U.S. Advertising Fell 2.6% Last Year

According to Bloomberg: “U.S. advertising spending dropped 2.6 percent last year as the worst recession since 1982 forced automakers, movie producers and drugmakers to slash marketing, researcher Nielsen Co. said. “

Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz Revamps Management

According to BusinessWeek: “New Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz just announced in a detail-free blog post the much-anticipated shakeup of Yahoo’s management ranks. Although she didn’t say what the reorganization would involve beyond making the setup simpler, some current executives clearly won’t be part of it. This morning, Yahoo said Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen will be leaving, only a day after he made a presentation at a tech conference.”

Yahoo structure changes in breif:

• Tech and Product groups will be combined
• There are now two regions – North America and International
• Mobile will continue to be a key priority for Yahoo
• A Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) role has been created
• A new group created: Customer Advocacy group
• A new team created: Service Engineering & Operations (SE&O) team
• Changes in HR led by David Windley, Legal led by Michael Callahan, Chief of stuff: Joel Jones, CFO position: vacant
• This structure is designed to last two to four years

Disney plans 5% job cuts at ABC group

Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) plans to lay off 200 people at its ABC division, a Disney executive familiar with the situation said, underscoring the media industry’s struggle with sliding ad sales.

The media giant intends to also freeze 200 vacant jobs, resulting in an overall 5-percent reduction of ABC’s workforce of about 6,500 to 7,000, said the Disney source, who declined to be identified because the company had not announced the cuts publicly.

Source: Reuters

Google cuts print ads service in bid to trim costs

According to MarketWatch: “Google Inc. said Tuesday it’s discontinuing its print advertisements program, a fledgling service that didn’t mesh with the Internet company’s new focus on austerity amid the economic downturn.”

“The closure of Google’s print ads service also follows news last week that the company was undertaking its first-ever round of layoffs, by dismissing roughly 100 members of its recruiting organization.”

Clear Channel expected to layoff 1,500

Clear Channel Communications Inc, which operates radio stations and outdoor advertising space, plans to lay off about 7 percent of its U.S. staff. The move will affect about 1,500 employees — mostly in ad sales — of the 20,000 work force in the United States.

Source: Reuters

Google Layoffs: 6000 Cut – Details Kept Off Web

WebGuild reports: Today, in documents obtain by the Associated Press, Google filed a paper document with the SEC stating that “a substantial number of temporary workers” had been laid off. The company has sought special exemption to keep the document from circulating on the Web.

The document states that Google has 24,400 employees, however on  September 30, 2008 the company reported  to the SEC that it had 20,123 employees when in reality it had 30,000. At that time Google did not report the 10,000 temporary employees to the SEC, because Google wanted the option to lay off employees on demand to meeting earning expectations without reporting to the SEC.

Now the company says 4,300 of the 24,400 employees are temporary. So why report temporary employees now and not then? Why get an exemption to keep the documents private?

Further the company reported 30,000 employees on November 24, 2008 and 24,400 on Dec 15, 2008. Where did 6,000 employees disappear to in 3 weeks?

Ad Industry predicts even bigger layoffs in 2009

The talk in industry circles is that the major agency holding companies – Interpublic, Omnicom and WPP – are planning deeper cuts to ring in the New Year, according to NYPost.

“WPP agencies are bracing for cuts across the board in January after CEO Martin Sorrell acquired UK research firm Taylor Nelson Sofres, sources said.”

“Interpublic is bracing for things to get even worse for the auto business. Interpublic is mulling layoffs in the event GM slashes its ad spending even further or reduces its stable of car brands. Interpublic agencies employ an estimated 900 people in Detroit with ties to the auto business.”

“Several ad execs estimated that the big agency holding companies have cut at least 1,000 jobs in 2008. Agencies usually try to keep layoffs under wraps to avoid appearing weak to clients, making it tough to get a total tally.”