<![CDATA[Gawker: layoffs]]> http://tags.gawker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/gawker.com.png <![CDATA[Gawker: layoffs]]> http://gawker.com/tag/layoffs http://gawker.com/tag/layoffs <![CDATA[DailyCandy Sours on Most of Its Cities]]> DailyCandy is eliminating the special editions for seven of its twelve cities, according to an internal memo we've obtained, resulting in almost as many layoffs. NBC Universal, take heed: Even inside Comcast's profitable umbrella, no one is safe from cutbacks.

Comcast paid an un-fucking-believable $125 million for DailyCandy — just a simple shopping e-newsletter, if you're not familiar with it — just over a year ago, greatly enriching former AOL exec Bob Pittman, who had previously acquired it for $3 million. Amid all the investment, DailyCandy expanded from New York to London, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Miami, Dallas, DC, Boston, Atlanta, Seattle and Philly.

DailyCandy will now stop publishing city-specific editions in all but five of those 12 cities: New York, London, LA, Chicago and San Francisco. Subscribers in the other cities will now receive an "Everywhere" edition, supplemented with local news and events twice a week.

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<![CDATA[National Geographic Adventure Folds]]> In your terrible Thursday media column: Another print magazine dies, rumors of layoffs at ALM, the Dallas Morning News goes straight to journalism hell, and Town & Country is now officially sexy.

Great Magazine Die-Off marches on: National Geographic Adventure is folding. NatGeo tried to sell the mag, but apparently didn't get any good offers. The spinoff lasted ten years in print, and it'll continue on the web. The closure comes with 17 layoffs.


A tipster tells us that there were more layoffs at ALM yesterday—"one third to one quarter" of the staff in the real estate group was canned, our tipster says, taking the division down to around 20 people total. If you know more, email us.


Slight change at the Dallas Morning News: The editors of the sports, entertainment, real estate, automotive, travel, and other sections will now directly report to sales managers! Well. So much for that paper.


Attention ladies and fellas: Town & Country is getting "sexier." Not only is there a lady showing off her legs on the new cover, but WWD reports that the editor "plans on running more provocative travel pieces (the January issue has a story on Marrakech)," where there are lots and lots of prostitutes.

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<![CDATA[The Year End Party Is Over for Yahoo, We're Told]]> We hear Yahoo is canceling its annual "Year End Party" for 2009. That's quite a change for a company that last year held three company parties and additional bashes at the departmental level, amid layoffs.

The big bashes are off this year, a tipster tells us. Which is just as well: Last year, there were YEPs in New York, Los Angeles and the San Mateo headquarters; these plus the departmental parties meant that many Yahoos easily got to four parties a year, a tipster told us at the time. All the festivities came despite a wave of layoffs, which left Yahoo in the awkward position of having to set up metal detectors at its LA party, and of featuring Vegas-style showgirls in dollar-bill getups at the main headquarters party (see pic above) in the face of all Yahoo's bloodletting.

The 2007 party featured a Neil Diamond tribute band, so at least Yahoos apparently won't have to worry about any such torture this year. Ironically, though, 2009 has been a much better year for layoffs at Yahoo than 2008 was.

Know what any other tech companies are doing (or not doing) to celebrate the holidays this year? We're dying to hear about any conmpany parties: drop a line toryan@valleywag.com.

(Pic by Phil Hollenback)

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<![CDATA[Washington Times to 'Become a 21st Century Multimedia Company,' Fire Almost Half Its Staff]]> The Moonie-owned Washington Times today issued all 370 employees a WARN Act notice, which is required 60 days in advance of layoffs that involve 100 or more people. Michael Calderone reports that the paper will be shedding around 40% of its staff. In the press release, though, this devastating cut is just a part of a bold "transformation into a 21st century media company." In that the future of media in the 21st century does not involve drawing a paycheck, yes, this is accurate. In every other way, the release is a lie.

Washington Times Announces Additional Changes to Become a 21st Century Multimedia Company

Changes include improved on-line presence, focused print edition and more exclusive news and commentary

WASHINGTON, DC - The Washington Times LLC today announced changes to refocus its position as a provider of vital information and insight to readers in the nation's capital, across the country and around the world. As with other news organizations in the United States, the company continues to reshape operations to keep pace with the dynamically changing economics of the news business.

