USA TODAY overhauls audience strategy, citing search pressure
The overhaul includes layoffs and a new audience team structure as AI platforms send fewer users back to publisher websites.
Topic: Layoff
Google offers buyouts to Search and Ads units
Google sent out an internal email offering a "voluntary exit program" to U.S. based employees, according to reports.
Snap revenue rises 5%, after change in ad strategy
Snap shifted its advertising strategy to focus on direct response ads last year, resulting in lower sales during the first half of 2023.
Google boss addresses concerns of AI replacing advertising staff post layoffs
Philipp Schindler, Google's senior vice president, explains AI is being utilized to deliver ROI at scale more efficiently.
Google Ads lays off hundreds of staff amid support crisis
Despite complaints that support is at an all-time low, Google is planning to lay off employees from its advertising sales team.
The list of features being removed from Google Assistant
Google said these changes are to "focus on quality and reliability" but Google has also fired hundreds of employees with these changes.
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Google Ads team facing major restructure amid automation boom
Google executive Sean Downey has revealed that the 30,000-person ad sales unit is set to undergo substantial changes.
Amazon layoffs hit its advertising unit
The layoffs are part of the previously announced job cuts that are expected to affect 9,000 employees.
Microsoft, LinkedIn ad spend fell FY23Q2
CEO mum about ChatGPT/Bing integration.
How Google’s turn to resellers coincides with its largest round of layoffs
The layoffs may be closely tied to another shift in strategy - the increasing reliance on resellers.
Alphabet to lay off 12,000 roles across various product areas, levels, functions, and regions
For the first time in the company's 25 year history, Google parent Alphabet has announced a mass layoff.
Are we officially saying goodbye to Twitter? It depends on who you ask
The saga continues over at Twitter. Will the platform be dead within a week, or will Musk turn it around?
Moz trims product line to focus on search, lays off 28% of staff
Moz, a company many SEOs have grown to love, announced they have made a strategic change to focus more on search, which means they are killing off Moz Content and Followerwonk.
Duane Forrester, Bing’s Long-Time Webmaster Outreach Manager, Loses Job In Microsoft Layoffs
Duane Forrester, the senior product manager in charge of webmaster outreach for Bing, has lost his job as part of the recently announced layoffs at Microsoft. The move leaves Bing without one of its longest-serving and recognizable faces to the SEO and publisher community. Forrester posted the news on his blog today, saying he’s not […]
Blekko Lays Off Eight, Raises $6 Million More
Earlier this week blekko, which just introduced a bold new UI, had a reduction in force. Eight people were let go “as part of an effort to reduce costs,” said CEO Rich Skrenta, who added, “blekko’s revenues are growing and these cost reductions will help us as we work toward profitability.” Skrenta told me by […]
Microsoft Makes Job Cuts; Advertising Hit But Details Sparse
Microsoft has undertaken what’s being called “a round of layoffs,” including eliminating the position of long-time digital marketing evangelist Mel Carson, who worked for Microsoft Advertising in the US and helped start adCenter in the UK. The software giant confirmed the layoffs but won’t say how many people or what departments were involved. A Microsoft […]
Yahoo’s Re-Organization: Search Stays Alive, At Least On Paper
Following last week’s layoffs of about 2,000 employees, new Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson announced today an overhaul of the company’s structure — and, despite concerns about the future of Yahoo search, it remains alive. At least in the memo that Thompson sent to Yahoo employees this morning. Yahoo’s new corporate structure will take effect on […]
Yahoo In A Fight For Its Life
According to Reuters on Tuesday next week the already embattled new Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson will lay out his vision for the company. The pressure will be on to deliver a coherent and convincing plan — emphasis on convincing. Following the announcement of 2,000 layoffs earlier this week Thompson sought to reassure Yahoo employees in […]
Yahoo Confirms 2,000 Employees Getting the Axe
After several days of rumors, first reported by AllThingsD, Yahoo confirmed this morning that it’s restructuring and laying off 2,000 employees: Today, the company will begin the process of informing employees about these changes. As part of that effort, approximately 2,000 people will be notified of job elimination or phased transition. Yahoo! expects to realize […]
Will Pending Layoffs Put Final Nail In Yahoo Search?
