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December 2001
- Random House, a New York book publishing house, has initiated a round of layoffs.
Nine cuts, including editor jobs,
have already been made at its Doubleday Broadway, Ballantine and Bantam Dell
divisions. More layoffs are expected in several other Random House book divisions.
Random House employees over 3,000 people. The layoffs have sparked fears that
publishers may cancel books or reduce the number of books published in the future.
This comes at a time when the major publishers have already been publishing less
books from midlist authors.
Source: New York Times 12-20-01
- DrKoop.com, a health website,
is shutting down and filing Chapter 7.
Source: Newsbytes 12-20-01
- Excite U.K., a joint venture between Excite@Home and British Telecom,
has shut down. 48 employees lost their jobs. Visitors to the website are being
redirected to Lycos.co.uk.
Source: Newsbytes 12-20-01
- AdCritic.com, an advertising industry resource which kept an archive
of television and radio advertisements, has shut down.
- Alley Cat News, a Silicon Alley
business publication, is being closed by Alley Cat Information Sciences,
its parent company.
Source: AtNewYork.com 12-20-01
- Newsday is eliminating its third section, which varied in theme in each day,
and is offering buy-out packages to to employees. Newsday expects about 50
employees to accept the retirement packages.
Source: Mediaweek, Newsday 12-20-01
- The Irish Times has cut 23 jobs (about 1/3 of its staff) at its ireland.com
website. The cuts follow 250 layoffs from the Irish Times print version announced
last month. Source: The Guardian 12-20-01
- The Register, a U.K. based technology news website, has cut
1/3 of its staff.
Source: The Guardian 12-20-01
- MightyWords.com is closing its website on January 12, 2002.
23 employees will lose their jobs. When the
MightyWords website originally launched it allowed
anyone to upload digital content to the website and sell it.
However, in November, 2000, tightened its submissions
policy, switching its focus to business
and technical materials and terminated thousands of contracts
with writers. Now the company is closing its doors for good
because there were not enough sales.
Source: The Write News, CNN, CNET, Publishers Weekly 12-14-01
- The McGraw-Hill Company, a publisher of textbooks and
business and financial information, is laying off 925 employees
-- about 5% of its work force.
Source: The Write News, New York Times 12-14-01
- The Web Standards Project (WaSP) is shutting down.
The company pushed for publishing standards during the Netscape
and Internet Explorer browser wars.
Source: CNET 12-14-01
- Excite@Home has laid off another 400 employees. The company
is winding down operations and
will be shut down on February 28, 2002.
Source: CNET 12-14-01
- AOL Time Warner
is closing iPublish, its
electronic publishing venture. 29 jobs were cut.
Laurence Kirshbaum, chairman of
Time Warner Books, said the company had lost over $13 million on
electronic publishing so far. But Kirshbaum did say that he
felt iPublish would be recognized in the future for establishing
a template other publishers can follow. Time Warner will continue
to publish ebook versions of its paperback and hardcover releases.
Publishers Weekly reported that Time Warner expects to publish
most of the nine books selected for publication at iPublish.
Source: The Write News, New York Times, Publishers Weekly, Wired, CNET 12-6-01
- About a month ago IPC Media, a U.K. magazine
publisher, ceased publication of Woman's Journal,
Your Garden, Homes & Ideas, Your Life, Marie Claire Health &
Beauty and the Complete Guide to Pregnancy.
115 jobs were also cut from IPC's exhibitions business.
Now IPC Media, which was purchased by AOL Time Warner
in August 2000, is laying off another 118 employees.
Source: Media Guardian 12-6-01
- Lightning
Source Inc., a digital printing service and a subsidiary
of Ingram, is laying of 10% of its workforce.
Source: Nashville Business Journal 12-6-01
- AdAge.com reported that Primedia cut about 1,000 positions
in 2001. Primedia's CEO Tom Rogers said that 2002 would also be
difficult.
Source: AdAge.com 12-6-01
- MBSNC.com is laying off 18 people, about 9% of its
staff. Source: Washingtonpost.com
12-4-01
- Webnoize.com, a music website, will temporarily stop publishing
entertainment industry news and research in a move to restructure.
A note on the website read, "Webnoize has grown organically and
privately to become one of the most respected intelligence resources
and media brands to cover the digital economy," said Webnoize
President and Publisher Thomas Roli. "We are not immune to the
same market influences that have affected others in our space.
However, we expect to re-emerge in early 2002 with new and improved
events, products and services, that will continue to meet the
needs of those invested in digital media."
Source: Webnoize.com 12-4-01
- Red Herring, which has undergone several rounds
of layoffs this year, is now ceasing publication of
all of its email newsletters.
Source: AtNewYork.com 12-4-01
- The collapse of Excite At Home is beginning to affect its
broadband customers. 850,000 of AT&T's Excite At Home customers
lost Net access over the weekend. AT&T is working on transferring
the customers to new ISPs.
Cox Communications and Comcast are working on deals for their
customers. Excite provides access to 4.1 million people.
Source: CNET, Newsbytes, USA Today, Financial Times 12-3-01
- Total Sports Inc., a sports book publisher, is struggling
and may have to file Chapter 11
after Random House called
off a deal to acquire the publisher.
Source: Publishers Weekly 12-3-01
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