"These changes will continue The Washington Times' transformation into a 21st century media company and reinforces its mission to provide an independent, alternative voice in the nation's capital," said President and Publisher Jonathan Slevin. "We have developed plans to secure our position and advance our vital role in an evolving media marketplace and through challenging economic times. A new Washington Times will continue to reach readers and more effectively earn new audiences via digital, broadcast, print and wireless media, well into the future.

"Changes at the Times are rooted in a rigorous business analysis applying sound and tested financial principles, and shaping plans informed by current marketplace realities," continued Slevin. "In this regard, the company is aggressively working to achieve efficiencies of scale that must include significant staff reduction of its 370 personnel."

Scheduled for incremental implementation between now and the first half of 2010, the changes announced include:

• News focused on strengths. The Washington Times news operation will operate in a highly focused manner, investing in Washington Times' well-established core strengths that include exclusive reporting and in-depth-news national political coverage, enterprise and investigative reporting, geo-strategic and national security news, and cultural coverage based on traditional values.

• Controlled-market local circulation. In the first quarter of 2010, the local print edition will be distributed at no cost in select areas, and home/office delivery will be offered at a premium price. No-cost distribution will focus on targeted audiences at influential branches of the federal government as well as at other key institutions. Single copy sales will continue through newspaper boxes and retailers at select locations. Current subscribers will also be offered their choice of subscriptions to Washington Times' digital editions and The Washington Times National Weekly.

• Digital news resources: The Company will expand the recently launched theconservatives.com, subscription-based e-briefings and other new digital information resources as part of its online strategy.

• Radio programming. The newspaper's 3-hour-a-day morning radio program, "America's Morning News," will continue to grow through its syndicated by Talk Radio Network. It currently airs in more than 70 markets nationwide.

• Partnerships. The Washington Times will work closely with its affiliate company, United Press International (UPI), to mutually benefit both organizations through collaboration in areas such as photography and online sales, as well as leveraging UPI's multi-lingual and international presence.

"The new Washington Times will continue to report Washington-focused news that other journalistic enterprises often overlook," said Slevin. "Fearless reporting, respect for American values, and crisply written editorials and columns will remain the centerpieces of our new strategy, and our content will continue to engage readers and viewers through a wide range of 21st century media."

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<![CDATA[Justin Timberlake Loves Diane Rehm, OMG]]> In your well-balanced Wednesday media column: NPR totally has Justinmania, Rob Shuter gets a new job, predictable Newseum layoffs, and Rupert Murdoch would like to teach the Arabs a thing or two.

We were alerted to this item by NPR's public relations department, and we relay it to you with all deliberate speed: Justin Timberlake was photographed wearing an NPR t-shirt. Carl Kasell was then photographed wearing an 'N Sync t-shirt.


Keith Kelly has news about our favorite unnerving British ex-flack/ ex-celeb mag editor, Rob Shuter, former executive editor of OK!, is hooking up with the AOL pop culture site Popeater as a new Hollywood columnist. His column, Naughty and Nice, is slated to appear Tuesday through Friday." Rob Shuter has the evolutionary persistence of the cockroach!


News-and-museum combo The Newseum is laying off 13% of its staff, the second round of job cuts since the place opened just in time for the total collapse of the newspaper industry. These are the most predictable museum layoffs since...whatever is the auto industry museum. They probably had layoffs recently, too. [Related: the Miami Herald is down to a church bulletin.]


Rupert Murdoch is keeping busy: News Corp just finalized a deal to buy a 10% stake in Rotana, a Middle Eastern media conglomerate owned by Saudi Prince Waleed. Pay no attention the Australian behind the curtain, Middle Easterners! I guess this makes MSNBC and Al-Jazeera spiritual cousins.

And today in Mediabistro news:

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<![CDATA[Print Refugees Laid Off by Web Site That Was Supposed to Save Them]]> Oyster.com, a hotel-rating site that launched just five months ago with the aim of hiring real journalists—ones who got laid off from all the real journalism jobs—is laying off a bunch of people. The lifeboat is sinking.

Oyster's schtick when it debuted to much fanfare in June was that it would hire experienced staffers to stay in hotels and write reviews, giving it a competitive advantage against user-submitted sites like TripAdvisor.com. Sure enough, the site hired 20 reporters and at least three editors—veterans of the New York Times, Money, Fast Company, the Village Voice, Rolling Stone, and all sorts of other former lions of print—to fly around all the time and stay at hotels. "We pay for all the expenses, the plane ticket, taxis, meals, rooms and, of course, salaries and benefits," co-founder Elie Seidman told the New York Times in June. He added that he hoped that by the end of 2010, he'd have 150 full-time staffers.

