Why you can trust our reporting
Byron Allen is known to open his checkbook in exchange for favorable press coverage of himself: Over the past decade, he has purchased sponsored content opportunities in trade publications like Variety, TVNewsCheck, AdAge and Broadcasting & Cable. The Desk has never accepted sponsored content opportunities from Allen Media Group; instead, we cover his companies through an objective lens, reporting on his lawsuits against cable TV companies and prospective advertisers, raising questions about his ability to fund offers for broadcasters like TEGNA and BET Media, and revealing the motivations behind the acquisition and disposition of local TV stations. Last year, when we broke the story of Allen selling some TV stations to Gray Media, his communications director stopped sending us press releases — yet we continue to report on his companies with fairness, accuracy and integrity.
New BuzzFeed owner Byron Allen justified prior layoffs in his linear television business several years ago by saying improvements in the overall economy meant there were more positions for people who lost their jobs at his company.
In a wide-ranging interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Allen said he should get credit for hiring people during growth phases of his business while maintaining jobs during the two-year coronavirus health pandemic, though he acknowledge the layoffs that came after the pandemic were the byproduct of shifts in the overall media business.
“That’s just rightsizing, I’m no different than any media company that’s going through a transition,” Allen said. “If we have declines in linear spending, then we rightsize it.”
It wasn’t always like this: Allen was happy to point out where his wins in the business separated himself from the pack — by his own admission, he spent $1 billion acquiring local TV stations, which generated $100 million in political advertising during the last election cycle. Where things go wrong, it’s not related to his business decisions — it’s a symptom of broader media trends that are affecting everyone in the space.
The most-visible move in that direction came last year when Allen decided his news-producing TV stations no longer needed local meteorologists. Instead, Allen decided local weather forecasts would be distributed and produced in Atlanta by The Weather Channel, which shares common ownership with Allen Media Group. The decision was reversed on a temporary basis after local TV advertisers criticized the plan, though some local TV forecasters were quietly laid off a few months later.
Allen has also expressed a willingness to part with his local TV stations when he feels it is financially prudent: Last year, he entered into an agreement with Gray Media to sell nearly a dozen local TV outlets for $171 million. The deal was approved by the FCC in March and closed earlier this month.
Allen’s media company is not the only one to lay off workers over the past few years: Larger companies like Fox, the Walt Disney Company and Paramount have made similar moves in order to address different consumer and advertiser trends, including shifts from traditional TV networks to streaming platforms.
Allen said he wasn’t overly concerned about the job losses, saying the economy had improved to the point that there were “plenty of jobs out there” for the people who were let go from his company.
“I knew if we lay people off there was a safety net, and that people would be okay,” Allen said. “We did it in a very thoughtful, humane way.”
