Warner Bros. announces restructure, Omnicom acquires IPG

Greetings, comms pros! Let’s take a few news stories from the last week and see what we can learn from them.

1 . Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav explains restructure

On Thursday morning, Warner Bros. Discovery announced restructuring plans that will position it as the parent company of two distinct operating divisions: a global business that runs linear television networks and a streaming/studios business.

Warner Bros. Discovery believes this restructuring will unlock clarity and focus by focusing on distinct operational objectives.

According to the release:

Global Linear Networks will focus on maximizing profitability and free cash flow to continue deleveraging, while Streaming & Studios will focus on driving growth and strong returns on increasing invested capital. The new corporate structure will also increase optionality to pursue further value creation opportunities for both divisions in an evolving media landscape.

“Since the combination that created Warner Bros. Discovery, we have transformed our business and improved our financial position while providing world class entertainment to global audiences,” said Warner Bros. Discovery President and CEO, David Zaslav.

“We continue to prioritize ensuring our Global Linear Networks business is well positioned to continue to drive free cash flow, while our Streaming & Studios business focuses on driving growth by telling the world’s most compelling stories. Our new corporate structure better aligns our organization and enhances our flexibility with potential future strategic opportunities across an evolving media landscape, help us build on our momentum and create opportunities as we evaluate all avenues to deliver significant shareholder value.”

Zaslav’s spiel may read like hollow, meaningless executive jargon at first glance, but look closer.

Aligning corporate structure with organizational structure expresses the goal of ensuring that its operations flow in a strategy that’s consistent with business priorities.

The word “value” also illuminates something of a MacGuffin, or an item of pursuit, for communicators who struggle to understand where their skills fit into the business value chain.

The executive communications team that approved this message likely worked with Zaslav’s team, the board, legal, and a litany of other senior stakeholders to codify this message and ensure it was above board before sending it to the wire service. The chance to align messaging with strategy and strategy with value tethers a narrative that positions communicators as value creators.

Zaslav’s language, and the work that went on behind the scenes to deliver it to our eyes, are an end product of comms being in on the value creation conversation and having a hand in shaping it.

 2. U.S. added 227,000 jobs in November

Fresh numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) show that employers added 227,000 jobs in November, an astounding improvement over the 12,00 jobs added in October that is attributable to a hurricane and labor disputes.

Though that’s more than analysts expected, Barron’s warns that those looking to higher take a closer look:

But under the hood, weaker signals persist. ADP’s private payroll growth for October was revised lower to 184,000 from 233,000 previously. ADP also reported that most of the job growth was concentrated among larger businesses, indicating that smaller businesses might not have as much appetite or bandwidth to hire.

The latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey released Tuesday was also mixed, as the number of workers quitting their jobs accelerated slightly. That could indicate workers have more confidence about their ability to change jobs, and is supported, to some extent, by the fact that layoffs trended down as well. Job openings ticked up slightly from September to October, but are down 941,000 compared to a year ago—indicating a labor market that is steadily normalizing from the overheated pandemic recovery period. Hiring remained stable month to month but was also down notably from a year ago.

Forbes also notes that the report included 28,000 retail jobs lost last year, but cautions against drawing too many alarming conclusions from the number as it only means that retail employment numbers underperformed BLS expectations.

“You’ve got to read the fine print in the report and do your own calculations to get the real picture,” Forbes rights. “The November retail jobs report needs context.”

It’s a good reminder that these aggregate numbers seldom tell a whole story. The specific segments worth pulling out—about company size and industry—will provide valuable context that you and those making hiring decisions can use to assess how your organization’s needs fit into the context of larger market trends.

 3. What the Omnicom and Interpublic Group Merger says about AI and exec comms

On Monday, advertising holding companies Omnicom and Interpublic Group (IPG) announced that Omnicom would acquire IPG in a stock-for-stock transaction. The transaction is expected to be finalized in the second half of 2025, and companies will operate independently until then.

Speaking to Little Black Book, an IPG spokesperson cited a shared “foundational belief in the power of ideas, enabled by technology and data” and explained that “the future belongs to those who embrace transformation.”

Of course, we’re talking about AI. And in an op-ed crying “Farewell, Don Draper”, The Economist warns that the move “signals an agency in trouble”.

AdWeek reported Publicis CEO Arthur Sadoun warned his 107,000-plus employees that the holding company would no longer be the “top dog” based on revenue, highlighting their acquisition as an opportunity for Publicis to move faster from its post-transformation place to serve clients with fully-integrated capabilities.

Sadoun’s video message doubles as a great example of exec comms that demonstrates an awareness of the market, anticipates internal unease, and gets out in front of it. This transparency instills confidence that leadership is taking every engaged employee along for the ride and considering their fluency in the market.

But it also highlights a larger trend we’re seeing from dedicated communications agencies, too.

In the two years since generative AI tool ChatGPT became commercially available, we’ve heard similar a beat about how the tech would transform our industry from most thought leaders: “AI won’t replace your jobs, but someone using AI will.”

Who are they? Our research shows that most internal communicators are moving slower down the adoption curve than many early adopters care to admit because of a gap between AI priorities and usage. This is underscored by dissatisfaction in training—just under a quarter (24%) of C-suiters said they were satisfied with their organization’s training, while the number of satisfied senior and mid-level comms pros was just 8%.

Communications agencies, undergoing their reckoning as AI startups already promise to transform RFPs and augment billable hours, have a clear opportunity to help clients fill this gap.

That puts those of you seeking their services in a position to learn alongside the agencies, train alongside the trainers, and expect more of the time they allocate to working with you to be spent on conversations, brainstorming, and creative collaboration.

Have a great weekend comms all-stars!