Well, that couldn't last very long, could it? After just under two quarters of operation, the site has engaged in what we hear are massive layoffs: 75% of staff is gone, our tipster says. A spokeswoman for Oyster confirms the layoffs, but says the 75% figure is laughably high. She declined to offer the accurate numbers, or say how many staffers the site currently employs. UPDATE: Oyster's rep got back to us with figures that indicate the site laid off one-third of its payroll, though the mix of full-time and temp staffers isn't clear: "At our 2009 production peak, we had more than 30 people, full-time and temporary. As a result of both economic conditions in the market and our decisions to slow our rate of new market additions after 18 months of torrid growth, we now have more than 20 people — full time and temporary."

In a statement, Seidman said Oyster was just limiting its coverage area:

After a burst of massive growth over the past 18 months, we've covered a very large percentage of the U.S. leisure market with a product that has been incredibly well received. In order to focus on winning in the markets we've already covered, we've decided to slightly slow our rate of new market coverage.

(That 18 months figure must include a lengthy pre-launch "burst of massive growth," because it hasn't been 18 months since Oyster launched in June of this year.)

Anyway, if you're a reporter terrified of losing your job and dreaming of an online gig where you get paid to travel and stay in luxury hotels and write about it, that escape hatch just closed. Maybe it's time to think about law school.

UPDATE: Two sources confirm that 17 staffers got the axe at Oyster, including 11 reporters. It's still not clear whether that constitutes 75% or 33% of payroll or somewhere in between, but it's a huge chunk of the site's editorial staff. Four reporters remain, we're told. To make matters worse, one tipster says the company sent eight non-editorial staffers on an all-expenses trip to Jamaica last month, which was explained as a gift in lieu of bonuses. And they were buying everybody free lunches every day until late October, when they apparently realized they needed to stop spending money and start firing everybody. One former Oyster reporter writes, "This is a sinking ship, and a severe case of entrepreneurial hubris. Shame."

If you know the details on who got fired, or how many people it was, let us know.

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<![CDATA[Martha Stewart Caught in Bed With Big Government]]> In your cheery Wednesday media column: our nemesis Martha Stewart's magazine implicated in decoration-for-prestige scheme, iTunes for magazines is coming, your weekly layoff roundup, and the Search Engine Media Wars heat up.

POLITICO EXPOZAY: Our archnemesis Martha Stewart('s magazine, Martha Stewart Living, along with several other home decorating magazines) is involved in a scheme to "decorate" various rooms in the US State Department building. In bed with the warmongers, eh Martha? Why don't you just go over to Afghanistan and start kicking over mud huts one by one, yourself? Eh? We dare you to respond. Dare you!


Hey, that breakthrough new "iTunes for magazines" online magazine store thing that the world has been waiting for is close to happening, and Conde Nast, Hearst, and Time Inc. will all put their magazines in there, so you can buy them, on the internet. I am "going rogue" and saying that not too many people outside the magazine industry will care about this, at all.


Keith Kelly has this short week's layoff tallies, so far: 25 at Time Inc., some of whom we mentioned yesterday, and the prospect of up to 100 layoffs coming to Playboy following their deal to outsource non-editorial duties to AMI. Also, nearly 80 edit layoffs at the Toronto Star. This holiday season is shaping up to be just as merry as last year's, for the media!


The Denver Post and the Dallas Morning News are reportedly considering joining the Search Engine Media Wars and pulling their content off of Google. This would have an even more minimal impact than if News Corp. does it, so no biggie.

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<![CDATA[Tipster Confirms Ten Layoffs at the New York Post]]> A tipster at the New York Post confirms there will be ten editorial layoffs in this round, and that they'd all have come this year if it hadn't been for the Sandra Guzman lawsuit.

The tipster, who is clearly no fan of the reporters on the chopping block, says the dismissals are not economically motivated, but are based on performance reviews that happened in spring and the current salaries of the journalists — that go as high as $95,000. He does not pull his punches:

All these people should have been canned years ago, but management was just too lazy to do anything.

We had heard rumors that this round of layoffs was disproportionately targeting minorities. Another source at the paper claims that soon there will be no black or hispanic reporters left. The tipster seems to corroborate this.

They were going to get rid of most of them by the end of the year, but the Sandra Guzman lawsuit halted the whole thing because many on this list are minorities and are more likely to sue.

