the Tuesday–Friday position on April 21.
According to an MSNBC insider, the adjustments were a reallocation of producers to accommodate new programs and objectives rather than “widespread layoffs.” They stated that the affected employees would not be given the opportunity to reapply for the new positions until they had been advertised internally.
This kind of personnel change—having workers reapply for positions in time slots they currently produce—is unheard of at MSNBC. When shows are canceled, MSNBC usually goes to considerable lengths to reassign employees without terminating them.
But the cable news industry as a whole is going through a difficult moment. Similar to how CNN fired off 200 people last month as its new CEO, Mark Thompson, tried to shift to a digital strategy, MSNBC, which is being spun off by NBCUniversal, is looking for cost savings.
The possibility that the new postings will primarily be in New York, where the hourly pay rates negotiated by the various unions are believed to be lower, has quietly alarmed some Washington, DC, staffers. Relocating may also be necessary for new work in New York.
Status revealed over the weekend that a Reid’s program staff member questioned Rebecca Kutler, the recently appointed president of MSNBC, about the show’s staff’s future.
According to reports, Kutler acknowledged that employees will be let go but gave them severance benefits and promised to keep them on staff until April.
Additionally, Kutler allegedly informed them that over 100 new positions would be posted this week and urged impacted employees to apply. She went on to say that MSNBC would have more staff members than it does presently in six months.
During a monologue on her show on Monday night, Maddow seemed to attack MSNBC for the recent changes to its programming and how its employees are treated.
The dozens of producers and staff who work behind the scenes are “really being put through the wringer,” Maddow said, and they may be laid off or “invited to reapply for new jobs.”
“That has never happened at this scale, in this way before when it comes to programming changes,” Maddow said. “It kind of drops the bottom out of whether or not people feel like this is a good place to work, and it’s inefficient and unnecessary, so we don’t usually do things that way.”
During the monologue, the anchor also referred to Reid’s termination as a “bad mistake” and expressed her desire to keep Reid on as an MSNBC colleague.
“In my opinion, letting her leave is a terrible mistake,” Maddow remarked. “I realize it’s not my call, but that’s what I believe.”
“It’s also unsettling to see that on a network with two non-white prime-time hosts, both of them are losing their shows, like Katie Phang on the weekend,” she continued. And regardless of who takes their place, that feels worse than awful. I don’t defend that, and it seems indefensible.
