DC laid off seven employees this week due to restructuring of their publishing department according to a The Hollywood Reporter. Among the layoffs are several executives, namely Senior Vice President of Sales Trade Marketing John Cunningham, Vice President of Consumer Marketing Eddie Scannell and Senior Vice President of Art Direction Mark Chiarello. This layoff only affects 3% of the overall workforce for DC Comics.
There were rumors that Dan DiDio and Jim Lee were going to be part of the reshuffling but those reports are largely believed to be false. The internal memo can be seen below
Today has been a challenging day. We have made organizational changes across DC that we believe will help to strengthen and evolve the division for future success. With these changes come difficult decisions which we take very seriously.
We recognize and appreciate that all of our employees have made considerable contributions to our business and that it is difficult to lose colleagues, many of whom have been here for a long time and have made an important impact on DC. We thank them for their hard work and dedication to DC. As always, we are committed to taking care of our employees and will be as thoughtful as possible with those who are impacted by these changes.
Together with Dan and Jim, and the executive team, we have spent time assessing DC’s business, as well as the comic book publishing landscape. DC is going back to its roots of delivering epic stories with our world-class characters, stories and brands. Being a premier house of storytelling will never go out of style and we intend to ultimately super-serve our existing fans, while providing new compelling content that engages and excites even more fans around the globe. Rest assured, the direct market will remain at the heart of our business – and will continue to be one of our greatest strengths.
The new streamlined structure is focused on creating, delivering and supporting a robust publishing operation that will allow DC to be nimble, navigate an industry in change, and thrive. As we communicated today, we are forming three distinct work streams – Editorial, Production & Manufacturing and Publishing Support Services.
• Editorial will continue to be run by Bob Harras, SVP & Editor-In-Chief, who will now also be responsible for new initiatives and global publishing, editorial scheduling, and art direction
• Production & Manufacturing will continue to be run by Alison Gill, SVP Manufacturing & Operations
• Publishing Support Services is a new business unit consisting of all departments that support the sales, marketing and promotion of our books, and this will be run by Hank Kanalz who is taking on additional responsibilities as SVP Publishing Strategy & Support Services As a result – DC Collectibles and its team will be part of the Consumer Products Toy team moving forward.
We recognize there are other groups across DC who are not fully dedicated to supporting the publishing business and, therefore, are not directly addressed in today’s news. As The Global Brands & Experiences structure continues to develop, I look forward to sharing more with you as that evolves.
Many of you will have questions and in the coming days you will receive more information from Bob, Alison and Hank about their teams. Together with Dan and Jim, I will be hosting Town Hall meetings Thursday on the individual floors to discuss these changes and provide more insight.
Thank you again for your support, hard work and loyalty to DC. Each of you are incredibly valued and I look forward to seeing you tomorrow afternoon where I will do my best to answer any questions.
Pam
While this feels like big news, it may be more of a synergy. A shakeup of sorts usually comes with a few firings as people are shifted around and given promotions after others who have ran afoul or fallen out of favor are moved on. As of right now there isn’t really anything to worry about that I can see, but who knows?
In Other News…
Robert Kirkman’s Invincible animated series seem to have targeted Steve Yeun of Walking Dead fame to take a major role on the series. Khary Payton is also expects to be part of the series. Deadpool’s Zazie Beetz, Superman the Animated Serie’s Clancy Brown, and Star Trek’s Zachary Quinto have all been rumored as well. Same with Jason Mantzoukas, Gillian Jacobs, and Chris Diamantopoulos. No official confirmation for these actors and their respective roles have yet to be named.
In Quick Hit News, Resident Evil will be turned into a Netflix series by a German production and distribution company Constantin Film. Former Doctor Who actor Matt Smith will be joining the Sony-Marvel Morbius the Living Vampire film in a major, but unknown role. While allegations kick up about Singer, right now he’s still attached to Millennium’s attempt to bring the Marvel character Red Sonja, a character who was the survivor of rape in her early days. Lastly, a 24 Jump Street film is apparently in the works but take that with a grain of salt.