Comcast Cable is laying off or moving up to 300 people in a restructuring of the Eastern division from six regions to four.
According to Beth Bacha, VP, communications, for the Eastern Division, its Philadelphia metro and New Jersey regions are being combined into the new "freedom" region, and the Potomac and Marlyand-Delaware-Richmond regions will become one "Beltway" region. That to 300 positions either "changing or going away," she said, which is about 1.5% of the 20,000 employees in the division.
Bacha said there will be no changes in terms of frontline "customer-facing" folks, with most of the cuts coming at the division and region management level. She said that the company was working hard to try to relocate as many of those folks as possible to other jobs, regions or divisions, and that the move was in the works before the current financial meltdown. "I would not say these are economic moves but how to restructure to get closer to the customer in an increasingly competitive business environment."
Bacha said the move is an extension of the move back in July to reduce the number of divisions companywide from five to four, with the Midwest division going away.
Comcast's ad sales arm, Comcast Spotlight, announced a couple months ago that it would consolidate its DC and Baltimore sales folks in Philadelphia, but it is not clear how many jobs that move has or will eliminate.
