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Employment Layoffs, Slaughter in the Media Industry

The media industry was having problems enough, with the reductions in advertising revenue, the public’s unfavorable perceptions of the news outlets, and the general dilemmas as the major palyers move from the print age to the electronic era.  now comes the virtual bloodbath, the slaughter and subsequent disemboweling of the work force.  It’s crazy, really.  Worse because few seem to feel the sympathy they would feel for the same loss, say, in the auto industry.

Time, Inc is laying off 6% of its work force or 600 people.   Christian Science Monitor is closing down its paper edition and going online only.  Gannet will be cutting ten percent of its newspaper jobs, and McGraw Hill will be handing out pink slips to 270 employees. the Los Angeles Times announced it was laying off some 75 more staff members.   According to an article in the New York Times, the Time, Inc. layoffs will radically alter the company culture.

More layoffs are coming.   This means a lot of people are out on the street.   Some may make the transition to the total electronic age, and many will not.   They will not be needed.   As one who was once in the news industry, I know for most people this is a difficult transtiion to make.   That is, if you can even find any work.   Book publishing is all but dead, and there are enough freelance editors to fill a stadium.

Some will try to find public relations work, but that too is experiencing a downturn.  Advertising?  That has problems of its own, and news people frequently make neither good copywriters nor publicity flacks.  Some are probably going to blog for awhile as they come to terms with the fact their professions have gone the way of the Age of Steam.

As a business owner, it may be a good idea to recruit some of these media people.   The entertainment folk know how to hype a product, and the news folk can read, write, and spell, all the things much of the society has lamentably forgotten.   Of course you would need to conduct a rigorous preemployment screening program to ascertain if your candidates can make the transtion for their old jobs to your industry.   Chances are, your human resources person would not be the one qualified to determine this, but someone running your department.  Or even an outside consultant.

If you can’t hire someone full time, then it may pay to hire them freelance.   To get started in their new profession, these media people may offer you bargain prices that you wouldn’t get from your normal sources.  It’s an idea worth thinking about.

Check them out before you hire.

By Gordon Basichis

Gordon Basichis is the Co-Founder of Corra Group, specializing in pre-employment background checks and corporate research. He has been a marketing and media executive and has worked in the entertainment industry, the financial, health care and technology sectors. He is the author of the best selling Beautiful Bad Girl, The Vicki Morgan Story, a non-fiction novel that helped define exotic sexuality in the late twentieth century. He is the author of the Constant Travellers and has recently completed a new book, The Guys Who Spied for China, dealing with Chinese Espionage in the United States. He has been a journalist for several newspapers and is a screenwriter and producer.