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 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

Jim Chevigny of Seattle, Washington asks: I think the question of what’s prompting these layoffs has an easy answer: The Web sites are now built and generally only need maintenance. Liken it to building an office building: When it is built, the construction workers go to another site. Those staying are on the business side. Would you agree or do you think there’s still more building to be done?   Neil Budde responds: I think we still have much more building to do. For the past few years, the focus has largely been on delivering a product through a Web browser to a computer screen. Now, we face the need to address a wide range of devices from mobile phones to television screens. E-mail delivery of news is growing in popularity but demands better forms of personalizaion. Broadband is opening up new ways to tell stories and convey information. New and more efficient ways of searching and analyzing data are emerging. Advertisers are still seeking our help in trying to determine how to make online advertising most effective. In short, we are nowhere near the point at which we can say the final product that will satisfy customers [has been] built. Still, one thing has changed: we've lost some of the frenzied feeling that you were falling behind if you weren't doing every cutting edge thing that your competitors were doing. As such, we can address the needs of our customers in a more sensible manner and focus on the things that will matter the most to improving our offerings. It's not for a lack of work that Web sites are letting some employees go. In fact, the challenge today is how to get the amount of work that can and should be done completed with fewer people.   Hoag Levins responds: I don't quite agree. The situation I see is similar to that of a crazed rush of real estate speculators who lost touch with reality and built 10,000 half-million-dollar condominium units in a community that could only purchase 2,000 of them. In the end, this house of cards collapsed. In effect, Dot-Com builders and their financial analysts locked themselves in an echo chamber of their own hype. They failed to notice that the potential market for the advertising and e-commerce required to support their ventures had not yet fully developed. By 2000, thousands of high-priced Web operations ended up vying for a tiny pool of potential advertising clients. This will change in the near future as the level of household Internet access continues to climb. The full potential of the Internet -- as a publishing as well as an advertising venue -- will not be realized until broadband access becomes universal. At that point, there will be a great deal of new building to be done in cyberspace. And by then, there may even be enough advertisers available to pay for it.   David Talbot responds: Actually, one of the lessons of the Web is that no site can ever say, "We're done." It's the nature of this medium that sites can be built fast and changed fast, and it's one of the demands of the medium that you have to change fast to keep up with the evolving technological landscape and the changing demands of your users. So I don't really think that this is the explanation for layoffs and cutbacks in our industry; rather, we're coping with a case of a manic-depressive market, and unfortunately we're dealing with the "depressive" side right now.