Don’t expect big layoffs at MySpace parent company Fox Interactive Media any time soon. In an email to all staff on Friday, Fox Interactive chief Peter Levinsohn says that 2009 will be an “even rockier economic climate” and takes steps to reduce costs. Chief among the changes - the end of the free lunch program for all employees (the French would riot over such an outrage).
Levinsohn also says he has avoided a hiring freeze. But if you are a contractor or temporary employee, watch your back and steal those office supplies now. Shortly after returning from the holidays you may find yourself being walked out of the building.
The memo also details the successes of FIM companies over the year (MySpace, IGN, Rotten Tomatoes, Photobucket, Fox Sports, etc.).
The full memo is below:
With the end of the calendar year approaching, I want to take a moment to thank everyone for making 2008 a year full of milestones and accomplishments for all of FIM’s businesses. In spite of a challenging economic environment, the last twelve months have produced some great results, none of which would have been possible without your dedication and hard work.
Unfortunately, 2009 is shaping up to be an even rockier economic climate, and while I am convinced we hold an incredibly unique position in the marketplace and have great potential for success going forward, we will be making some hard and necessary decisions about how we run our business in this environment. I’ll outline a few of those decisions below, but first I want to share some of the past year’s accomplishments:
· MySpace launched MySpace Music — a groundbreaking joint venture with major and independent music labels — and the MySpace Open Platform, which included the launches of the MySpace Developer Platform, MySpaceID, and Post-To MySpace.
· MySpace also continued its aggressive international expansion strategy — launching in seven new countries — and is now fully localized in 30 territories.
· FIM Audience Network was formed and launched self-serve ads on MySpace, a program which now has more than 15,000 participating advertisers.
· IGN launched a groundbreaking video initiative that includes more than a dozen of the Web’s most cutting-edge content creators.
· FOXSports.com produced more video content than any other sports site — including live content for the World Series, the Super Bowl and the BCS Championship Game. Scout.com continued its full product and management integration into FOXSports.com, enabling the two sites to deliver an even better experience to college and high school sports fans.
· Photobucket built out a world-class advertising team and released over 10 major new products, including group albums, themes and its API to the developer community.
· The new Digital Publishing Group launched its Web Content Management and Digital Asset Platform for FOX Television Stations and a number of third-party television station groups.
· Rotten Tomatoes completely redesigned its site and this week announced a deal with Current TV to co-produce “The Rotten Tomatoes Show”.
· GameSpy powered the online functionality for a number of the year’s top videogames, including Grand Theft Auto IV; Direct2Drive began selling games from EA for the first time ever, and featured some of the hottest titles of year from publishers like Ubisoft, Bethesda and Rockstar.
· AskMen continues to be the Web’s leading men’s lifestyle site and attracted more than 13 million unique users in October – an all-time high – while bringing on board a number of first-time FIM advertisers such as Porsche, Gucci and Calvin Klein.
· FIM Mobile distributed free, ad-supported mobile Web versions of every FIM site and is now a leader in ad-supported mobile Web, with a cumulative audience of 15M unique users per month.
While we’ve had some incredible success this past year, it’s impossible for us to ignore the larger economic environment and the challenges that are facing businesses all over the world. As a result, we are taking proactive steps to align our businesses practices with the economic realities that we will face in 2009. Some of these steps will be painful in the short term, but they are necessary to put our company in the best possible position to succeed now, and more importantly to emerge even stronger once the markets recover.
FIM’s success is the product of our incredibly talented people, and the retention of that talent is always our number one priority. We have approached this process with this priority at the forefront of our thinking.
We have taken several initial steps. First, have we have reprioritized our hiring needs for the remainder of the fiscal year. By doing so, we avoided instituting a hiring freeze and will continue to invest in our most promising opportunities. We have also taken a detailed look at our use of contract and temporary workers, and will be scaling back our use of those services in favor of internal resources wherever possible. Second, we will be closely monitoring, and cutting back on travel and expense budgets for the remainder of the fiscal year — please discuss any travel plans with your manager. And finally, we have made the decision to discontinue all meal subsidy programs currently being offered at FIM locations, effective January 1, 2009. Right now, it is imperative that we all work together to create savings and to maximize value – and these are all vital steps to this end.
Despite the challenging economic environment in which we will be operating, I am incredibly confident in our position within the marketplace. We have made a conscious effort over the last several years to build our business from the ground up in a manner that delivers maximum value at minimal cost not only to FIM, but to our advertisers and business partners. As a result, we are now in a great position to respond to the needs of the market at a time when our services are not only valuable to our partners, they are critical.
Thank you for your continued hard work and I look forward to seeing you all in 2009 as we work together to execute our plans and engage the challenges that lie ahead.
Happy Holidays,
Peter Levinsohn
See all
Post
Rotten Tomatoes Show? Wonder how that would turn out.
Heck, if free lunches and a hiring freeze (vs layoffs) are the worst that happens to FIM, they’re doing alot better than 90% of the other companies out there…….
Impressive line of web properties.
That was my first thought, too.
The owner of a Chinese take-out place near their office is pumping his fist as we speak.
I understand he is hiring too.
its actually the owner of the two roach coaches parked out front
the chicken club is actually pretty good at the coach.
the roach coach is not bad when you’re hungry. the old asian lady is really nice, i’m glad they will be getting more business.
One of the more constructive things to do is for employees to get together and form self-help cooperatives. I remember in my first job a large number of folks having their own informal credit union. I am still not sure how that worked- but what one can do is pool money collectively and use it as an emergency fund to tap for those who are desperately in need. Best to do it among friends or inside a dept where you are close. Look at the bright side- maybe you can fund your lunches(or even a vending machine!)
