When it comes to executing layoffs, Condé Nast is looking more and more like Time Inc.
On Monday, cuts hit Wired and Glamour, the latest Condé Nast titles to feel the brunt of McKinsey & Co.'s recommendation that the publisher cut roughly 25 percent from its budgets.
In the two weeks since “Black Monday,” when four titles were shuttered and some 180 staffers were let go, Condé Nast has made additional staff reductions at Brides, W, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Golf Digest, Golf World, as well as its digital and corporate sales groups – and now Glamour and Wired. (Folio: magazine has a helpful roundup of Condé Nast cuts that came before those on Monday.)
When Condé Nast first made the announcement that it would close Gourmet, Cookie, Modern and Elegant Bride, I asked if there were more titles on the chopping block. Condé Nast said no, but wouldn’t comment about additional layoffs.
This is reminiscent of Time Inc.’s torturously slow layoffs a year ago, when the mega-publisher took far too long to carry out a restructuring plan that included as many as 600 layoffs. Droplets of blood, when a flash flood (painful, but brief) would’ve been more efficient.
Publishers may think that spreading out the pink slips lessens the shock of a 25 percent cutback, but it actually feeds the paranoia, at least among the staffers who show up for work not knowing if this is the day.
Condé would be better served by doing it all at once, rather torturing those who remain.
They already had a “Black Monday.” No need for one every week.
