So HMV laid off a bunch of people today. And someone got the crazy idea of live-tweeting it on the corporate account. Well, that was fun.
I take a lot of pride in my work, even after I’ve been fired and told my experience, skills, and talents are of no use after Sept. 30. I know that I am good at what I do.
But compared to other news outlets, our website is a joke. We break news — but no one would know because of the worst news website known to man and the priority setting — whoever is doing it, is totally @(&%!*. Embarrassing, compared to TV. And yet we are focused on digital now? Enhanced? Who is buying this crap?
The paper is cutting back on its issue count and will downsize as a result. The reporter, Kari Dequine Harden, may have endangered her severance by sending the letter and leaking it to media blogger Jim Romenesko.
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Here’s how four newspapers in the same chain as the New Orleans Times-Picayune, which is downsizing to three days per week, covered the same round of layoffs this morning. Anyone else think it’s telling that the Alabama papers all buried the story, while the Times-Picayune played it up as their centerpiece?
We’ve had to make some big and difficult decisions, perhaps the biggest and most difficult of which involved letting several members of our editorial team go last Friday. These were great people who contributed a lot to GOOD. We wish them the best and expect that they will do great things.
GOOD has always been a work in progress, and even as creating and spreading awesome content by amazing people will continue to be a critical part of what we do, this was a step we felt was important to take as we pursue a refined strategy to inform, connect, and empower the community of people who give a damn.
“Refined strategy” sounds like corporate-speak for cutting back. A number of really awesome employees got laid off in a really lame way last week, getting pushed out a day after a party in honor of the magazine’s latest issue.
GOOD Magazine addresses the layoffs of numerous quality staffers today.
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Update on the GOOD layoffs: the fantastic Cord Jefferson was also let go. If he’s unemployed for more than 10 minutes, the world is broken.
Also on the list, among others: Ann “EditorRealTalk” Friedman and Amanda Hess (who previously worked at torn-asunder-too-soon noble experiment TBD). A major sadface was made across the Internet.
» The layoffs follow a recent settlement between Olympus and former-CEO Michael Woodford, who sued the company for unfair-dismissal following his firing in October 2011. Woodford is responsible for unearthing massive investor losses by the company, $1.5 billion to be exact, and is expected to receive just over $15 million after settling the matter out of court. According to local media, Olympus plans to cut most of the 2,500 jobs from its camera-making division.
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» So what about the remaining employees? No one is quite certain what plans CEO Meg Whitman has for the future of the company, though expectations are high considering her time as eBay’s chief executive. CareerBliss, a company with the stated goal of “helping you find happiness in the workplace”, says that employees have been less happy since Whitman became the company’s chief executive. Following reports of the layoffs, CareerBliss CEO and co-founder Heidi Golledge told Business Insider that honesty just might be the best policy. “This is a time for her and her team to be totally transparent,” said Golledge, adding, “HP employees need to be confident that the company has a future – and, just as importantly, that they have a future with it.”
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» Last week’s number was the highest since late January, and comes on the heels of electronics-giant Sony announcing 10,000 new layoffs as part of their “One Sony” initiative to turn around the company. (Yahoo also announced mass layoffs recently.) The new numbers follow a so-so monthly jobs report, released last Friday, which showed the economy had only added 120,000 jobs during March. That number was down from approximately 200,000 new jobs a month from December to February. It’s important to note that, prior to last week, this number — which changes weekly — was consistently hitting lows that hadn’t been touched since before the financial crisis in late 2008.
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