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| Media economy | |
new layoffs in media WPP's Ogilvy cuts 10 percent of North American staff Jan 7, 2009 The latest round of layoffs cut across several media and indicates it will once again be a tough year for the industry. Yesterday WPP’s Ogilvy laid off roughly 10 percent of its North American staff, according to several reports. That represents about 150 employees, and it comes as the agency’s largest client, American Express, is dealing with similar economic woes. The layoffs come weeks after Omnicom announced similarly deep job cuts, laying off some 3,500 workers, though relatively few of those cuts came in media departments. The cuts come as advertising shows declines in 2008 despite the Olympics and presidential campaign, with recent reports putting spending down just under 2 percent year to year through third quarter. Agencies are hardly the only ones being affected. Also yesterday McGraw-Hill, the owner of BusinessWeek, among other holdings, said that it had cut an additional 375 jobs during fourth quarter, bringing its total yearly cuts to 1,045, or almost 5 percent of its staff. Of those, 70 were in the company’s information and media division. Meanwhile, newspaper cuts don’t seem to have abated in the new year. Following thousands of cuts during 2008, papers are continuing their belt-tightening in 2009. Tulsa World this week laid off 28 employees, including 26 in editorial, citing “deteriorating economic conditions nationwide and in media business.” The Oklahoma newspaper, which has a circulation of just under 140,000, laid off 18 employees last year when it shuttered its Community World publications.
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