Fox confirms the end of Fox Atomic as stand-alone label

Approximately six Atomic production staff will be laid off while Atomic’s production chief Debbie Liebling will return to Twentieth Century Fox as executive vice president of production, where she will report to co-presidents of production Emma Watts and Alex Young.

Liebling will continue to oversee post-production on Atomic’s upcoming releases I Love You Beth Cooper and Jennifer’s Body, both of which will be released by Twentieth Century Fox, and Post Grad, which Fox Searchlight will handle.

Fox Atomic Digital comprising six people will move under Fox Filmed Entertainment’s digital purview and report to president of new media and distribution Peter Levinsohn. The team will work closely on some marketing projects with Jeffrey Godsick, Twentieth Century Fox’ executive vice president of marketing and digital content.

Fox Atomic Digital’s activities include creating original series for digital distribution based on original material or adapted from features. The group also produces digital content for viral marketing campaigns and has worked on campaigns for such films as Juno, Little Miss Sunshine and 12 Rounds.

Despite being established as recently as 2007, alarm bells at Atomic were already ringing last year when the marketing operation was folded into Twentieth Century Fox and Fox Searchlight.

Things took a turn for the worse earlier this year when Peter Rice, the Searchlight chief who had championed Atomic, was appointed head of Fox Broadcasting under Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp shuffle.