538’s Nate Silver is out on ABC News as Disney makes a second wave of planned 7,000-person workforce cuts.
In The Hollywood Reporter:
The second round of Disney layoffs was seen again Tuesday on ABC News, with Nate Silver’s data-driven politics and journalism brand FiveThirtyEight among those affected.
Silver told FiveThirtyEight employees in a Slack message that he expects to leave Disney when his contract expires, which will be “soon,” The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
Nate Silver later confirmed the report:
I was worried about such a result and therefore had some good initial discussions about other possibilities. Don’t hesitate to get in touch. I am very proud of the work of the FiveThirtyEight staff. It has never been easy. I feel so sorry for the people affected by this.
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) April 25, 2023
ABC is protecting the 538 brand, but letting Silver walk.
Nate Silver’s brand of data-based political analysis scores highly because public opinion has to deal with a wide range of issues. There are many reasons for voting struggles, including covid, respondents not being honest with voters, the difficulty of monitoring and recording alternate voters, and other shifts and changes investigators are trying to track.
A model is only as good as the data. As with other types of corporate media, Silver may head to Substack or another venture of its own. The fallout from the pandemic and the changing habits of media consumers is still taking its toll on the industry, but it would be strange to see 538 without Nate Silver.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a member of the White House Press Pool and Congressional Correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a bachelor’s degree in political science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform activities.
Awards and professional memberships
Member of the Association of Professional Journalists and the American Political Science Association