Whatever is left of Yahoo Search — and, frankly, that’s unclear at this point — might be gone completely within the next couple of weeks. At AllThingsD today, Kara Swisher is reporting that Yahoo is planning substantial layoffs as early as next week, with a company restructuring to be revealed the week after that. Swisher, […]
Yahoo Beats Expectations with Weak $1.5B Revenues, But Display Up 17 Percent
Yahoo reported Q4 2010 earnings this afternoon. Revenues were slightly up vs. the previous quarter but down compared to the same period a year ago. CEO Carol Bartz called them “encouraging.” Gross revenues were $1.53 billion, down 12 percent from 2009. Search revenues were down; though in a surprise bright spot for Yahoo display ad […]
Google To Hire 6,000 Plus, While Yahoo Cuts Additional 1%
Google announced they are hiring. Last year they hired about 4,500 new Googlers. This year they are expected to hire over 6,000 new employees, according to the Mercury News. Eric Schmidt, Google’s current CEO, said 1,000 will be hired in Europe. Google’s latest earnings report had Google’s headcount at 24,400 full-time employees as of December […]
Yahoo Laying Off About 600 Employees
This week’s rumors are true: Yahoo began laying off several hundred employees today. Reuters is reporting that most of the cuts affect about 600 employees, or 4% of Yahoo’s workforce. The layoffs, as expected, will come from Yahoo’s product division. This week’s rumor mill had suggested the layoffs would hit about 650 people, or 5% […]
Report: AOL Abandons Yahoo Merger As Yahoo Cuts Headcount
The would be AOL-Yahoo merger is apparently off, according to Crain’s New York Business. The site is reporting that “AOL tried to either get enough backing to make a run at Yahoo, or get Yahoo interested in buying it . . . Yahoo didn’t bite, and AOL didn’t have its ducks lined up to be […]
More Yahoo Layoffs Coming Soon
There are many rumors that Yahoo is going to be doing a mass layoff soon. TechCrunch believes there will be a 20% layoff across the board, although Yahoo denied it. Kara Swisher said it is more like 10% and only impacting the product group at Yahoo. The product group has about 6,500 people, so a […]
Yahoo Cuts Positions, Shifting Search Emphasis
Yahoo is laying off more people in its seemingly ever-shrinking search group. In addition to previous general Yahoo layoffs, many search executives and employees have left or are being moved to Microsoft as part of the Yahoo-Bing search integration. According to PaidContent and TechCrunch Yahoo is cutting an undisclosed number of search jobs. Yahoo provided […]
AOL To Cut Staff By One-Third
In a Security and Exchange document filed on Tuesday night, AOL plans on cutting about one-third of their staff, about 2,300 people. The filing said, “the Restructuring will include the reduction of approximately a third of the Company’s current employee base, which will be conducted on a voluntary and involuntary basis.” AOL became an independent […]
Yahoo “It Was You” Protest: French Engineers Go On Strike
Yahoo engineers in France went on strike and protested yesterday over Carol Bartz wanting to close down the R&D center in Grenoble and ultimately putting 78 engineers out of work. Some of these protestors created a web site named Yahoo It Was You on a Google owned Blogspot, as a way to mock Yahoo’s “Its […]
Microsoft Announces 3,000 New Layoffs
Today, Microsoft announced that it had delivered layoff notices to 3,000 employees across several divisions (1,200 in Washington state). This comes just months after an initial round of 1,400 who were let go when Microsft announced second quarter earnings. At that time, Microsoft said it planned to eliminate 5,000 jobs this year, and Microsoft’s CEO […]
Yahoo Q1 Revenues Down, Bartz Says “Search Critical To Yahoo’s Business”
As expected, Yahoo earnings were down, about 13 percent YoY. According to the earnings press release: Yahoo! Inc. today reported revenues of $1,580 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2009, a decrease of 13 percent from the first quarter of 2008. Excluding the impact of currency rate fluctuations, revenues for the first quarter of […]
MicroHoo Lite And Other Creative Speculation About Yahoo’s Immediate Future
Yahoo Q1 earnings are coming up next week. There were also some recent, not-so-secret conversations between new CEO Carol Bartz and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer about a search deal of some sort or a broader advertising partnership. And there’s a fairly credible rumor that more layoffs are coming at Yahoo, which are tied to a […]
Amongst Google Layoffs, Google Continues To Hire
Last week, Google laid off 200 sales and marketing employees but this does not mean Google is not hiring. Google layoffs don’t stop hiring efforts from Reuters reports Google has 360 job openings on their web site. A Google spokesperson has confirmed that Google is still hiring, amongst those layoffs. In fact, 30 or so […]
Google To Cut 200 Sales & Marketing Staffers
Google has just announced plans to cut almost 200 people from the sales and marketing teams around the world. According to the announcement, the affected employees will be given time to find new positions at Google and/or help in locating a job elsewhere. They’ll also give severance packages to those who leave the company. Says […]
Twitter Reveals Google Engineering Layoffs?
Search Engine Journal points to some Twitter postings from Mary Hodder that suggest Google is laying off qualified engineers as part of a mandate to reduce headcount across the board. Apparently this is being done “quietly” so as not to alert press. Guess not. It’s critical to stress that all this is just rumor but […]
Microsoft Announces Q2 Results, 5,000 Layoffs
Microsoft announced its fiscal second quarter results today, as well as 5,000 layoffs over the course of the next 18 months with 1,400 immediately. The rumors were true, though the numbers are less than anticipated. From the press release: As part of this plan, Microsoft will eliminate up to 5,000 jobs in R&D, marketing, sales, […]
Layoffs At Microsoft Widely Expected To Be Announced This Week
A year ago this would have seemed impossible: layoffs at Microsoft. Until relatively recently Redmond was saying that it would be able to weather the recession without significant disruption. However cost cutting is now the order of the day and no one appears immune. The layoff rumors first appeared in December and have steadily resurfaced. […]
Microsoft Job Cuts May Come Next Week
In Rare Move, Microsoft Is Exploring Job Cuts from the Wall Street Journal reports the rumored Microsoft job cuts may come as early as next week. It is uncertain if the job cuts will actually happen, the Wall Street Journal said Microsoft is looking for alternatives to cutting jobs. Those numbers are likely going to […]
Google Cuts 100 Recruiters; May Replace Up To 70 Engineers Due To Office Closures
The Google Blog wrote that Google may have to cut up to 70 engineering jobs. Google implied the cuts would be due to the engineers based in Austin, Texas; Trondheim, Norway; and Lulea, Sweden not being willing or able to relocate to Google’s Mountain view headquarters. Google explicitly made a point to say that their […]
Google Confirms Layoffs Of Contract Employees
The Associated Press reports that Google has released “a substantial number” of its contract and temporary employees, but the exact number isn’t known. The news isn’t a surprise; in October, Google co-founder Sergey Brin told the San Jose Mercury News that the company would reduce some of the 10,000 contractors on its payroll as a […]