NBC News employees are bracing this week as the network news division undergoes a pre-Thanksgiving round of layoffs, part of a corporate-wide restructuring announced last month.
In the first phase of job cuts at the network news division, about 40 employees are expected to be given pink slips by Wednesday.
The newsmagazine “Dateline” — which has one of the largest staffs with more than 150 employees — is slated to field the most cuts, but staffers are also being laid off from morning powerhouse “Today” and, to a lesser extent, the top-ranked “NBC Nightly News.”
“I don’t think it’s about proportionate cuts at each show, but rather what can be cut without damaging the product,” said one network executive who did not want to be named discussing internal matters.
In all, NBC’s 6,000-person news operation — which includes cable channels MSNBC and CNBC, 10 network-owned affiliates and Spanish-language network Telemundo — is expected to shrink by about 400 positions over two years, according to network sources.