Nate Silver Out at 538, ABC News as Disney Layoff, Hit ABC News – The Hollywood Reporter

Nate Silver

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The second round of Disney layoffs again hit ABC News on Tuesday, with Nate Silver’s data-driven journalistic brand and politics among those affected.

Silver told FiveThirtyEight employees in a message on Slack that he expects to leave Disney when his contract expires, which he added will be “soon.” Hollywood Reporter to learn.

ABC News is expected to keep the FiveThirtyEight brand name, with plans to streamline the site and make it more efficient.

an ABC News spokesperson said in a briefing. “We are grateful for the valuable contributions of the team members who will be leaving the organization and know that they will continue to make an important impact on the future of journalism.”

In his Slack post, Silver writes that “unfortunately, the day has come that we were worried about.”

He added, “We don’t yet know the scope of these layoffs, the exact people affected, or the terms under which they will leave, but it will be a difficult day for all of us.”

Silver founded FiveThirtyEight in 2008, which eventually made it New York times. Silver would go on to sell the site to Disney affiliate ESPN; It was later moved to the ABC News division. His departure will mark the first time Silver has not been on the site since its launch 15 years ago.

Meanwhile, ABC News is once again struggling with layoffs after laying off a slew of top executives last month. The cuts are part of a larger cost-cutting effort at Disney, as the company seeks to cut a total of 7,000 jobs. By the end of this week, the company expects to shed about 4,000 jobs.

After news of Silver’s exit broke, the Twitter critic added of his tenure at ABC News and the layoffs: “I was worried about an outcome like this, and so I had some great initial conversations about opportunities elsewhere. Feel free to contact us. I’m so proud of FiveThirtyEight’s work.” “For the staff. It has never been easy. I am so sorry for the people who have been affected by this.”