Business Week Cuts Jobs, Some Operations

Business Week cut 39 jobs, suspended its small-business supplement and scaled back its conference and online businesses as it contends with a downturn in advertising spending, a spokesman said.

News of layoffs in the media industry has become an almost weekly certainty as media companies try to deal with the sharp downturn in advertising. Several publications have folded in recent months including George, Brill’s Content, Mademoiselle and the Industry Standard.

McGraw-Hill Inc.’s Business Week employs about 700 people, and the cuts were across the board, including editorial and sales, the company said. About 15 of the cuts came from its online publication, seven or eight people from the conferencing business and five or six from its small business supplement, the spokesman said.

This is the second round of cuts at Business Week, which has seen its ad pages decline, as have those of many of its other financial magazine peers.