100,000 dot.com workers lost jobs last year
Two-and-one-half times more internet workers lost their jobs in 2001 than did in 2000, according to outplacement company Challenger, Gray and Christmas, which tracks dot.com firings. In all, 101,925 high-tech positions were eliminated in 2001, compared to 41,515 in 2000. The bulk of the firings took place in the first six months of the year, with 74,199 jobs cut. The worst looks to be over for the sector, however. Just 2,403 internet workers were fired in December, the lowest number of dot.com-related firings in 17 months. Also, the December tally was 17 percent lower than November’s. Most of the jobs, specifically 36,519 of them, were cut at technology companies, followed by consumer services, with 21,860 positions eliminated for the year.

Whither '02? Astrology and religion sites are hot.
As the rough year of 2001 came to a close, web surfers began turning to astrology and religion sites to determine what 2002 will hold. According to data from Nielsen//NetRatings, traffic to astrological and religious sites jumped 22 percent in the week ending Dec. 16. Astrology.com was the No. 1 site in terms of traffic, with some 868,000 visitors. The web site of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints attracted 181,000 visitors, and ChartShop.com, an astrology site, attracted 167,000 visitors. BeliefNet.com, a web site featuring news and information about the world’s great religions, drew 150,000 unique web surfers. ChristianBook.com came in at No. 5, with 148,000 visitors.

AOL blocks admissions emails from Harvard
Grade inflation scandals may be among the least of Harvard University’s worries. It turns out that leading ISP America Online inadvertently filtered out Harvard acceptance and rejection emails last month. As many as 100 applicants never received their electronic early-admission acceptance or rejection messages because AOL, for some reason, deemed them to be spam. The ISP remains unsure as to why Harvard’s emails were blocked. The university is still sending out snail-mail admission notifications, although it is experimenting with email for the sake of speed and because of last fall’s anthrax scare. The school’s web site now alerts applicants to make sure that their ISPs won’t block Harvard emails. Meanwhile, AOL continues to reign as the world’s biggest internet service provider. According to the company, it now has more than 33 million subscribers. The growth in its user rolls was spurred by the release of AOL 7.0, the newest version of its software, combined with the launch of its high-speed cable services in major markets served by Time Warner Cable.

Yahoo, not Monster, will buy HotJobs.com
Yahoo’s hostile takeover bid for jobs and careers web site HotJobs.com has paid off. The company will acquire HotJobs for roughly $436 million worth of cash and stock. Previously, HotJobs had been in line to be acquired by TMP Worldwide, the company that operates HotJobs rival Monster.com. Yahoo’s bid was unsolicited, but HotJobs gave TMP the chance to raise its offer. That didn’t happen, so now Yahoo will take over HotJobs. Yahoo wants HotJobs for several reasons, mainly to continue diversifying its sources of revenue and lessening its dependence on advertising. Web sites that offer job listings have remained in high demand among consumers amid the recession, simply because they make it easy and inexpensive to post résumés. HotJobs will pay TMP a $15 million fee to kill the original deal.

MediaPort will establish online ad marketplace
Despite the high-profile failures of online ad marketplaces such as Mediapassage and eMadison, MediaPort is throwing its hat into the ring. It plans to launch an online ad marketplace of its own, reports say. MediaPort CEO Mike Lotito says that the online exchange will open within twelve to eighteen months. Lotito, according to the Wall Street Journal, is talking to rival agencies and top sellers of advertising space such as AOL Time Warner to sell them on the notion of the online marketplace. As with its predecessors, MediaPort’s goal in offering an online ad clearinghouse is to help advertisers and communications media companies save money by streamlining the selling and buying process.

January 2, 2002 © 2002 Media Life


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