Layoffs hit Al Gore's Current Media
Producer/Editor Shaun Cvar and about a dozen other laid off CurrentTV employees gathered at a watering hole next door to Current's offices for drinks after being laid off.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET Networks)There have been layoffs at Current Media, the cable network co-founded by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore.
A statement from Current put the number of layoffs at about 60 positions, with 30 more to be refilled, the company said in a statement. That's less of a hard hit than the 20 percent cuts that a source close to Current hinted to CNET News on Tuesday. The statement read: "Approximately 60 positions have been eliminated in the company's three U.S. offices, and approximately 30 new positions created," the statement read. "Many of those whose positions were eliminated have been placed in the new positions. Current will have approximately 410 employees (after these staffing adjustments)."
The source also said additional layoffs would be coming in January, which a Current representative denied.
Current had announced less than a day ago that it had partnered with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. to bring its network to Canada. Current's plans for an initial public offering are on hold, employees have told CNET News. The company filed for an IPO in January.
Approached outside the company's San Francisco headquarters, one laid-off Current employee said that she hadn't seen it coming.
"Not only was this uncalled for, but there was continuous deliberation during the last two or three months," the former employee said. "Every meeting we've had with the VP of our department has been a lot of 'Don't worry, your positions are secure.' And that has been repeated for the last two to three months."
Changes in programming format are on the way too. Current's focus on indie and amateur producers was a bold experiment, one that left some critics scratching their heads when the channel debuted in 2005.
VC^2 production assistant Parisa Vahdatinia, her layoff packet labeled "Top Secret," and her (former) office plant were at the nearest bars, Pete's Tavern, just hours after being laid off by media company CurrentTV.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET Networks)"As part of the impending transition at Current TV, one source says the company is going to drop its shorter (user-generated content) videos in favor of the more traditional 30-minute programs that have long dominated television programming across all channels," David Weir, an analyst at CNET News sister site BNET, reported on Monday night.
The statement from Current hinted at this change as well. "These changes result from the development of a new, innovative programming strategy built around eight cross-platform channels, including news, comedy, music, and technology, slated to premiere in the first quarter of 2009," the statement detailed. "Current's new programming strategy expands upon its pioneering use of viewer-created content to include additional opportunities for participation, creating a far more viewer-influenced network, and further unifies the company's online and TV platforms by having each Web channel paired with a companion TV show."
Current, which consists of the Current TV network and Current.com, had just gone through a high-profile marketing effort in conjunction with the 2008 presidential election, for which it partnered with trendy social-media brands Digg and Twitter.
Company representatives told CNET News last week that it had been a big success, and Gore himself later gave a speech at the Web 2.0 Summit in which he touched upon how he hopes Current will solve some of the problems plaguing the television news industry.
At least one Current employee, associate producer Andrew Schneider, has Twittered his departure. The company "just laid me off with a ton of my colleagues," Schneider wrote.
Schneider's LinekdIn profile says that he worked in VC2, the "Viewer Created" or user-generated content division of Current. A source told CNET News that the VC2 division was hit particularly hard by the layoffs.
The company statement said the layoffs were a preventative measure: "These changes enable Current Media to reduce its cost structure, thereby assuring that it will be comfortably profitable in 2009, regardless (of) the depth and length of the recession."
Laid off producer/editor Holly Gibson, in pink, talks with co-workers outside their offices after the San Francisco media company laid off 60 people Tuesday.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET Networks)Last update at 8:02 p.m. PT. CNET News' James Martin contributed to this article.
Caroline McCarthy, a CNET News staff writer, is a downtown Manhattanite happily addicted to social-media tools and restaurant blogs. Her pre-CNET resume includes interning at an IT security firm and brewing cappuccinos. E-mail Caroline. 
"There have been layoffs at Current Media, the cable network co-founded by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore. CNET News sister site BNET reported the rumor on Monday night."
LOL Nice "journalism".
Oh my. I would imagine that Global Warming, lack of a super-national-grid, Carl Rove machinationsare to blame.
If a company made false claims about a product they developed, their actual goals and earnings statements, someone (should) go (es) to jail.
If you invest your potential income with a guy who claims to have invented the internet, thinks that "Love Story" was written about him and his wife when the writer NEVER met them and has had his pack of lies exposed re the inconvenient truth;. You are a stupid investor. So Duh,
You do not deserve a bailout, or anything. Learn your lesson and move on (not org).
1) "guy who claims to have invented the internet"
Gore didn't claim this. he correctly stated that, as a legislator, pushed to widen access to the internet. Before 1995, you had to be in the military, government, at a university, or the owner of a BBS willing to set up an internet node that served your members internet access to gain access to the 'net. Gore in the 1980s wrote and encouraged legislation that brought about the opening of the internet to commercial access.
2) " thinks that "Love Story" was written about him and his wife when the writer NEVER met them"
The writer, Erich Segal, was a visiting professor at Harvard who knew Al Gore and his college roommate, Tommy Lee Jones(who co-starred in the movie). An article years before quoted Erich Segal as claiming that Al & Tipper were the models for the character. Gore referred to that quote from having read and cited this article. Segal said that the reporter asked 'is there a little bit of Al Gore in the Oliver character?" Segal responded "Yeah.. a little." Segal said that the reporter then exaggerated this response into a claim that the characters were based specifically on the Gores.
