December 23, 2008
The krizis has hit The Moscow Times — badly. The paper, already facing financial difficulty, hasn’t managed to get much (any?) advertising for next year and after trying a bunch of measures — from buying cheaper notebooks, slashing magazine subscriptions for staff and cutting office space — let go about a dozen people this week, including 4 reporters, two from its newsdesk and two from business. The arts section, Context, has also been cut drastically, whittled down to three pages on Thursdays. Remaining staff will take a pay cut of up to 20%. Several people who left over the course of the past few months haven’t been replaced. A sad state of affairs and one that, in the current context of financial crisis and media meltdown, seems almost unavoidable. But one wonders if they couldn’t do something about fixing their horrid website and maybe boosting advertising there. Thanks go to ever reliable tipster Bubba Bublikov.

The krizis has hit The Moscow Times — badly. The paper, already facing financial difficulty, hasn’t managed to get much (any?) advertising for next year and after trying a bunch of measures — from buying cheaper notebooks, slashing magazine subscriptions for staff and cutting office space — let go about a dozen people this week, including 4 reporters, two from its newsdesk and two from business. The arts section, Context, has also been cut drastically, whittled down to three pages on Thursdays. Remaining staff will take a pay cut of up to 20%. Several people who left over the course of the past few months haven’t been replaced. A sad state of affairs and one that, in the current context of financial crisis and media meltdown, seems almost unavoidable. But one wonders if they couldn’t do something about fixing their horrid website and maybe boosting advertising there.

Thanks go to ever reliable tipster Bubba Bublikov.

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