New Media Pink Slips Cost Less Than Old Media Pink Slips
AOL said it will spend between $14 million and $18 million on “cash restructuring charges” — read as “severance and related costs” — on the Patch layoffs it announced today, which will range from approximately 350 to 500 people.
As Bloomberg’s Ed Lee notes, that indicates AOL is not spending a whole lot on severance for Patch employees, who have been running a network of 900 local news sites.
Or at least, it’s not spending a lot compared to the world’s largest publishing company.
When Time Inc. announced it was going to lay off some 500 people earlier this year, parent company Time Warner told investors that it was going to spend a lot more money on its payroll-reduction move: “Approximately $60 million.”