Ugh: Time Inc. Layoffs Hit SI, golf.com
It pains me to see comrades at Sports Illustrated/golf.com losing their jobs as part of Time Inc's 6% global work force reduction. Some very talented people were let go today, and while this Keith Kelly story doesn't name names, it won't get them their jobs back to point out who is suffering today.
This IBTimes.com story cites the layoff numbers, advertising issues and quotes the new CEO, Laura Lang, in a memo to staff:
In a memo obtained by Bloomberg News Wednesday, Laura Lang, the company’s CEO, spoke of a new normal in which magazine companies have to learn how to do more with less. “With the significant and ongoing changes in our industry, we must continue to transform our company into one that is leaner, more nimble and more innately multi-platform,” Lang wrote.
Innately multi-platform. As opposed to multi-platform.
“To make this change, we need to operate as smartly and efficiently as possible to create room for critical investments and new initiatives. These reductions are part of this important transformation process.”
Thursday, January 31, 2013 at 11:17 AM
Reader Comments (24)
What's worse is that the coverage of the news simply diminishes. Can you see a local TV station devoting weeks or months of resources to uncovering corruption and malfeasance the way newspapers once did?
What we'll eventually be left with is a legion of part-time bloggers and non-degreed rumor-mongers who simply skim the surface with little more than their OPINION of what's going on. What a deal, huh?
Good luck to those who got the slip.
end of off topic rant
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US_productivity_and_real_wages.jpg
And that rant was perfectly on topic. But one wonders whether Manti's ridiculous story would have survived if SI had a staff of real journalists that were paid a living wage based on productivity gains associated with technological advances. Of course, that would have meant that the disconnect between "productivity" (which here means doing the same with fewer people who are paid less money, the balance going to the John Galt's of the world) and wages would have narrowed significantly.
Nothing is enough for the man, or woman, to whom enough is too little...
I come from a family of writers/journalists...My father was the Political Editor of "a major daily" newpaper (now defunct) and wrote a weekly column....my mother was a reporter for a suburban twice weekly paper...I was an English Major and fomer high school English teacher. I actually stiil read books (shocking). So if I sometimes (always?) come off as sarcastic, cynical and unloving around here...all one has to do is read the reams and reams of endless drivel over deer spray and bogus internet love affairs, rumors, Tweets, re-Tweets, fake Tweets, he-said, she-said, we-said, to understand why. In truth I look at it and treat it all as humor and (cheap) entertainment. But you know,
A LOT OF PEOPLE TAKE THIS JUNK SERIOUSLY!
this is where we are...this is the media we live with...I hope Laura Lang has a good supply of kryptonite stashed away...I don't see a bright future for her or her mag.
Golf Digest has had some attrition too. No one has replaced Matty G on travel, and if I'm not mistaken they've been operating without a full-time features editor for some time now. Jaime Diaz shifted from Golf Digest to Golf World, replacing Geoff Russell.
Fortunately, I was able to leave on my own terms and now I work as a technical editor for a technology company. The pay's a heck of a lot better, and there's much more job security.
No way would I ever advise anyone to go into journalism now. You'll be scrambling for pennies and looking over your shoulder your whole career.
Yep. I live there. Real journalism will return. Things cycle.
I have a couple of antlers in the pot ready to make some whitetail tea.
On the other hand, I feel that people like Mark Godich certainly bring down the overall quality of golf journalism at SI.
Does anyone weep over the fate of the guys who used to make wooden driver heads? Or stuff featheries?
Editors seem to view their readers as superficial skimmers, easily satisfied with flashy filler. They should have instead realized that the remaining people to pay for real magazines and newspapers are actually devoted to the practice of reading and should be honored with good, lively stuff.
And true of almost all major mag print entities on the net. There's just no level of engagement with their readers. The golf and GD comments sections are a wasteland; the odd ALL CAPS screwball and that's about it.
I think if you took someone who'd never heard of the internet, showed them the golf.com main page and asked them what it was designed to do, they would answer, 'It's designed to sell me things'. Not 'impart information' or 'broaden my knowledge'. And certainly that has to be a large part of their goal, but provide more in return (and cloak it better!) or you'll continue to be less relevant.