Penton Media Announces Hiring, Salary Freeze, Company-Wide Revenue Reforecasting

Penton Media has joined a growing number of magazine publishers who in recent weeks have made drastic moves in an attempt to reduce operating costs.

According to an internal memo obtained by FOLIO:, Penton CEO John French [right] has called for salary and hiring freezes, and has launched a company-wide revenue reforecast for the remainder of 2008.

“Over the last several weeks, I have been meeting with our senior managers to review their revenue projections for the remainder of the year,” French wrote in the memo. “Based on our forecasts, we project considerable revenue challenges for the balance of the year.”

In the memo, French indicated that he has requested product managers to submit restated revenue and expense forecasts for the rest of the year. He expects to complete the process by the end of the month.

French also called for a freeze on employee salaries and on hiring. The exceptions to the hiring hold are what French calls “key” hires, including those for Penton’s New Media and Buyers Guide groups, its helpdesk, and the potential hiring of a CFO.

The salary freeze will continue until the company sees “indications of bottom-line improvement,” French wrote in the memo.

“It’s not like we’re seeing everything across the board down in revenues—some areas are performing well,” a Penton spokesperson tells FOLIO:. “We’re facing the same challenges in revenues that many other companies are facing. We’re working hard to stay on top of things and to reduce costs.”

Last week, the Nielsen Company confirmed that it had laid of a number of staffers–including at Nielsen Business Media—as part of a company-wide restructuring plan that would cut about 4,000 employees from its workforce.

On Thursday, tech publisher Ziff Davis Enterprise also confirmed a restructuring that included several layoffs.

“I realize measures like the ones mentioned above are not popular and that many employees will be disappointed,” French wrote in the memo. “However, you should know that I do not take these decisions lightly. My objective is to proactively take the steps necessary to address our growing expenses in an effort to curtail the need to make more drastic moves in the future.”

COMMENTS: 8

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what about Red 7?

Submitted by from a different b-to-b mag. publishing co. on Mon, 04/14/2008 - 13:27.

Although the b-to-b publishing house I work for thankfully hasn't had to do what Nielsen, Penton, Ziff-Davis and others, I'm wondering that if Red 7 has to follow suit would you guys report it?

re: what about Red 7?

Submitted by Dylan Stableford on Mon, 04/14/2008 - 14:49.

Yes, we would.

it begins

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 04/15/2008 - 11:20.

Articles like this are giving my boss, the publisher of a much smaller b2b house, all the motivation he needs to tighten the reigns on our staff here. Great and timely news, but I'm afraid of the impact it will have on our small, highly profitable company.

Too bad

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 04/15/2008 - 12:42.

Penton Media was a once-great company to work for, and it's sad that it has come to this. They only have themselves to blame, however, for the poor executive management decisions executed by the top brass (former Penton-ites know who they are) in 1999-2000 by purchasing marginally profitable companies (The Peddie Group, Streaming Media) in order to build their portfolio, instead of building from with-in. The company stretched itself too far with debt, and they never recovered. Shame...

No better anywhere else

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 04/16/2008 - 07:26.

Everyone can sit comfortably in their living room, complain and criticize the "top brass." The recession has taken its toll on all print advertising. Things are not any better at other B2B publishing companies. In fact, some short-sighted and old-fashioned publishers are still depending entirely on print. They are taking on the same cost-cutting measures. We just don't get to hear or read about it on Folio.

You don't know what you're talking about

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 04/16/2008 - 07:50.

Obviously, you have no clue as to what you're talking about. I am a former Penton employee who, along with hundreds of others, suffered from the incompetence of the excecutive management that led the company in the years from 1997-2002. As I said in my original post, they wasted money purchasing from the outside instead of building from within, and the company incurred hundreds of millions of dollars of debt that they couldn't possibly pay back, especially in the economic downturn of 2000-2002. Unless you were there and experienced what we all went through, you should keep your opinions to yourself. These fools walked out with golden parachutes worth millions of dollars, and many of us were lucky to get a few weeks of severance pay--that was the thanks we got for all of the effort we gave to keep our products (mags, websites, trade shows, custom pubs, etc.) of the highest quality. Trust me, there's a lot more that I and many others can say about what really happened to Penton in the early part of this decade, but it's past history now. However, many of us did love working there when times were good, and even when times weren't so good, but greed and arrogance got in the way.

When does the other shoe drop?

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 04/16/2008 - 10:34.

You just know that "cost-cutting" measures at Penton will mean the loss of more jobs. It's not "if," but "when."

So why then...

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 04/17/2008 - 10:28.

...do I want to get back into this industry? Maybe I should become an accountant!