Nick Denton’s successful blog network is getting ready for harder times. 19 of the 133 employers is being laid off, while another 10 is hired to strengthen the successful sites like Gawker, Kotaku, Gizmodo and Lifehacker. He’s also temporarily suspending the pageview bonus system, which have already seen some slashing, for the first quarter next year, while hinting that it might be out of the loop longer in his memo. It’s not all bad news for Gawker Media bloggers, though, since the base pay amount will be raised for the ones not getting sacked.
Denton blames the recession.
But now the credit crisis is clearly going to affect every sector of the economy. Advertising buys typically plunge after the Christmas shopping season, and 2009 is obviously going to be exceptionally difficult. We have to prepare for the worst, now, rather than when the worst comes upon us.
This comes shortly after the news that b5media is revamping its pay model. There is no doubt that blog networks are facing rough times, as is every part of the publishing industry.
I’ll let Denton finish this post, with the same paragraph as he finished the memo. It’s a good one:
But there is no escaping the fact that we’re losing some excellent colleagues and the environment next year will be bleak. The one consolation is that there will be plenty of news for us to break — starting with this email, which you are free to leak.