This sounds like a really, really bad idea.
Dear Kung Pao Chicken. I would like to apply for the Chicken Chef vacancy. I have much local relevant experience.
@kung pao chicken, I ‘am the VC backing that Chinese take-out place. We laid out our strategy in September and closed the investment in October. We expect an IRR of %200.
“And finally, we have made the decision to discontinue all meal subsidy programs currently being offered at FIM locations”
What do they mean by subsidy?
Do they mean they were reimbursing for people that ate out?
Or are they sending the chef home?
Or are they having a 3rd party company come in and charge for meals?
Most software companies wouldn’t have it.
Why would you continue to work there when you can work at another software companies and continue to get free lunch every day.
I’m finally better off than MySpace people. There MySpace, I beat you. There Anderson, you dumb bastard. I still get free lunch!
“you can work at another software companies and continue to get free lunch every day.”
should read
“Why would you continue to work there when you can work at other software companies and continue to get free lunch every day.”
LOLZ. MySpace sucks now. It’s going downhill because as soon as the employees are unhappy and turn, they’re as good as gone.
Brad Greenspan needs to take advantage of this some how.
FIM employees got $50 per week loaded onto their company ID card, which could be used to buy meals in the staff cafeterias. That’s the subsidy that’s being discontinued.
“fully localized”…..? for tank tops and six pack abs.
what is FI’s long tail classifieds agenda?
does FI have a business and consumer channel to seriously compete with Goo, Yaa or CraLst for small business ad dollars?
Mike, your French-bashing jokes are really useless for your readers, even for French people having a large sense of humor
We really prefer to read some valuable content, like this one from Brian : http://www.techcrunch.com/2008.....sses-dead/
and for the record in France it is extremely unusual for employees to enjoy free lunches.
I’ve been reflecting on that infamous post of yours and I’m not surprised of the harsh reactions of leweb people. if you had been writing that kind of stuff when you started techcrunch, it would not have taken off. Your site is an excellent source of information so keep it up, be more assertive but less judgemental.
Now I know why Beatles’ song “All You Need Is Love” starts with the French national anthem — you guys obviously need more love.
As cultural and educated as French people are, some of you (not all) don’t seem to appreciate the fine art of humor/sarcasm.
A commenter below accuses Mike of making “racist comments against French people”. I am surprised to find out that French is a race? As opposed to what? German race? Polish race?
I come here for tech news, and I get entertainment as an extra. Can’t beat that!
Sorry Michael - what is that new trend of bashing the french in every article?
Yes we would riot over such an outrage and most probably also hang the offender with his testicles, but is really worth mentioning on a tech blog?
To any programmers leaving MS in the near future:
Need two programmers for a start-up that could revolutionize tv…Inquire within…
Yes yes yes,
I am not French and I find very ignorant and arrogant your comments about Europe and about France. It’s an open invitation for the Europeans to make fun about the American stereotypes like you that I will gladly ignore. Apart of the ignorance I think it’s unfair to make fun about how well someone has treated you (nice hotel, nice car, nice restaurant), it looks like you deserve the $20 motel and the $3 dollar burger or 74c tacobell you’re your guests in the USA refund you. I don’t think a guy like Joi would be as rude and arrogant as you are. Enjoy your kingdom of 2.0 while it lasts, I hope you pay from your own pocket everything next time that you are in Europe and you make jokes about how expensive it is.
Bye.
Hey, did anybody notice the elimination of MySpoace TV and rebranding under MySpace Video. I don’t know if its a big or small cosmetic change, but it would have been nice to been notified as it was launched with all the big launch hoopla.
Eat tuna out of a can for lunch and keep your job, I’ll take it!
I think you are ridiculous to continue on the french lunch thing again and again…
Maybe take some rest…
Your anti-French bashing is really tiresome Mike, what’s next you’re going to suggest Freedom Fries to your readers?
Such childish attitude…
“anti-french” bashing?
sigh…
“watch your back and steal those office supplies now.”
Classic :p :p
Could you stop your racist comments against the French people ? It’s not like we started two major economic crises in less than a century..
Excuse me, I would like to read about news from the tech world and a comment like this
“(the French would riot over such an outrage). ”
is really unnecessary and not worth a good blog post.
So does this mean they have written Flektor off as a loss now?
@Michael : “(the French would riot over such an outrage) ”
I think we all got that you don’t like the frenchies, it’s not necessary to come over this every day, isn’t it?
Where are all here to read about tech news and such things, not your private fight against the world or whatever.
The French rioting comment was hilarious. All who are upset: please get a sense of humor or go elsewhere!
Looks like the French are already rioting on this website.
Good Job..
and the MySpace Open Platform, which included the launches of the MySpace Developer Platform, MySpaceID, and Post-To MySpace.
And no one cares
FIM Audience Network was formed and launched self-serve ads on MySpace, a program which now has more than 15,000 participating advertisers.
This is 2 years too late
Photobucket built out a world-class advertising team and released over 10 major new products, including group albums, themes and its API to the developer community.
ring ring the cluephone says “who wants to advertise on a site that people upload lolcat photos”? Why do they need a *team* anyway? Just make it self serve.
The new Digital Publishing Group launched its Web Content Management and Digital Asset Platform for FOX Television Stations and a number of third-party television station groups.
Otherwise known as a web front end for AVID.
Rotten Tomatoes completely redesigned its site and this week announced a deal with Current TV to co-produce “The Rotten Tomatoes Show”.
Sounds like a winner. Not.