40 magazine jobs cut at Rogers Publishing

[This post has been updated] Masthead magazine is reporting that 40 jobs have been cut happening in the consumer and b2b magazines at Rogers, apparently as part of wider layoffs across all divisions.

Rogers Publishing Ltd. laid off about 40 staffers in its consumer and b-to-b publishing divisions this morning, a source close to the company tells Masthead. The figure represents about 4% of the Rogers Publishing workforce.

Suneel Khanna, senior director of communications for Rogers Consumer Publishing told Masthead the cuts related to the economic downturn and the particularly nasty effect it is having on magazine ad sales. “The drop in advertising spending has been even steeper than even we and other media had anticipated,” he said. An offer in January for staff to go on a voluntary four-day work week with a 20% pay cut was not implemented with specific metrics in mind, Khanna added, but only a “small number” of employees took the offer.

It was in December that Rogers cut about 100 jobs across all company divisions, including 40 in magazines and then in January offered the voluntary program.

After the last round of job cuts, [Rogers Publishing CEO] Brian Segal reportedly told employees there would be no more layoffs in 2009. “At that time we would have said we were right-sized for the current economy,” Khanna said. “I think we would say that again today. But that advertising drop-off has been much steeper than what we anticipated, so the situation we were dealing with at the end of last year is not the same as the situation we’re dealing with now.