{"id":7998153,"date":"2026-04-10T16:28:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T23:28:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/?p=7998153"},"modified":"2026-04-10T17:15:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T00:15:10","slug":"disney-layoffs-2026-marketing-publicity-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/industry-news\/business\/disney-layoffs-2026-marketing-publicity-awards\/","title":{"rendered":"Disney Layoffs of 1,000 to Begin Next Week in Marketing, Publicity and Other Divisions | Exclusive"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

Disney layoffs will begin next week, most severely impacting the marketing, awards and publicity departments of film, streaming, television and cable as the company looks to cut costs in reduction of 1,000 staffers<\/a>, TheWrap has learned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The entertainment conglomerate moved to consolidate<\/a> all its marketing departments in January as a cost-saving and efficiency measure. Marketing is now led by Asad Ayaz in a new position of chief marketing and brand officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the Disney brands are expected to be affected, with layoffs stretching across film, television and streaming and including brands like Hulu, FX, ESPN, ABC News and Marvel, according to a knowledgeable individual. It will also include cuts in corporate, finance and technology. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another knowledgeable person characterized the cuts as a move toward greater efficiency rather than merely cutting costs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disney did not respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This marks the first layoffs under new CEO Josh D’Amaro’s watch, who took over from Bob Iger in March. Iger himself oversaw over 8,000 layoffs after he returned as CEO in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\n\t\t\tDisney to Lay Off Around 1,000 Positions Under New CEO Josh D\u2019Amaro<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

In January, Ayaz \u2014 who was named Disney’s first-ever Chief Brand Officer in 2023 \u2014 restructured the company’s marketing under five executives as division heads across consumer products, experiences and entertainment, all of whom report to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those executives include Ron Faris for Disney Consumer Products, Scott Hudgins for Disney Experiences, Martha Morrison for Disney Entertainment Studios, Shannon Ryan for Disney Entertainment Television, Disney+ and Hulu and Tina Thornton for ESPN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe will show up as one unified storytelling brand across our flywheel \u2014 film, television, streaming, parks, experiences, and sports \u2014 aligned to how consumers experience the company today,\u201d Ayaz said at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a March memo to staff<\/a>, D\u2019Amaro said the company would operate as “One Disney,” stressing close collaboration across teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also noted that Disney looked to embrace technology to unlock new possibilities, stating, \u201cInnovation has always been part of Disney\u2019s DNA. Used thoughtfully, it can empower our storytellers, strengthen our capabilities, and help us create more immersive, interactive, and personal ways for people to experience Disney.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

D’Amaro takes over the company as consolidation and the decline of linear impact the entire entertainment industry, and while Disney’s recent earnings have shown strong numbers from the Parks division, Marvel and Pixar suffered a tough 2025 at the box office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking ahead, Disney hopes to have a banner 2026 with the launch of films “The Devil Wears Prada 2” and “The Mandalorian and Grogu” in May, “Toy Story 5” this summer and “Avengers: Doomsday” just in time for Christmas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Searchlight Pictures aims to be in the awards race with Martin McDonagh’s “Wild Horse Nine” and Tony Gilroy’s “Behemoth!” later this year as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of those films will, of course, need robust marketing campaigns.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\n\t\t\tRead Next<\/strong>
\n\t\t\tJosh D'Amaro Says Disney+ Will Be the 'Digital Centerpiece' of the Company, Teases Tech-Supported Growth at Shareholder Meeting<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The reductions are a move toward consolidation under CEO Josh D’Amaro as industry adjust to headwinds <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10066,"featured_media":7984108,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"byline":{"profiles":[{"type":"byline_id","atts":{"term_id":504655,"post_id":7303196}},{"type":"byline_id","atts":{"term_id":504342,"post_id":7302570}}]},"_links_to":"","_links_to_type":0,"nb_breaking_email_type":"b8b5eaae-7af7-4a7d-8ff2-8ed7e2f9029d","nb_breaking_template":"single-story.html","nb_breaking_from_name":"TheWrap","nb_breaking_subject":"","nb_breaking_preview":"","nb_breaking_list":[],"nb_breaking_header_img":7555420,"nb_breaking_should_send":false,"nb_breaking_content":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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Discover why entertainment executives and professionals rely on the WrapPRO platform daily for exclusive coverage, analysis, deeper reporting, and access to VIP events & screenings throughout the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n","nb_newsletter_sent_breaking_post_id":[7998192],"apple_news_api_created_at":"2026-04-10T23:28:31Z","apple_news_api_id":"233870c5-74ff-486f-bd66-8fa71fa29b24","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2026-04-11T00:15:14Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGw==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AIzhwxXT_SG-9Zo-nH6KbJA","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"hide_featured_image":false,"the_wrap_post_enable_full_width_featured_image":false,"the_wrap_post_enable_featured_video":false,"the_wrap_post_featured_video":"","the_wrap_post_disable_read_more":false,"wp_curate_deduplication":false,"wp_curate_unique_pinned_posts":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[279383,514411,12,411758,13950],"tags":[121,483459],"tw_data_partners":[],"columns":[],"byline":[504342,504655],"class_list":["post-7998153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-film-studios","category-movies","category-streaming","category-tv","tag-disney","tag-josh-damaro"],"newsletter_builder_byline":"Adam Chitwood and Sharon Waxman","is_pro_article":false,"apple_news_notices":[],"eyebrow":{"link":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/industry-news\/business\/","text":"Business"},"tw_schema_org_review":{"name":"","type":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7998153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10066"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7998153"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7998153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7998233,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7998153\/revisions\/7998233"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7984108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7998153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7998153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7998153"},{"taxonomy":"tw_data_partners","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tw_data_partners?post=7998153"},{"taxonomy":"tw_column","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/columns?post=7998153"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=7998153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}