Sony Pictures, as expected, today told employees that it is cutting about 350 jobs at the company, both through layoffs and leaving open positions unfilled. The cutbacks amount to about 5% of Sony's workforce of 7,000 employees.
Of the 350, layoffs account for 250 and closing open positions comprise the remainder. The layoffs include about 120 people who work at Sony's studio in Culver City and other offices in Los Angeles.
In an e-mail address to employees, Sony Pictures Chairman Michael Lynton and Co-Chairman Amy Pascal said the studio remains profitable, "but over the past five months, the deepening global financial crisis has begun to impact some of our lines of business such as television syndication, DVDs and advertising sales."
Last fall, Lynton and Pascal told the staff that the studio would reduce overtime, travel, entertainment and executive benefits, hoping it would be enough to stave off job cuts. The economic downturn, however, and its effect on consumer spending -- which drives Sony's revenues -- have been much deeper than they expected.
Sony Pictures joins other studios, including Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., Universal Pictures and the Walt Disney Co., which have laid off employees amid the downturn.
--Claudia Eller
A 'Battlestar Galactica' panel discussion at the United Nations
Over the course of its four seasons, "Battlestar Galactica" has been lauded for its nuanced portrayal of war, faith and morality. Since it debuted six years ago, the Sci Fi drama about a rag-tag space fleet has offered challenging fictional depictions of problems afflicting our planet in the here and now.
And now a discussion of how those very issues have been handled on the show will take place at the United Nations.
On March 17, there will be a "Battlestar" retrospective at the U.N. in New York and a panel discussion of how the show examined issues such as "human rights, children and armed conflict, terrorism, human rights and reconciliation and dialogue among civilizations and faith," according to Sci Fi.
The "Battlestar" contingent on the panel will consist of executive producers Ronald D. Moore and David Eick, as well as stars Mary McDonnell (who plays president Laura Roslin on the show) and Edward James Olmos (Admiral William Adama).
UN representatives on the panel are Radhika Coomaraswamy, special representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict; Craig Mokhiber, deputy director of the New York office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights; and Robert Orr, assistant secretary-general for policy planning, executive office of the Secretary-General.
The panel will be moderated by "Battlestar" fan Whoopi Goldberg.
The invitation-only panel will take place at 7 p.m. March 17 in the U.N.'s Economic and Social Council Chamber, three days before the Sci Fi show's series finale.
UPDATE: A Sci Fi representative says that the network willrecord the session and a transcript will be made. "Once the content becomes available, we will let the fans know," the representative said.
For extensive coverage of the final season of "Battlestar Galactica," look here.
Judgment day: Meet our 'American Idol' readers panel
Six die-hard "American Idol" fans are just itchin' to size up the competition on TV's No. 1 show. Watch videos of them, enter our "Idol" contest and view a slide show of the Top 13.
'Time Stands Still': A War Portrait, Unretouched
Donald Margulies' play follows a photojournalist who's nearly been killed covering the conflict in Iraq — and who, even at home in New York, can't escape the photos she took on the battlefield.
EL SALVADOR: Guerrilla Ecotourism
LA MONTAÃ'ONA, El Salvador, Mar 10 (IPS)La Montañona, a forested mountain in northern El Salvador that reaches 1,800 metres above sea level, was a stronghold of the FMLN guerrillas during the country’s armed conflict. Today, its forests and stories of bombings and rebel hideouts have begun to draw ecotourism.
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar