Is Al Gore's TV Network Ransacking the Online Division?
We're told staffers at Current TV are at this very moment in meetings about a coming round of layoffs at Al Gore's unconventional cable network. Current's Web workers are expected to take the brunt of the cuts, including one microcelebrity.
Sarah Lane, the tech-video host who Silicon Valley gossips remember for breaking the heart as the love of Digg founder Kevin Rose's life before a breakup, is said to be a victim of the purge, along with Leah Lamb, who produced the website's "green" coverage. Current is also cutting the online producer of its Rotten Tomatoes show and repurposing most other online staffers. That hints that Current's LA office, hit hard in the layoff of 80 Current staff in November, is getting the brunt of this round too. We've tried to reach Lane and Current's COO but have yet to hear back; we'll update this post when we do. In the meantime, if you have any information on why Al Gore is letting his henchmen take resources from the internet he did so much to create advance, we'd love to hear from you.
Update: <Lane declined to comment, but did tweet of her relationship with Kevin Rose, "Hey guess what, you idiots at @gawker. HE BROKE UP WITH ME. Happy now?" Fair enough. Lane's day sounds a lot worse than ours.
Upate: A Current staffer said the site laid off the online producer for the Rotten Tomatoes show but will continue to post the show online. We'd previously passed along gossip that the Web edition of the show was ending.
(Pic: Gore at a Current meeting in 2008, by Simone Brunozzi.)