ABC News has granted a veteran a massive promotion that has left staffers fuming after recent layoffs ‘gutted’ their newsrooms.
The network named Audrey Taylor to vice president of talent strategy and development on Monday.
Taylor, who has been with the company for 35 years, previously served as director of bureau planning and strategy in Washington, DC.
She will relocate to the network’s New York City office, where hundreds of staffers were laid off last week.
ABC News boss Almin Karamehmedovic commended Taylor’s lengthy career with the network, but outraged staffers told Page Six her promotion has left them reeling.
‘No one knows who she is! She doesn’t know the talent. The hire was shocking to everyone,’ one worker told the outlet.
Critics say Taylor will have a difficult learning curve moving to the Big Apple offices, where staffers are recovering from another painful round of layoffs.
‘She doesn’t know the talent and she’s running talent?’ one ABC News insider said, pointing out, ‘their agents don’t know her either!’
ABC News veteran Audrey Taylor (pictured) was promoted to vice president of talent strategy and development on Monday
Critics say Taylor will have a difficult learning curve moving to the Big Apple offices (pictured), where staffers are recovering from another painful round of layoffs
Karamehmedovic praised Taylor for her ‘extensive history working closely with and nurturing talent in our Washington, DC, bureau,’ when he announced her promotion.
‘She has long demonstrated the highest level of dedication and commitment to ABC News’ journalistic integrity. That winning combination, along with her keen intuition for spotting and developing the best new talent, makes her the perfect person to fulfill this role,’ he said.
Taylor’s new position has been vacant since 2023 when the network laid off several executives.
‘It’s crazy it took them two years and this is the only person they could find,’ the insider said. ‘All they do is twiddle their thumbs.’
At least 200 staffers across ABC News and other Disney-owned divisions received pink slips on March 5, with GMA3 said to be ‘entirely gutted’ by the consolidation of the Good Morning America teams.
Tears flowed though ABC’s Manhattan offices as panicked staffers made frantic phone calls figuring out who was next on the chopping block, according to Status’s Oliver Darcy.
Karamehmedovic conceded it will ‘undoubtedly be difficult for our organization’ as he delivered the news.
The show has been subject to a series of name changes, formats, hosts and a major scandal – one that saw co-anchors Robach and Holmes benched and then ousted, after DailyMail.com exposed their affair with photographs in late 2022.
ABC News boss Almin Karamehmedovic (pictured) commended Taylor’s lengthy career with the network
About 200 staffers across ABC News and other Disney-owned divisions received pink slips on March 5
At the time, Robach was married to actor Andrew Shue, while Holmes was married to attorney Marilee Fiebig.
Today, the show is hosted by Eva Pilgrim and DeMarco Morgan – two of the three stars installed to replace Robach and Holmes.
Neither Pilgrim nor Morgan were affected by the cuts announced Wednesday, the majority which will go into effect on May 10.
New York-based employees – who recently relocated from ABC’s longtime studio on the Upper West Side to Disney’s new digs downtown – represented the ‘vast majority’ of staffers affected, people familiar with the matter further told Darcy.
Staffers will be provided a severance package that includes normal pay for 60 days as well as an additional week per year served.
Sources told Darcy how there’s been ‘some frustration’ with those packages, due to staffers being given ‘two weeks per year served’ in previous firings.
