|
|
Mass firings from internet companies are waning, according to the latest data from outplacement company Challenger, Gray, and Christmas, which has been monitoring the dot.com downturn since December 1999. In July, 8,697 internet company employees lost their jobs, down 6 percent from June’s body count. Of the positions eliminated in July, 3,843 were consumer-services positions, while 2,738 were tech positions. Still, the number of layoffs for July 2001 was four times greater than in the same month a year ago. So far this year, 82,896 internet company employees have lost their jobs, already more than double the total number in the year 2000. April 2001 has turned out to be the cruelest month, costing 17,554 jobs. Challenger CEO John Christmas says the July numbers could mark the beginning of the end of the dot.com shakeout, as there aren’t that many small, cash-bleeding dot.coms left standing.
MSN pairs with advice site Keen.com
Microsoft’s MSN portal, in a seeming effort to be all things to all people, has teamed up with Keen.com, which purports to offer expert advice on a number of topics. MSN visitors seeking advice on topics such as horoscopes, computers, sex, travel and health can pay by the minute to talk to a Keen.com expert online. MSN will also feature a link to the Keen.com home page. Keen.com recently began referring to its advice-givers as "personal advisors" rather than "experts." The company has taken some flak, with critics charging that some of its advisors’ expertise either runs shallow or serves the advisors’ own interests. For example, some eBay users have complained that Keen experts were doling out advice about items the advisors themselves were selling on eBay. If nothing else, the exposure on MSN should expand Keen’s audience, since MSN receives roughly 230 million visitors a month.
Couple offers baby’s name to highest bidder
A New York couple thinks that someone out there might be interested in paying at least half of a million dollars for the honor of naming their third child. Jason Black and Frances Schroeder of Mount Kisco, in Westchester County, are attempting to auction off the naming rights to their baby boy, who will be born within a few days. The auctions opened on July 18 on eBay and Yahoo Auctions and is running for 10 days. As of Friday there were no takers, and Schroeder and Black say they will extend the auction if none appear by the deadlines. Bidding is set to open at $500,000. The couple says the cash would help them move from their cramped apartment and, 18 years down the road, send the yet-unnamed boy to college. Schroeder and Black say that they’ll help the child cope with whatever unusual name he might end up with.
Tribune lets go of some online help
Ad-economy woes have prompted a round of bloodletting at Tribune Co. last week, as the company announced layoffs in its internet subsidiary, Tribune Interactive Inc. The layoffs will affect an unspecified number of the group’s 500 employees, 325 of whom operate in 10 newspaper markets outside of Chicago. The company, which owns such major newspapers as the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune, declined to say whether the company is initiating a new round of layoffs or simply following through on last month’s cutbacks. Tribune stated on June 14 that 6 percent of its personnel would be trimmed, half through voluntary retirements, the other half through pink slips. Its web operations include sites for its newspapers, television and radio stations, as well as community and classified advertising sites.
The taxman giveth traffic to IRS.gov
Traffic to IRS.gov has skyrocketed as people have logged on to learn about their tax refunds, according to the latest data from Nielsen//NetRatings. The number of people who visited the site at work soared 188 percent in the week ending July 22. In all, the site received more than 1 million unique visitors, up from 366,000 in the week ended July 15. There’s little question that people who were visiting the site were there to learn about the tax rebate. Fifty-eight percent of the site’s visitors during that week visited the page within IRS.gov that addresses tax rebates and advance tax credit payments. Site visitors were also interested in learning about when tax credit payments will be made and how payments are calculated. IRS.gov proved quite sticky as well, with the typical visitor spending eight minutes on the site. The attention also made IRS.gov the fastest-growing site visited from work. Also some 865,000 people also visited IRS.gov from home that week, an increase of 162 percent over the previous week.
Fox threatens ISPs over movie piracy
Box-office hits such as "Planet of the Apes" and even yet-unreleased movies such as "American Pie 2" are being traded widely over the internet. New file-swapping technologies allow larger video files to be pirated almost as easily as music files. This has prompted Fox, the studio behind "Planet of the Apes," to make the unprecedented move of sending threatening letters to internet service providers. The letter asked ISPs to block downloads and online instructions for downloading movie files. ISPs say the letter indicates that Fox and other movie studios will begin asking them to terminate the accounts of movie pirates. Verizon, one of the ISPs in question, says that last month it received 180 requests from copyright holders to strike pirated material from its web servers or cut off user accounts. But the ISPs themselves may have little legal or technological authority to stop file-swapping, since file-swapping takes place between users’ computers and files aren’t stored on ISPs’ servers or computers. Fox says it expects that "Planet of the Apes" will be pirated widely, given that many online file-traders are known to have a taste for science fiction.
July 30, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
Send to a
Friend| Printer-Friendly Version
Cover Page | Contact
Us
