Corus Entertainment is laying off 300 employees—after having already cut 500 positions earlier this year. 

This new round of layoffs is expected to be completed by the end of August. When combined with the jobs that have already been eliminated, Corus will have reduced its total headcount by 25%.

The Canadian mediaco made the announcement during a conference call to discuss its latest quarterly results. In Q3, Corus earned US$242.4 million in revenue, which is 16% lower than the same quarter last year.   

This decline is being driven by lingering effects of the US writers and actors strikes and macroeconomic uncertainty, which together are lowering advertising demand for traditional TV, said co-CEO Troy Reeb during the call. 

According to co-CEO John Gossling, “Our board of directors has given us a clear mandate to decisively right-size the business and create a more sustainable future.” He explained that, “This means our priorities are to aggressively cut costs and manage our liabilities.” 

After the layoffs, the company will take several additional steps to reduce overhead. It’s planning to stop operating two legacy AM radio stations in Vancouver and Edmonton, shut down the Oprah Winfrey Network (on September 1), and not renew the long-running Global TV series Big Brother Canada after 12 seasons. 

One challenge facing Corus is that it’s walking away from an output deal with Warner Bros. Discovery that expires on December 31, 2024, and this will affect networks such as HGTV, Food Network and the Cooking Channel. Reeb and Gossling reassured stakeholders that the company has plenty of its own content to rebrand and stock channels with. Corus is also working on securing new programming, and will announce expanded partnerships with two existing content suppliers in the coming weeks. 

“Corus needs to be more agile than ever in our pursuit of growth opportunities in connected TV and premium digital video,” said Reeb. “While linear TV is no doubt in decline, it remains a crucial part of the advertising mix. Meantime, Corus is successfully supplementing linear audiences with massive volumes of premium digital video.”