The cuts at the newly formed Warner Bros. Discovery keep coming.
Tom Ascheim, the former president of Freeform who joined WarnerMedia in April 2020, is out of the newly merged company. The executive’s role as president of Global Kids, Young Adults and Classics at WarnerMedia has been eliminated. Ascheim previously oversaw Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Adult Swim and Warner Bros. Animation. The executive, who also added oversight of Warner Harry Potter JK Rowling’s Wizarding World franchise and properties will not be superseded.
With Discovery’s Kathleen Finch overseeing WarnerMedia’s linear networks, Ascheim’s role was dropped. Ascheim is the second WarnerMedia executive to be shown the door after Warner Bros. Discovery’s shakeup, with TNT, TBS and TruTV GM Brett Weitz also leaving the company. Both will remain for a short transition period.
Ascheim was handpicked by Warner Bros. CEO Ann Sarnoff, with whom he previously worked at Nickelodeon, where he was part of the team that created Noggin. Ascheim was Noggin’s first employee and general manager. Sources say the duo have remained friendly ever since.
“I was fortunate to have had an incredibly exciting two years rejuvenating some of the world’s most iconic franchises and IPs, and helping to create a vision for kids, young adults and classics within Warner Bros. While now is the time to move on, I look forward to the new Warner Bros. Discovery leadership team continuing to nurture future generations of fans and the incredible teams that are so committed to these brands,” Ascheim said in a statement Wednesday.
In related news, Warner Bros. worldwide executive vice president of corporate communications and public affairs, Johanna Fuentes, was also fired. She had reported to former Warner Bros. CEO Ann Sarnoff. Her role will not be replaced amid a larger public relations shakeup at Warner Bros. Discovery.
Fuentes joined Warners in April 2020, replacing Dee Dee Myers in the role. Fuentes came to Warners to oversee all of the company’s worldwide communications after spending a decade at the top of Showtime’s public relations ranks. Before joining the premium cable network in 2010, Fuentes had features on Bravo and the Smithsonian Channel. Fuentes was among those Justice League actor Ray Fisher indicated after claiming that Warner’s public relations team “couldn’t bury him” during the investigation of his allegations against Joss Whedon.