Media Losses

I’ve posted previously about how magazines and newspapers are folding and cutting jobs. New developments: Newsday is cutting 5 percent of its workforce, or around 27 positions, and trimming its freelance budget. The New York edition of Time Out is for sale (price of up to $40 million) because investors want to generate profit on their 13-year investment. The New York edition is supposedly more successful than the original London title, founded in 1968.

The reorganizations, closings, resignations, and layoffs have extended to the book publishing business, as well — although book sales for the year are actually slightly up, retail sales in Oct. and Nov. had weakened significantly and industry leaders are calling this the “worst retailing environment in memory,” according to a New York Times article.

An update: layoffs at Simon & Schuster and at Thomas Nelson; a freeze on raises at Pearson (part of Penguin); delay of pay increases at HarperCollins; at Random House, pensions for existing employees are frozen and no longer offered to newcomers, the Bantam and Doubleday divisions were shuttered and their imprints were redistributed to other divisions, and several other imprints at the company are merging; and layoffs at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which recently ceased publishing any new authors and purchasing any new books.

Regarding TV networks, NBC has laid off 500 workers, and CNN also dismantled its science, space, environment, and technology unit in Atlanta and laid off producers (including long-time correspondent Miles O'Brien). It will be integrated into other broadcasts.

Read Business Week’s article on media predictions for 2009.