AM I NEXT? NO LOVE AT QUIBI

Los Angeles, California-based Quibi, a short-form entertainment service for mobile devices headed by former Disney honcho Jeffrey Katzenberg and former HP CEO Meg Whitman, announced that it is shutting down all operations and attempting to sell the company's intellectual property.

It is unknown how many staffers face layoffs, but many were upset at the large up-front payments to name-talent while they were accepting pay cuts to preserve their jobs.

In spite of the legendary founders, almost $2 billion in venture capital, and a roster of A-list talent, the streaming service failed to attract a viable audience.

According to Whitman, "While we have enough capital to continue operating for a significant period of time, we made the difficult decision to wind down the business, return cash to our shareholders, and say goodbye to our talented colleagues with grace. We continue to believe that there is an attractive market for premium, short-form content. Over the coming months, we will be working hard to find buyers for these valuable assets who can leverage them to their full potential. All that is left now is to offer a profound apology for disappointing you and, ultimately, for letting you down.

Considering the amount of user-generated, high-quality content on Google's YouTube and the streaming products from Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon's Prime Video, it is a stunning failure of the company's business plan.

Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?

AM I NEXT? NO LOVE AT THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based, The Philadelphia Inquirer. a major print and email news operation serving the Philadelphia metropolitan area, has announced that it will be selling its printing facility located in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. The sale will impact 500 employees. The company will outsource its printing operations to the Gannett Company, the largest newspaper operation in the United States, located in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

The decision is purely an economic one as the company struggles to achieve long-term economic stability in a declining media market severely impacted by online media sources and the efforts of citizen journalists posting with real-time/on-location reports on social media platforms.

Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?

AM I NEXT? IS THE HANDWRITING ON THE WALL AT PENSKE MEDIA & MRC?

OCTOBER 2, 2020 — LAYOFFS BEGIN

Even before this item was posted, “Tough news Thursday as PMRC, the recently announced joint venture between Deadline parent company PMC and MRC, will lay off around 50 of the 250 employees who are coming over from Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, and Vibe..

Editorial is not expected to be among those laid off. As often happens in a joint venture like this, layoffs will fall in the area of brand support employees, where there are shared positions in the back offices of PMC and MRC. ”

Original post…

A classic case of uncertainty between competing media properties over change and the interests of corporate potentates.

Job-killing merger or employee-safe joint ventures is the question of the day surrounding an announcement issued jointly by New York, New York-based Penske Media Corporation, specializing in digital media, publishing, and information services, and Beverly Hills, California-based MRC, a publishing and independent film and production company.

According to the announcement, headlined "PENSKE MEDIA AND MRC FORM PUBLISHING AND CONTENT VENTURES," the newly-established enterprise named PMRC will manage entertainment publications such as Variety, Rolling Stone, The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, Vibe, and Music Business Worldwide. The second venture characterized as a "content partnership" will produce television, film, and other formats with access to intellectual property across the portfolio of brands.

”The first joint venture establishes PMRC which includes some of the most iconic brands in entertainment and music. These distinguished brands include PMC’s Variety, Rolling Stone, and Music Business Worldwide interests along with MRC’s The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, and Vibe. Together, these brands offer clients opportunities to reach an influential audience at scale through editorial, advertising, and other marketing solutions. PMRC’s day-to-day operations will be led by PMC, a digital media pioneer and platform innovator whose ever-growing constellation of iconic brands include Deadline, WWD, SHE Media, Sportico and Robb Report, among many others."

"The second joint venture includes a new content partnership that will activate the power of the production infrastructure and expertise of MRC across PMRC intellectual property (IP). Notably, the joint venture includes two significant global music brands at a time where interest in music-based content has exploded. MRC will be tasked with developing the collective brand IP across all of its content divisions including Television, Film, Live & Alternative, and Non-Fiction. The long-form content alliance will be managed by MRC."

"There are no leadership changes at PMC or MRC as a result of these ventures, and both PMC and MRC will continue to operate independently."

Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?