UPDATE:

A spokesperson for the Post said the following:

"The report is incorrect. We're not planning layoffs."

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<![CDATA[Time Inc. Folding InStyle Weddings]]> We've just confirmed that Time Inc. is folding Instyle Weddings, a quarterly publication. The wedding magazine category is rough these days.

The mag's closure will come with about nine layoffs. Its final issue hits newsstands on Dec. 25, and will be there through March. InStyle will continue to publish other similar types of spinoffs (i.e. InStyle Hair), but no mas for the weddings.

Conde Nast folded Elegant Bride and Modern Bride last month, and its flagship Brides is having problems of its own.

Condolences to the layoff victims.

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<![CDATA[Time Inc's Pre-Thanksgiving Layoffs]]> In your trepidatious Tuesday media column: we hear the Time Inc. layoffs hit Fortune (and others?) today, BusinessWeek speaks robot language, Dave Eggers will not stop saving print, and a horrible massacre of journalists in the Philippines.

A tipster tells us that three assistant managing editors have been laid off at Fortune magazine, presumably as part of the ongoing companywide Time Inc. layoffs. Mediaite confirms that the company did do a round of layoffs today. If you have more details, email us.
UPDATE: We hear five staffers were laid off at SI.com: Two associate producers, a copy editor, a producer, and a production editor, according to our tipster.


Gary Weiss got a peek at a BusinessWeek corporate post-layoff memo, in which the people not fired are referred to as "Individuals ineligible or not selected for inclusion in the restructuring program." Well. How Bloombergian.


Dave Eggers continues to save print! This time by producing a $16, 300-page "newspaper" with content "ranging from Stephen King's reporting on the World Series to explanatory graphics on subjects as diverse as the conflict in eastern Congo and how to make the perfect bowl of ramen." The whole thing sounds great. Except, of course, this six-month long niche literary project has absolutely nothing to do with newspapers or with the continued viability of print, which is dying as a mass medium, naturally, due to its obvious limitations.


From Roy Greenslade: "Twelve journalists were among 46 people murdered yesterday in the Philippines in what is thought to be the greatest loss of life by news media in a single day. Several of the victims were beheaded or mutilated in the massacre carried out by a huge force of gunmen."

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<![CDATA[Carl Kasell Escapes NPR News Gig Alive]]> In your merciful Monday media column: Carl Kasell gets to sleep in now, more rumored AP layoffs, crazy "old media" types eschew pointless media beef, and Verlyn Klinkenborg defended like a doe, a deer, a female deer, shut up, Verlyn.

Carl Kasell, the NPR newscaster known for saying things in that voice of his, is retiring from the morning newscast (but continuing to appear on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me). "The biggest change in his life may be not having to wake up at 1:05 in the morning in order to be ready for the network's 5 a.m. ET newscast." NPR has been literally trying to kill beloved newscaster Carl Kasell, all these years.


Not to get back on this subject again (please), but a tipster tells us there are still more AP layoffs going down, today: "one biz writer in nyc who was on vacation last week. two people in los angeles," our tipster says. We are hoping and assuming these are just leftovers that didn't get done last week.


James O'Shea was a Chicago Tribune editor who got pushed out as the entire company went to hell. Now he's starting up a rival Chicago news organization. But when the NYT asks him about all the BEEF he must have he says, "No, I don't have any interest in any of that." Ridiculous! On the internet, "news" is just a code word for BEEF. You will learn this soon enough, Mr. O'Shea.


What's this, one guy writing in True Slant defends the continued existence on earth and in our daily newspapers of NYT nature writer and most annoying essayist in the US of A Verlyn Klinkenborg? No. He is indefensible.

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<![CDATA[German Newspaper Feud Gets Penis-y]]> In your ferocious Friday media column: Newspaper wars in Germany are of another breed, another high school paper censored for dumb reasons, more on the BusinessWeek layoffs, and George Stephanopoulos' fluff chops questioned.

A "long-standing editorial feud" between a left-wing German paper and the right-wing paper Bild has culminated in the left-wing paper commissioning a huge artwork on the side of a building showing "Bild boss Kai Diekmann spreading his legs as his mighty manhood stretches across five storeys before the tip turns into a rearing cobra." If this isn't an idea that would suit Col Allan, we don't know what is. [Sexxxy pics]


A high school paper outside of Chicago wanted to publish some stories about students smokin and drinkin' and makin' babies, so the school spiked the issue, and now it's national news. The takeaway here is that the only thing dumber than school papers (I served on two!) is the reaction of school administrators to school papers.


