Mediabistro.com Spokeswoman Discusses Media Layoffs
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Layoffs seem to be the order of the day for employees of both old and new media companies. Newly formed AOL Time Warner, CNN's parent company, by the way, has announced 2,000 layoffs. It's about 3 percent of its workforce. That follows several hundred layoffs right here at CNN News Group, making this one of the most difficult weeks we've ever had here. The dot.com world of Internet startups is perhaps the hardest hit sector of all, though. And for some insight into that continuing trend, we turn now to Laurel Touby. She's of Mediabistro.com, an online job-listing service in New York. And, Laurel, first of all, let me make sure I pronounced your name correctly. Is it Touby or Touby?</s>LAUREL TOUBY, MEDIABISTRO.COM: Touby.</s>HARRIS: Touby. Thank you very much. They didn't help me out on that one. Thank you very much. Hey, listen, what the heck is a media bistro in the first place?</s>TOUBY: Mediabistro.com is a site that actually helps people who have been laid off who need job opportunities to get back into the action. We are a Web site that specializes in media-related, content- related jobs. And believe it or not, there are still jobs out there, as dire as it may seem.</s>HARRIS: Well, you know, reading the pages of the newspaper it might be hard to believe that. You guys, you've been swamped lately, haven't you been?</s>TOUBY: Absolutely. Here's what's happened. A lot of -- the Web created a huge number of job opportunities for media people, for content people. It was the equivalent of thousands of newspapers, daily newspapers needing content, needing editorial direction, needing graphics. And what happened was when the contraction came, obviously these people are running back to the old media jobs that were the secure places for them prior to the big Internet rush.</s>HARRIS: And are there spots open for them there?</s>TOUBY: There are still spots open. Believe it or not, there was a huge oversupply of jobs at the time that all the people were going to the Web. And now there are still jobs left in the old media economy. And, in fact, there are new magazines coming out, there are new ideas constantly coming out and requiring these content people with new skills, new Internet skills.</s>HARRIS: Yes but, you know, just a few weeks ago everything looked so rosy and everybody was -- people were out hiring guys on the spot in bars. And now it's turned the exact opposite now.</s>TOUBY: That's true. It's not as a rosy as it was a few weeks ago, but I am convinced that this is a classic retrenchment, that we are going to have the good times again. Picture it as a forest floor that's been wiped out with fire and the trees, the strong will survive and the strong will germinate new trees, and soon we're going to have a forest again. And soon the Internet is going to come back. It's not going to come back in the same way. People aren't going to make the stupid mistakes they did and fund companies that have absolutely no hopes of making any money ever.</s>HARRIS: Yes.</s>TOUBY: But the good news is the infrastructure was developed. We believe in the new economy, we believe in technology, and we've seen the magic of some things that are working on the Web. For example, classifieds online are doing much better than they ever did offline. That's something that's going to stay. eBay, E*Trade, trading online, anything that helps you make money online is definitely going to stay and going to thrive. Our site is making money. It's one of the few.</s>HARRIS: Well, we sure do wish you luck in continuing to do that. In the meantime, to maintain your analysis there, we're just going to smell like smoke for a while while we're waiting for this forest fire to die down.</s>TOUBY: For a little while, but I really think -- to all of you dot.com people out there, there is hope. It is coming back and we're going to be stronger than ever.</s>HARRIS: All right, good deal. Who's knocking on wood? Laurel Touby, thanks for your help. Appreciate it.</s>TOUBY: Thank you.</s>HARRIS: Talk to you later.