The mayhem in the media industry continues. The Wall Street Journal, a News Corp (NASDAQ: NWS) property, is closing its Boston bureau and sending nine employees into the wind. The newswire and MarketWatch operations are going to stay open in Boston, however, with no headcount impact.
The Journal doesn't have any plans to close other offices, according to a memo by managing editor Robert Thomson: "there are no plans, nascent or otherwise, to close any other U.S. or international bureau." The WSJ will still support an "investigative function" in Boston, but the New York-based Money and Investing team will cover Boston's mutual fund industry, which boasts such heavy hitters as Fidelity.
At the same time, magazine company Time Inc., owned by Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) is looking to cut $100 million in expenses, and layoffs will undoubtedly figure into the equation. The company that owns Time, Fortune, People and Sports Illustrated – and falls under the same umbrella as AOL, which owns BloggingStocks – is feeling the squeeze of a media recession that's even worse than the regular recession we've all been battling for what feels like decades.
Time doesn't seem likely to close any magazines, according to the NY Times, which makes its strategy markedly different from Condé Nast, which has slashed several of its properties entirely when faced with the prospect of a $400 million revenue decline and $200 million net loss. Condé Nast is said to have laid off 450 employees this year, with Vanity Fair publisher Graydon Carter going into hiding for the latest round of cuts – which were unusually severe compared to the others, because Carter wouldn't take his McKinsey medicine on time. Condé Nast's magazines are slashing their budgets by 25% or so.
Revenue has plunged at Time Inc. It's at $3.7 billion for the year so far, compared to approximately $5 billion two years ago. Sanford C. Bernstein & Company analyst Michael Nathanson expects the company's Q3 top line to drop 19% to $900 million, mostly on advertising softness.
The NY Times (NYSE: NYT) says, "Layoffs and cost-cutting are becoming standard practice in the magazine industry," as if to imply that it isn't standard operating procedure in the newspaper, as well. The NYT has suffered deep layoffs and expense cuts, not to mention its failure to sell the Boston Globe this year.
Closing Bell: Economic Catapult for Thanksgiving & Black Friday (WMT, TGT, GRMN, GOOG, MSFT)
Deere up on Q4 earnings performance
Reid Hoffman: LinkedIn will go public (at some point)
Add your comments