Chris Roush has the latest updates on who's staying and who's going at BusinessWeek.


TVNewser says that Good Morning America staffers are wondering whether potential new GMA host George Stephanopoulos has the morning chops to pull of the big fluff interviews that would go along with job. Or will he be worried that it will undermine his fancy (alleged) "credibility" on his Sunday show? Let's be honest: With that hair, George Stephanopoulos was made for fluff. Also he is not a "journalist," so who cares?

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<![CDATA[BusinessWeek Layoffs Make Fools of Optimists]]> The long-expected BusinessWeek layoffs came down yesterday, with 130 staffers let go—a full third of its employees. Is it fair to call that a "surprise?"

When Bloomberg bought BW last month, expectations were grim—one preliminary report said that Bloomberg was planning to lay off the entire staff. Insiders told us at the time that was "nuts," (which it was), and made vague sounds about not being able to tell how many layoffs would be necessary.

Which was at least mildly hopeful! But the signs were pretty clear: BW's editor left immediately, Bloomberg started canning the magazine's celebrity columnists, and began the early stages of the layoffs on Monday. An internal memo at the time promised "a meeting (in person or by telephone) to learn next steps." Staffers got that yesterday. And 130 of them are gone, including many high-level writers, editors, and some of the mag's most visible columnists:

Most of the columnists were let go, including Inside Wall Street writer Gene Marcial, Media Centric columnist Jon Fine, tech columnist Steve Wildstrom, the longtime Business Outlook columnist Jim Cooper and tech writer Steve Baker, a 23-year veteran.

When you work for the media these days and your first instinct is that the future is dark, you're probably right.
[More on BW layoffs here]

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<![CDATA[AP Layoffs: Final Thoughts]]> We've updated (hopefully for the last time) our AP Layoffs List with the final flood of tips that came in late yesterday and this morning. A few final thoughts on the list, for those AP people still checking it:

1. Our map of the global layoffs only includes those tips that came in by Thursday morning. For the most complete listing, see the AP Layoffs List.

2. Take the list for what it is: a compilation of tips from you, the APers, and your knowledgeable friends. We got so many tips that there may well be some misspelled names or repetitions or slight misstatements of titles. It is the Wikipedia of Layoff Lists. That said, I've made corrections when I received info about anything being incorrect.

3. Probably the most striking thing about these layoffs was the high number of victims who were 10, 20, or 30-year-plus veterans of the AP. We hope you will all receive much grander tributes to your individual careers than a single line in a Gawker post. Good luck to everyone.

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<![CDATA[AP: Layoff Goals Accomplished]]> AP spokesman Paul Colford just sent over this statement on the company's layoffs:

The 90 news department staffers being notified this week, along with earlier reductions in other departments, a voluntary retirement program last summer, a continuing hiring freeze and attrition, bring The Associated Press to its goal of a 10 percent reduction in the news cooperative's global payroll costs in 2009, as outlined by President and CEO Tom Curley last November.

Related: Our AP Layoff List will be updated even more by the end of the day.

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<![CDATA[Rumors: Staff Shuffles at New York Post, Sports Illustrated]]> In your foreboding Thursday media column: Rumors of veterans departing their jobs far and wide, Anthony Kennedy's story weakens, newspapers and magazines lose huge money, and Jon Fine's media gig disappears.

We have two separate (unconfirmed) staff change rumors today, from tipsters. First, at SI:

At the ever-shrinking Sports Illustrated, the magazine's #2, exec ed. Mike Bevans, has privately announced that he'll be among the staffers taking a buyout. This marks the second Time Inc. purge in a row that M.E. Terry [McDonell]. has lost his aide de camp: last year it was David Bauer.

Second, we hear that the New York Post has replaced veteran police reporter Phil Messing with relative rookie Kirsten Fleming. Indeed, Messing's byline does not show up in a search since last month. Out tipster says, "The fear, of course, is that the writing is on the wall for Phil who is one of the more reliable and experienced police reporters in the city. He's old school. But the Post is rumored to be wanting to get rid of 10 to 15 reporters so everyone over there is worrying that their heads are on the chopping block." If you know more, email us.
UPDATE: Actually, another search for just Messing's last name turns up lots of recent bylines, so he's still hard at work, for now.


