Disney to eliminate up to 1,000 jobs

READ MORE: Josh D’Amaro named new Disney CEO

Disney has been here before. The company shed 8,000 jobs in 2023 under then-CEO Bob Iger in a broad cost-cutting push. What stands out now is the focus on a single corporate function inside a business that employs well over 200,000 people worldwide. Instead of spreading reductions across units, leadership is targeting a high-profile discipline long regarded as central to growth.

The cuts follow a reorganization that centralized previously fragmented marketing operations. HR leaders will recognize the pattern: consolidation is often the prelude to job losses as overlapping responsibilities and duplicative work are identified and eliminated.

At the same time, D’Amaro faces pressure to make streaming profitable, manage the decline of linear TV, and keep funding content and parks. In that context, boards and investors are more willing to accept selective white-collar and creative cuts if they are framed as strategic focus rather than distress.

For HR leaders elsewhere, three messages are clear.