LAYOFFS.COM

February 2001
		If the recent happenings in the Internet news industry are any indication, now might not be the time to seek out that online reporting job of your dreams. What's behind the recent spate of online news layoffs? Three experts take your questions.

Forum introduction Will tech jobs be affected by the economic downturn? Will news sites' staffs build back up to their pre-layoff size? What should one do to become a Web journalist? Are there still Web jobs to be had? Is the building stage over at news sites?     Online Special Layoffs.com Online Special Media Watch Jan. 8, 2001 The New York Times lays off 17 percent of its Internet division. Dec. 21, 2000 Salon.com lays off 20 percent of its staff. Oct. 12, 2000 Layoffs at the Tribune Company Sept. 19, 2000 Pseudo.com goes under. Sept. 7, 2000 APBnews.com finds a buyer. July 17, 2000 A look at newsroom convergence. June 8, 2000 Several Internet news sites cut back on staffing. March 21, 2000: Tribune Co. buys Times-Mirror. Nov. 28, 1997: The Chicago Tribune launches its Web site. Browse the NewsHour's coverage of the media     AdAge.com Salon.com Wall Street Journal.com

Dennis Higgins of Los Angeles, California asks: Do you think the size of Internet news staffs will ever build back to the levels they were at prior to the downsizing? If so, how long would it take?   Neil Budde responds: The short answer is that it will be some time before the number of jobs in online news climbs back to previous levels. But it's interesting to look a bit more deeply at what's happening. Cuts at Internet news staffs fall into four categories: sites that closed down entirely because they ran out of money; independent sites that scaled back to reduce costs; sites associated with traditional media companies that have scaled back, and sites that have more closely integrated online and traditional news operations and eliminated overlapping positions. In the case of sites that disappeared, of course, they won't be hiring. Nor do I expect as many new news sites to emerge and create as many new jobs as occurred a few years ago, though some will still find a niche to serve. As they do, I'm sure they will grow much more cautiously than some of the operations that failed in the past year. For pure-play Internet sites that have scaled back to reduce costs, much will depend on whether or when they can achieve profitability. If they do survive -- and some certainly will -- at some point they will undoubtedly expand again. But that is probably well into the future. Among traditional media companies, some already have moved to align more closely the news operations responsible for their core product (print or broadcast) and their Internet news operations, often resulting in staff reductions. These companies are doing this in part to achieve greater efficiency by not having multiple people working on the same news story. This is not an easy change to make to get a single staff to produce news in real-time for multiple channels and still maintain the quality of each channel, but it is easier to do today than a few years ago as the Internet was just taking off. Systems make it easier, and the culture of newsrooms is changing. Still, it may be easier in some media (such as broadcast) than in other media. Another reason for more closely aligning news operations is because the nature of online journalism increasingly requires that thought be given from the earliest stages of developing a story to the other media and interactive aspects of the final news output in multiple formats. Once the traditional media companies digest such changes and achieve the desired efficiencies needed to make their Internet operations profitable, the future of their news operations will depend on how quickly online advertising rebounds -- and it will rebound -- and how quickly the technology evolves to support greater broadband access. The future of digital news, with its need for multimedia and interactive tools, will require continued evolution of news staffs and that will lead to more jobs over time.   Hoag Levins responds: It will be a long time before stand-alone Web site news operations are able to staff back up to the levels we saw before the Great Dot-Com Crash. But I believe established traditional media companies -- TV, newspapers, magazines -- will build staffs larger than those of past news Web sites. We will see this occur over the next three to five years as Internet use becomes ever more central to America's mass communications systems. We are beginning to see this trend already in large companies like Fox that are merging their traditional newsrooms and Web newsrooms into a single, coherent operation as their audience comes to expect that the Web sites of media giants will be as dynamic and compelling as their broadcast or print products.   David Talbot responds: Yes, in the long run the Internet will support -- and require -- well-staffed news operations. We obviously need to get through this period of consolidation and market gloom. No one can say for sure today whether that will take six months or several years, but I think it's more likely to be months than years.