Oh Anthony Kennedy went on and on about how his office's demand to pre-approve his quotes in a school paper was misunderstood, but now the WSJ says he did the same thing once at GWU. Whatever. Just don't outlaw abortion.


There used to be a dozen analysts covering newspaper companies for Wall Street. How many are there now? Not so many! Now it's just Rick Edmonds, a dude who works for Poynter, trying to figure out how bad the newspaper apocalypse is. "My conservative estimate is that there is $1.6 billion newspapers used to spend annually on reporting and editing that they don't anymore." Journalism! Related: An incredible graph about magazines, and the money they are no longer making.


BusinessWeek media reporter Jon Fine (a good reporter!), currently on a months-long round-the-world vacation with his wealthy wife Laurel Touby, announces on Twitter that new BW owners Bloomberg have laid him off. One thing he can take solace in: His months-long, round-the-world vacation.

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<![CDATA[The AP Layoffs, From Bismarck to Beijing]]> We've been updating our AP Layoffs List for three days with tips about layoffs in AP bureaus around the world. Here, we've organized and mapped them for you. View the national and global media carnage, below.

[Note: All info is based on tips and is not verified by the AP. In some cases it's impossible to tell whether multiple tips refer to the same people, but we've synthesized as much as possible.]

New York City
Reported layoffs: One business editor, one business reporter, five multimedia staffers, one sports editor, several writers on the national desk.

Upstate New York
One correspondent and one editorial assistant reportedly gone.

Boston
Four staffers reportedly laid off.

Washington, DC
Reported layoffs: One business reporter, one research staffer, an "enterprise team" reporter (Rita Beamish), an assignment desk staffer, three broadcast staffers.

Pittsburgh
Reported layoffs: One business reporter.

Dallas
One reported layoff.

Jacksonville
Longtime AP reporter Ron Word reportedly laid off and bureau closing. [I remember Ron Word's byline from forever when I was growing up near there, very sad. Shout out to Ron Word!]

Kentucky
Reported layoffs: One news editor in Louisville, one editorial assistant, one state capitol reporter.

Central Wisconsin
One reporter laid off and bureau reportedly closed.

Oklahoma
News editing duties reportedly outsourced to Little Rock.

Michigan
Reported layoffs: One state government reporter, the only Grand Rapids correspondent (bureau reportedly closing), and one editorial assistant.

Dayton, OH
Reported layoffs: One correspondent and one editorial assistant, which means the entire bureau.

Berkeley, CA
One correspondent reportedly laid off and bureau closing.

Roanoke, VA
The only correspondent reportedly laid off.

Bismarck, ND
Only correspondent reportedly laid off.

Santa Fe, NM
One of two correspondents reportedly laid off.

National Staffers
Reported layoffs: A "high percentage" of all editorial assistants across the country, a national photo editor, as many as eight photographers, the AP liaison/executive director of the Associated Press Managing Editors (APME), a national writer, an investigative reporter/ computer-assisted reporting guru (Pulitzer winner Frank Bass),

San Juan/ Caribbean Bureau
Nine staffers reportedly laid off and bureau slated to close.

The Middle East
Reported layoffs: At least three newspeople. One reporter in Jerusalem.

Vietnam
One photographer reportedly laid off.

Beijing
Reported layoffs: One reporter and one other staffer.


View The AP Layoff Map in a larger map

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<![CDATA[The Incredible Shrinking AOL]]> Just in time for Christmas, AOL is asking 2,500 of its workers to volunteer for buyouts starting Dec. 4 (layoffs come after) as the company separates from Time Warner and a shadow of its former online conglomerate self.

AOL CEO Tim Armstrong (pictured) said in a memo to staff (below) that the company is looking to lose 2,500 workers, or a third of its total staff. He'll be forgoing his own 2009 bonus, and is offering executives up to nine months pay if they volunteer for buyouts, according to Business Insider. Interestingly, rank and filers are being offered a weaker deal than their recent colleagues over at Time Inc.; AOL will pay them three months severance, whereas Time Inc.-ers get that plus two weeks for every year of service. Apparently unions are nice things to have in situations like this.

As it prepares to offer shares to the public next month, AOL has been on a diet plan in other ways, too:

Pic above by Yaniv Golan.

