Forbes Magazine Plans More Layoffs

By Laura Reid

Forbes Magazine is laying off employees, mainly editorial and business staff members, from the company due to decreased advertising revenue.

Steve Forbes, the chief executive and editor-in-chief of the magazine, announced that because of the recession, more jobs had to be cut from his company. 100 employees lost their jobs last year, and many others had to take five days of unpaid leave and their 401(k) program would not be matched by their company. It is not the magazine readership that is suffering, however, those numbers have stayed the same, but its the number of ad pages that are down 32.5 percent in the third quarter.

This is just another news source that is taking a major hit in its company because of the economy and slowed advertising sales. But I don't think these lack of newspaper and magazine sales should constantly be targeted. While they are big newspaper companies that are losing business, I don't think we hear a lot about advertising agencies, who are the main culprit. Where are ads making their money? They can't make it through newspapers because not many people read them. Magazines are more promising because people do still read them for entertainment, but TiVo-like TV systems are allowing for more people to skip through the commercials. Should we stop worrying about the news and magazines for a minute and start focusing our attentions on ad agencies?

(Photo Credit: Corporateinfoonline.com)

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First Readers, Now Advertisers

By Tessa Leone

Today at 11:25 the Wall Street Journal closed it's Boston Bureau. After an advertising slump that has newspapers reeling, Wall Streets editor Robert Thomson announced to employees that "The economic background for the closure is painfully obvious to us all".

Low numbers regarding advertising are the main contributor for the closure. With less readers, many advertisers are seeking other forms of communication. Although the paper was the only one of the top 25 U.S. newspapers to increase its weekly circulation, those numbers werent enough to counter balance the lack of advertisements.

The Boston coverage will now switch to the papers Money and Investing division in New York. Although there are no plans to close any other Wall Street bureaus at this time the forecast for print media in general does not look good, but this is not new news.

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