MSNBC CUTS ONLINE STAFF
December 4, 2001

An Online NewsHour Report Despite a spike in Internet news site visitors since the Sept. 11 attacks, MSNBC.com is laying off 9 percent of its workforce, or around 18 staff members.

Online Special Layoffs.com Online Special Media Watch     MSNBC.com	The Web site of the MSNBC cable television network, a partnership between NBC television and software giant Microsoft, employs around 200 people. The venture was launched in 1996. MSNBC.com spokeswoman Cherylynne Crowther said the cuts would come across the board. "We have done a staff reduction as part of some cost cuts across the company," she told Reuters. "Every area has been affected." The layoffs come as news sites struggle with a slumping advertising market and amid an internal push for MSNBC.com to cut its costs by 20 percent, Crowther said. Other news sites continue to feel the budgetary pinch as well. Magazine publisher Conde Nast laid off 22 percent of its CondeNet Internet arm -- losing 25 of the department's 114 employees. Also in early November, Walt Disney Group announced it was laying off 25 staff members from ABCNews.com, the Web site of the ABC television network's news department. That decision came shortly after massive cuts at ABC.com weeks before and January's full-staff layoff at the company's Internet portal, Go.com.

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