Friday, April 15, 2005

More on Variety layoff(s)

An anonymous reader of this blog wrote to ask for further details about the changes at Variety magazine's website. I reported last week that Variety had laid off "about a half-dozen employees." But I was called to task by Variety.com's Alex Romanelli, who wrote to say that only "one person" had been laid off. But in that email Alex also said "Any freelance work required to produce that content will first be offered to those affected by the recent layoffs." And the use of the plural "layoffs" implied that more than one person was out of work, according to Anonymous.
I asked for a clarification and received another email from Alex. Here's what it said: "Reed Business only employed one staff person for the broadband projects. He was laid off. Other people were utilized on a freelance basis, mostly for actual video shoots (sound, lighting, camera etc) as required." These freelancers, Alex said, "will soon no longer have scheduled work, but all will remain our first choices for the upcoming projects that are lined up."
So it sounds to me that one full-time guy is out of work, and some freelancers will be looking for new assignments. Thanks to Anonymous for asking the question. Thanks to Alex for answering it.

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