I'm back from a road trip and trying to catch up on all the stuff in my RSS feeds. But after glancing at the depressing headlines from Folio magazine in the past few days, I wish I hadn't bothered.
First, there's been another series of layoffs at United Business Media's TechInsights unit. Close observers of the B2B world will note that these layoffs come nearly a year to the day after the company announced it would lay off 200 people and and just four months after the company announced a major restructuring.
Second, Reed Business Information has laid off 41 of its staffers. RBI said more layoffs were possible. That news comes several weeks after RBI's parent company said it planned to sell off the entire B2B unit. (In a related note, RBI's parent, Reed Elsevier, is said to be making plans to arrange a $1.5 billion loan for anyone who would buy the B2B giant, publisher of Variety, Professional Builder, Broadcasting & Cable and dozens of other magazines and Web sites.)
But if you really want to read a depressing story, check out Folio's coverage of the death of VON magazine. It's a tale of disappearing executives, a write off of more than $10 million in debt, and a secretive move to seize assets by the folks who months before had invested $11 million in the operation.
tags: journalism, b2b, media, trade press, magazines, newsletters, business media
... and yet more layoffs. I heard that Penton laid off 42 people today, at least some of them in the Cleveland office.
ReplyDeleteHi Paul,
ReplyDeleteI hope that's not true! This is getting so depressing.
I'll check into it. Thanks for the tip.