EXCLUSIVE: Great American Media, the faith and family-focused company that launched in 2021 under Bill Abbott, is the latest to get hit with layoffs.
Deadline has learned that roughly 13 people were cut from top jobs on Monday, including Loren Schwartz, Chief Marketing Officer; Jamie Kramer, EVP Digital & Strategic Growth; Max Pinigin, Chief Financial Officer; Angela Sullivan, VP Corporate Communications, Brian Pancarik, Exec VP User Experience & Operations; Michael Hough, Head of Financial Planning and Analysis; and Nicole Gardner, Pure Flix Creative Director.
In a statement released to Deadline, the company said, “In 2023, Sony invested in Great American Media and rolled its PureFlix streaming video on demand service into GAM’s business to be run by GAM management for the purpose of maximizing the synergies between the two. On the heels of a highly successful year, we excelled with our Christmas launch and we kicked off 2024 hosting the Rose Parade, announced the network’s first-ever original series, “County Rescue,” and announced the launch of our own mystery franchises. And we will be launching even more programming, content and experiences throughout the year.”
“We are now looking to maximize the synergies of our brands just as NetFlix narrowed its focus this year, we are taking steps to focus on our strengths,” the statement continued. “We are a streaming platform with a linear audience approaching 70 milion viewers in our platforms and our objective is to maximize the synergies between the audiences. Technology is critical to our success, so the decision was made to align the technology intersection with content marketing to enhance the viewer and consumer experience across platforms, meet our viewers where they are with the content they want. With an experienced CTO, we consolidated key marketing functions into our technology team to align our marketing and technology platforms to ensure we maximize synergies between our estimated 70 million linear/cable viewers and our leading faith, family and streaming offering, Great American Pure Flix.”
Before the layoffs, Great American Family has said business has been robust. It says it entered the 2023 Christmas season by posting 12 consecutive months as TV’s fastest growing linear channel.
And in a statement released Monday, Abbott said, “We are continuing to build on the phenomenal growth of our media brand and are excited to now fully capitalize on the synergies now available with Sony and Great American Pure Flix. Our portfolio of content is a trusted source of family friendly and faith-based entertainment, and our 2023 results greatly exceeded our expectations.”
The statement came with the announcement that GAF is getting into the scripted series business by launching County Rescue, an action-adventure medical drama starring Julia Reilly (Stranger Things) as an EMT in training. The five-episode first season will premiere on Great American Pure Flix beginning February 16 and on Great American Family beginning February 17. Great American Pure Flix is the company’s streaming service that was rebranded in September 2023.
GAF is also planning a Q1 launch of mystery franchises — original movies centered on the lighter side of mysteries and whodunnits and starring fan favorites from the network’s family of talent.
In an interview with Deadline in September, Abbott admitted that running a new network in this current environment has been a challenge.
“I would never have thought we’d be at the point where we still were running pretty hard,” he said. “We’re in the middle of an advertising recession, the strike, and cord cutting accelerating. There are a number of overall macro factors that have made the business that much more difficult in 2023 than we anticipated in 2021. And then you add to that the competition and the model being very much in question around how ultimately programmers get paid for creating great content. We know the streaming model needs a lot of work and is underwater in a lot of places. So there are big challenges out there that make it that much tougher.”
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