4 Minute Roundup: Media Company Layoffs; Omidyar Startup

Here's the latest 4MR audio report from MediaShift. In this week's edition, I look at the deep layoffs that are planned at AOL, the AP and BusinessWeek. In the case of AOL, the company plans to shed one-third of its workforce, or 2,500 staffers. eBay founder Pierre Omidyar announced plans to launch a news startup in Hawaii that will combine citizen journalism with professional reporting to cover local civic issues. I asked Just One Question to Bayosphere founder Dan Gillmor about Omidyar's venture.\n\nCheck it out:\n\n\n\n

4mrbareaudio112009.mp3

\n\nBackground music is \"What the World Needs\" by the \"The Ukelele Hipster Kings\":http://www.mevio.com/music/?artist_id=1930 via PodSafe Music Network. \n\nHere are some links to related sites and stories mentioned in the podcast:\n\n\"Google Makes AOL's Turnaround Task Even Harder\":http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20091113/google-makes-aols-turnaround-task-even-harder/ at AllThingsD\n\n\"AOL Slashing A Third Of Staff; Armstrong Will Forego '09 Bonus\":http://paidcontent.org/article/419-aol-looking-to-reduce-global-workforce-f-by-one-third-/ at PaidContent\n\n\"AOL shows worst not over for media job cuts\":http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssConsumerGoodsAndRetailNews/idUSN1919965920091120 at Reuters\n\n\"Layoffs begin at BusinessWeek\":http://weblogs.jomc.unc.edu/talkingbiznews/?p=11890 at Talking Biz News\n\n\"With Latest Layoffs, AP Hits Goal Of Reducing Payroll By 10 Percent\":http://paidcontent.org/article/419-ap-achieves-10-percent-payroll-reduction-with-90-layoffs/ at PaidContent\n\n\"Aloha\":http://blog.peernews.com/2009/11/18/aloha/ at Peer News blog\n\n\"Omidyar to the Rescue of Professional News?\":http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/blogspotting/archives/2009/11/omidyar_to_the.html at BusinessWeek\n\n\"eBay Founder Starting Online News Site\":http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/interviews/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=221900377 at InformationWeek\n\n\"Ebay Founder Omidyar Shuttering His Twitter Project Ginx, To Launch Online News Site\":http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/omidyar_local_news_project.php at ReadWriteWeb\n\n\"Why it Matters that Pierre Omidyar is Launching a News Startup\":http://www.pbs.org/idealab/2009/11/why-it-matters-that-pierre-omidyar-is-launching-a-news-startup322.html at MediaShift Idea Lab\n\nHere's the whole interview with Dan Gillmor:\n\n\n\nHere's a graphical view of last week's MediaShift survey results. The question was: \"What if Rupert Murdoch takes all News Corp. content out of Google?\"\n\n

\n\nAlso, be sure to vote in our poll about what will happen due to all the media company layoffs.\n\nMark Glaser is executive editor of MediaShift and \"Idea Lab\":http://www.pbs.org/idealab. He also writes the bi-weekly OPA Intelligence Report email newsletter for the \"Online Publishers Association\":http://www.online-publishers.org. He lives in San Francisco with his son Julian. You can follow him on Twitter \"@mediatwit\":http://www.twitter.com/mediatwit.\n