Armstrong's memo to staff:————-

AOLers –

"Employees First" is the way that we have run the company since April and that mantra is something I take very seriously because our company is a collection of people and our brands are the work of our teams. We started by working together to determine AOL's strategy, then the correct structure for the strategy, and, as we have discussed, we are now faced with making sure we have the correct cost structure for the strategy. You have seen daily and weekly updates on Project Everest and many of you have been involved in trying to align our resources to maximize AOL's opportunity.

AOL's cost structure is something we have worked on for the past four months, and we have spent hundreds of hours reviewing ways to fix the cost structure as well as the revenue growth engine. As we are coming to the conclusion of this work over the next few weeks, it is clear that we will need to have a significant reduction of costs at the company and across almost all functional areas and geographies. Headcount costs are going to be a majority of the cost reduction recommendations coming out of Project Everest.

As I mentioned in our last Project Everest update, the idea for a voluntary layoff was suggested and we agree that it is an option that gives people more choice and decision-making ability instead of waiting for the final cost recommendations and involuntary layoffs. Starting December 4th in the United States and ending a few days after we spin out from Time Warner, we will allow employees to choose a voluntary exit from AOL. Additionally, tomorrow we anticipate beginning the communication process for voluntary layoff programs in certain international locations. We will be looking for up to 2,500 volunteers. For context on the target volunteer number, over the next several months we will be looking to reduce approximately one-third of our overall workforce at the company. We will need to do an involuntary layoff if we do not reach the target numbers through the voluntary option.

The reduction in costs is aimed at making AOL competitive for the future of the Web and it will allow us to focus the company on growth in the non-access areas of the business. After the cost reductions, we will have a company that is aligned and structured to drive our strategy in a competitive way. The number of potential reductions isn't aimed at getting us through 2010; it is aimed at resetting AOL at the correct baseline for the future.

As a member of our team and the person who takes accountability for the results of the company, I am making the decision to forego my 2009 bonus. That decision is a personal one and is not a sign for the future payout of the overall bonus plan for employees. That plan is based on performance and overall company outcomes and it will be management's recommendation to the compensation committee of the Board to approve our performance-based bonus payouts for 2009. These are challenging times and today's news is difficult. But every day we are making changes and progress and we are on our way to re-engineering AOL for success. – TA

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<![CDATA[AP Layoffs Just Don't Quit]]> The AP's layoffs continued yesterday. Small AP bureaus seem particularly vulnerable. We updated our comprehensive AP Layoff List this morning with several new tips we received overnight, and we'll continue to update today as new info comes in. [The List]

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<![CDATA[Fox News Anchor Gets Real Job With The Onion]]> In your wistful Wednesday media column: Fox News anchor moves up in the world, layoffs loom at Time Inc. and BusinessWeek, people still say they read newspapers, and Pat Kiernan has a contest, for you.

Ha, the fake Onion News Network has hired yet another real TV journalist, Suzanne Sena of Fox News (joke). Laugh now; they could totally get Lou Dobbs, if they tried.


Keith Kelly says the bulk of Time Inc's editorial layoffs could come next week—as many as 90 at the company's biggest magazines, to make up for the non-outpouring of buyout volunteers. So next week should be as sunny as this week, in media land!


A new study "finds that 74% of adults — nearly 171 million — in the United States read a newspaper in print or online during the past week." This is presented as a positive sign for newspapers. Left unsaid is the fact that 68% of those readers were reading "Family Circus."


Popular hero NY1 newsman Pat Kiernan informs us of this breaking trivia-related development:

For almost two years now, fans of World Series of Pop Culture have been asking me "when is the show coming back?" Since VH1 has set its priorities elsewhere, the short term answer is "I don't know." I'll keep trying.

In the meantime, my love of Pop Culture trivia can be suppressed no longer. Each weekday at 11:30 am ET I'll tweet a question at @patkiernan. I'll post it on the website at the same time at www.patspapers.com/trivia

It's tough to run a true trivia competition online because everybody can just Google the answers. But for those who respond with the correct answer I'll award a prize at random from time to time. Mostly it's just about writing some fun questions and creating a place for WSOPC fans to gather.

He tells us this week's prize is a $25 gift certificate and adds, "I'm taking the first 10 responses in the "Comments" section and choosing one at random, hoping to take away the incentive to obsessively press refresh and then google the answer." Don't fuck around with Pat Kiernan's contest rules.


Also in layoff news: We've been updating our AP Layoff List throughout the day, and tips keep coming in. Check it again if you haven't lately, it's long. And we hear BusinessWeek staffers are finding out about their own layoffs right now. Email us with info.

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