3) "has had his pack of lies exposed re the inconvenient truth"
In his decision.. the British judge first stated that "Thursday October 11 2007
Al Gore's Oscar-winning documentary on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth, was yesterday criticised by a high court judge who highlighted what he said were "nine scientific errors" in the film.
Mr Justice Barton yesterday said that while the film was "broadly accurate" in its presentation of climate change, he identified nine significant errors in the film, some of which, he said, had arisen in "the context of alarmism and exaggeration" to support the former US vice-president's views on climate change."
... packs of lies are not described as 'BROADLY ACCURATE with errors'.
Crack an actual BOOK once in awhile and you'll find that life will be much easier in the Post Reagan-Bush Faith Based LYING era.
The company statement said the layoffs were a preventative measure: "These changes enable Current Media to reduce its cost structure, thereby assuring that it will be comfortably profitable in 2009, regardless (of) the depth and length of the recession."
WOW ... imagine that ! ! !
Al Gore is a big bad capitalistic shill. I thought he planned to earn all his money selling carbon credits. I guess his carbon credit income and his Nobel prize money just aren't sufficient to finance the lifestyle of the Gore household. But at least he and his family will be comfortable "in 2009, regardless (of) the depth and length of the recession."
Atta' boy, Al. Let the rest of us, and your laid-off employees, twist in the wind of the debacle you, Clinton, Dodd and Frank set in motion.
Instead of forcing your views on the nation, find out what people want to be entertained and informed by. Do you know why the liberals are talking about bringing back the Fairness Doctrine? This is a perfect example. Very few want to watch or listen to your programming. No ad sales, no revenue, no jobs, no network. It's not about fairness, it's about personal choice and doing it better than the competition. Quit whining and play to win, like the rest of the world.
MSNBC's top rated program at the time of the run-up to this BS Republican war on Iraq was Phil Donahue's program. MSNBC dropped it, maybe because they were trying to woo FOX viewers, maybe because they mistakenly thought it was more patriotic to push the Republican lies without balancing it with anything true. Whatever the case, IT isn't about doing something "better" or more honestly, it's about delivering "power" to those who are paying for it. FOX used to excel at this. Thank God people weren't buying the BS this election. The tragedy is in how bad things had to get before enough people woke up. The Fairness Doctrine would ensure that people are exposed to both sides of a debate, and that neither gets a large, captive audience that can be spoon fed a steady diet of BS.
The biggest problem AirAmerica Radio has, IMO, is that open minds don't really need, or want, to be spoon fed a single viewpoint.
- by November 11, 2008 9:38 PM PST
- Al Gore distanced himself from the Global Warming issue as a 2000 Presidential candidate and then reclaimed it to win a Nobel Prize. This guy has less class than his father who was a Southern politician who stood up for civil rights. This person can't be trusted.
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- by EscapeFromFaithBase November 12, 2008 12:50 PM PST
- Al Gore, Sr. stood against the Vietnam War not civil rights. By that standard.. NO ONE can be trusted except for Jimmy Carter.. the only major southern politician of the era who actively supported civil rights, but who otherwise might be considered a fairly conservative democrat and the first national elected figure claiming to be a born again Christian.. upon which he based the social justice and human rights emphasis of his administration. But since supporting equal citizenship for blacks is now more than ever considered a "liberal issue".. then I guess liberals can't be trusted to maintain a non-liberal stance on it.
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- by wowzers23 November 12, 2008 1:58 PM PST
- I never comment in this kind of forum, but the ignorance here is stunning.Those that think layoffs are a result of a democratic congress - if you know about economic cycles and trends you would know how ridiculous this thought is! Aside from the fact that the collapses on wall street is a DIRECT result of deregulation (read: GOP policies) and opening up markets that should have never been traded on, but I digress.
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- by FemaleOpinon November 17, 2008 2:43 PM PST
- Many of us had heard, for years, that global warming was not happening... when Gore started presenting findings, like how the icecaps have changed in size and the temperature of the water has changed, people pretty much started seeing this as reality. People listened AND he was willing to speak up on what was considered a controversial subject at the time. I'm amazed at the above comment and rarely reply to blogs... but I just wanted to say that it's interesting that you acknowledge he did something to get a Nobel prize and he can't be trusted.. because we all know that the Nobel Prize committee fails to do their homework and they just award Nobel prizes to people who claim to do work, so frequently. I agree that the prize was given to a whole panel of people and Gore was one of those people. I also agree that somehow... however that was... he has raised an awareness that people for years was not able to raise. Hollywood, politicians scientists and others are willing and able to speak freely about the truth in global warning and our part as human beings in creating a global disaster in wait. Who do you trust... I have found it is better to trust in error of the side that is doing something to change our world for the better, than trusting those that don't. Just a thought... maybe we ought to trust people more... at least ones who are wanting to change our world for the better.
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Showing 1 of 4 pages (94 Comments)I'm not and never will be a huge Al Bore fan, but you are completely misinformed on his Nobel prize - he ALONG WITH the UN's IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) received the award. There are literally HUNDREDS of people in the IPCC (Look into it. http://www.ipcc.ch/about/index.htm)