{"id":200186,"date":"2025-09-04T18:16:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T18:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/200186\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T18:16:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T18:16:10","slug":"paramounts-david-ellison-tells-employees-to-return-to-the-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/200186\/","title":{"rendered":"Paramount’s David Ellison tells employees to return to the office"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In one of his first company-wide directives, Paramount Chief Executive David Ellison announced that employees must work in the office five days a week, beginning in January.<\/p>\n

In a Thursday email, Ellison outlined the company\u2019s phased-in approach for office attendance \u2014 including offering a severance package to Los Angeles- and New York-based vice presidents and lower-ranking employees if they wish to leave the company rather than return to the office. <\/p>\n

The move sets the stage for what\u2019s expected to be deep staff cuts later this year. Ellison and his RedBird Capital Partners investors have promised Wall Street more than $2 billion in cost savings as they take over the storied media company<\/a>, install their own teams<\/a> and integrate Skydance Media businesses, including video games and animation, into Paramount\u2019s operations. Paramount previously cut several hundred jobs<\/a> this summer.<\/p>\n

Paramount representatives have declined to comment on the pending layoffs beyond saying they hope to achieve the cuts with one large round. <\/p>\n

The Ellison family<\/a> and RedBird finalized their $8-billion takeover of Paramount last month after months of turmoil as federal regulators<\/a> chewed over the deal until Paramount agreed to pay President Trump $16 million to settle his lawsuit<\/a> over \u201c60 Minutes\u201d interview edits. <\/p>\n

Since then, Ellison and his lieutenants have moved quickly to remake Paramount with big bets<\/a>, including agreeing to pay $7.7 billion for media rights to UFC\u2019s mixed martial arts<\/a> events in the U.S. in a seven-year deal with TKO Group Holdings. The company also invested in the construction Texas-based production hub from prolific \u201cYellowstone\u201d creator Taylor Sheridan. It agreed to pay $1.5 billion over five years for streaming rights <\/a>for \u201cSouth Park,\u201d the Comedy Central cartoon.<\/p>\n

Paramount\u2019s new chief also is reportedly in negotiations with journalist Bari Weiss<\/a> to buy her center-right news site, the Free Press, and join CBS News in an undisclosed role. A Paramount spokesperson on Thursday declined to comment on the talks. <\/p>\n

Until now, Paramount staffers were expected to be in the office a couple days a week, but it was not consistently applied, according to people with the matter but not authorized to comment.<\/p>\n

Ellison is attempting to reset Paramount\u2019s culture after years of under-investment, layoffs and management turmoil. In the email, he wrote the return-to-office directive was aimed at \u201cbuilding a stronger, more connected, and agile organization that can deliver on our goals and compete at the highest level.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lot to accomplish and we\u2019re moving fast,\u201d Ellison said. \u201cWe need to all be rowing in the same direction. And especially when you\u2019re dealing with a creative business like ours, that begins with being together in person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Media companies have had varying policies after the initial \u201cwork-from-home\u201d policies imposed at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic nearly five and a half years ago. Sony Pictures Entertainment brought its employees back to the Culver City lot relatively quickly. Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger ordered a return to the office in Jan. 2023, less than two months after he returned to lead the company. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs I said during our town hall, some of the most formative moments of my life happened in rooms where I was a fly on the wall, listening and learning,\u201d Ellison wrote in his email. \u201cI\u2019ve never seen that happen on Zoom. Being together in-person isn\u2019t just about showing up \u2013 it\u2019s about actively engaging with the business, supporting one another and the team\u2019s efforts, and contributing to our shared momentum.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In one of his first company-wide directives, Paramount Chief Executive David Ellison announced that employees must work in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":200187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,638,32129,2385,3853,13941,2961,224,5337,110833,9105,635,1812,110834,15329,110832,60053,2452,1628],"class_list":{"0":"post-200186","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-company","11":"tag-david-ellison","12":"tag-day","13":"tag-deal","14":"tag-employee","15":"tag-la","16":"tag-los-angeles","17":"tag-losangeles","18":"tag-medium-right","19":"tag-month","20":"tag-new","21":"tag-office","22":"tag-own-team","23":"tag-paramount","24":"tag-thursday-email","25":"tag-turmoil","26":"tag-week","27":"tag-year"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115147400068629167","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}