The Warner Bros. Discovery layoffs have hit OWN (the Oprah Winfrey Network).
Several executives, including Jennifer Giddens, the head of marketing; Karen Grant-Selma, the senior vice president of business and legal affairs; and MaryBeth Cunin, head of programming, are exiting. Nicole Nichols has been released from her executive vice president of communications and strategies duties at Warner Bros Discovery, but continues on with HARPO and Oprah Winfrey, The Wrap has learned.
Prior to working at OWN, Grant-Selma worked in business and legal affairs at DreamWorks Animation, helping lead a new focus in development and production of scripted and non-scripted live action series. She previously worked at ITV Studios America, Live Nation Productions, Universal Pictures Kids & Family Productions, Maker Studios, AMC Networks, NBCUniversal and Miracle Entertainment.
Before she came to OWN, Giddens led marketing teams for Netflix, where she was head of creative marketing, kids and family. She also worked for NBC Universal, Turner Entertainment and Scripps Networks.
Nichols, though relinquishing her Warner Bros. Discovery duties, will still be working as lead communications person for Winfrey, and continues with Harpo Studios. Before joining OWN at its launch in 2008, Nichols was senior vice president of entertainment comms for Disney/ABC.
Cunin joined OWN in 2013, landing as VP programming and scheduling, per Variety, which first reported the layoffs news. She previously worked for CMT.
The OWN layoffs are the latest to impact Warner Bros Discovery since the merger of the two media companies. HBO Max laid off about 70 staffers and eliminated four departments earlier this week in the latest restructuring at the company.