Barstool Business News Minute: Univision Starts Buying Out And Laying Off Deadspin Staff...Updates To Come

BLOOMBERG – Univision Holdings Inc. has been offering buyouts to employees at Gizmodo Media Group, according to a person familiar with the matter, marking the latest case of a digital-media upstart tightening its belt.

The former Gawker Media websites, which include the sports outlet Deadspin and the woman-focused site Jezebel, began offering employees buyout packages last week, according to the person, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are private. The idea is to reduce Gizmodo’s budget for editorial employees by 15 percent, the person said.

The New York-based company hasn’t determined how many employees need to accept buyout offers before it resorts to layoffs, the person said. The cuts don’t affect other Univision-owned properties, such as the Onion and sister website Clickhole.

Univision, the largest Spanish-language broadcaster in the U.S., faces other challenges. It’s been slimming its operations amid tougher competition from Comcast Corp.’s Telemundo and pays higher fees to Mexican broadcaster Grupo Televisa SAB for programming. Univision plans to cut more than $100 million in expenses this year, Bloomberg reported in March.

God you hate to see that.  More to come as this story develops.

This has been the Barstool Business News Minute.