Greenspun Media Group lays off up to 10 percent of staff
A major local publisher of niche newspapers and magazines laid off as much as 10 percent of its staff this week, industry sources said Friday.
Greenspun Media Group, a sister company of the Las Vegas Sun newspaper, let more than 20 of its employees go, according to observers in the local communications sector.
Greenspun Media executives refused to comment on the staff reductions, but one local communications executive said the company was calling the staffing move a restructuring. Greenspun Media's profile on professional networking site LinkedIn.com says the company has between 201 and 500 employees.
Laid-off workers include the editor of H&D, a glossy home and design magazine published six times a year, and a reporter for the special sections division at the weekly In Business Las Vegas.
Also let go were a writer and art staffer for alternative newspaper Las Vegas Weekly, and a business development executive. Some of the released employees were veterans of Greenspun, with 10 years or more of experience at the company.
Other Greenspun publications include Las Vegas Magazine, Vegas2Go, VegasGolfer and Vegas, a monthly celebrity, style and gossip magazine.
Greenspun also prints and distributes the Home News, a weekly community newspaper with eight regional editions across the Las Vegas Valley.
It's not the first time this year Greenspun Media Group streamlined its operations.
The publisher announced in March that it would halt monthly distribution of Las Vegas Life, a glossy lifestyle magazine, and transform the title into a once-a-year "Best Of" effort.
They didn't announce layoffs at the time.
Michael Carr, Greenspun Media Group's president, said in a statement then that economic issues including falling housing prices and rising fuel costs forced a re-evaluation of the magazine's business strategies and operations.
Greenspun Media also owns Niche Media Holdings, which publishes luxury lifestyle magazines in high-end markets including Aspen, Colo.; Atlanta; Boston; Los Angeles; New York; Chicago; and Philadelphia. It prints in-house magazines for The Venetian, the Palazzo and Wynn Las Vegas.
The Greenspun family of Henderson owns the media group. Through umbrella company Greenspun Corp., the Greenspuns also own the Las Vegas Sun, Web sites Vegas.com and LasVegas.com, development business American Nevada Co. and KTUD-TV, Channel 14.
The Las Vegas Sun has a joint-operating agreement with the Review-Journal under which the Review-Journal handles both papers' advertising sales, printing, circulation and distribution.
The Sun was a stand-alone afternoon daily with a circulation of about 28,000 when a 2005 restructuring of the joint operating agreement transformed the Sun into a six- to 10-page insert inside the Review-Journal, a daily newspaper with a weekday circulation of about 165,000 and a Sunday distribution of roughly 240,000.
In December, Tribune Co. of Chicago named Brian Greenspun, chairman and chief executive of Greenspun Corp., to Tribune's board of directors after the Greenspun family made a "significant investment" in the company. Industry sources say the Greenspuns are also weighing investments in media outlets in the San Diego market.
Contact reporter Jennifer Robison at jrobison@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4512.
