PMRC Will Lay Off 50 After Joint Venture Between PMC and MRC

Mike Fleming Jr
·3 min read

Tough news Thursday as PMRC, the recently announced joint venture between Deadline parent company PMC and MRC, will lay off around 50 of the 250 employees who are coming over from Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter and Vibe. I got from a THR source a copy of an internal email sent out this morning by MRC co-CEOs Modi Wiczyk and Asif Satchu (read it below).

Editorial is not expected to be among those laid off. As often happens in a joint venture like this, layoffs will fall in the area of brand support employees, where there are shared positions in the back offices of PMC and MRC. Those impacted are being told this morning and the memo discloses that there will be exit packages and up to six months of COBRA insurance, and job placement assistance offered. There will be approximately 40 layoffs today, while the rest will stay temporarily in a transitioning process.

Deadline is not directly part of the PMRC configuration, but after reporting all the painful consolidation at agencies and studios in the past six months, we certainly feel for those impacted by this morning’s action. Here is the memo from Wiczyk and Satchu just sent out.

Colleagues –

With the news of Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter and VIBE moving into PMRC, our joint venture with Penske Media (PMC), many questions about the path forward have begun to circulate. As you can imagine, there are various elements to the strategy for a stable and long-term future for these iconic brands and not everything can possibly be covered in one letter. We will gather on Friday, and will discuss more in the coming weeks.

For now, our first and most painful step has implications on our workforce. Unfortunately, we will be saying goodbye to some of our colleagues today. It’s very sad to share this news, and we feel it’s important to offer as much clarity as possible.

As these brands transition to PMRC, our focus will be strengthening the profitable growth powered by first-rate journalism. In order to support this, and plan for sustained long-term success, we believe it’s best to leverage the PMC publishing infrastructure and teams—thereby reducing some of those functions and layers inside MRC Media. The PMC infrastructure is made up of teams working together for more than 17 years, and currently supporting and growing more than 20 media brands.

The job areas most affected by our new structure are those that overlap with the infrastructure across PMC. Most of the approximately 50 jobs being eliminated today will be operational.

As tough as this is on all of us, it is important that we do this now, so that we can embark on a successful future.

Beginning today, our HR team will reach out by phone to all employees affected by these reductions. Such communications will continue through tomorrow at about midday pacific time.

Beyond this round of discussions, no future job cuts are planned.

MRC will provide exit packages including severance, up to six months of COBRA reimbursement, and job placement assistance, among other benefits for those who are transitioning out of the company.

On Friday afternoon, when PMC will begin its management of these legendary brands, there will also be a town hall discussion led by Jay Penske during which further questions will be answered. We will have a separate town hall for MRC. Town Hall registration links will follow later today.

We would like to offer our best wishes to colleagues affected. We want you to know that this difficult decision is no reflection on you, your hard work or your talents. We thank you for all you have contributed to the company during your time here.

With our deepest appreciation,

a/m

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