Nielsen Layoffs Confirmed With Corporate Doublespeak
The layoffs we heard about earlier today at Adweek have been confirmed by the company—sort of. An Adweek story and a statement to PRNewser confirm Nielsen Business Media's, ahem, "Reorganization," which will consolidate the staffs of Adweek, Brandweek, and Mediaweek, while leaving them all as separate brands. Layoffs are taking place, though the company doesn't go into details (we heard around 20, and UPDATE: Folio says 19 total—11 in the Adweek group and 8 from other publications). It's a sign that trade mags are no safer than their consumer-oriented peers in this awful economic climate. And it offers some truly classic examples of fact-free corporate jargon:
Today, Adweek Media Group announces a new content development strategy to gather, report and analyze news and information from an increasingly diverse and complex marketplace.
(Layoffs).
This integrated, yet industry audience-targeted approach to sharing content between brands is supported by the fact that only 1.5 percent of all of the print subscribers of Adweek, Brandweek and Mediaweek receive all three publications, which alleviates the potential for delivering repetitive content to subscribers.
(We don't need so many writers).
"As choices facing those who engage in the purchase process of marketing and media services become more complex and diverse, marketers are implementing a broader number of solutions in the marketplace," said Sabrina Crow Senior Vice President of the Marketing, Media and Visual Arts Group of Nielsen Business Media. "This new strategy strengthens our ability to report on more of those solutions and gather a more robust range of information relevant to our collective, but distinct audiences."
(Flack-concocted quote that stands in opposition to the very concept of clear communication). Feel free to email us any actual details.