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   Macworld Lays Off Staffers, Closes Print Edition

   Adam C. Engst

   My Twitter feed just exploded with the news that numerous long-time
   Macworld editors, including Dan Frakes, Roman Loyola, Philip Michaels,
   Dan Miller, and Dan Moren have been laid off. (There is no truth the
   rumor that Macworld parent IDG just had too many editors named 'Dan' on
   the books.) In addition, [1]Jason Snell has quit; he was a senior vice
   president and editorial director for IDG Consumer.

   [2]Image

   Specific details about what happened emerged quickly afterwards, with
   Macworld Editor Dan Miller confirming that the print edition of
   Macworld would be going away and the macworld.com Web site would
   continue with a reduced staff. Exactly who that will include remains to
   be seen, with Chris Breen being the only well-known Macworld
   contributor to say that he wasn't laid off. Dan Miller later said that
   macworld.com would continue to hire freelancers.

   [3]Image

   The timing was particularly grating, since a number of the Macworld
   staff had put in especially long hours the day before covering Apple's
   announcement of the iPhone 6, Apple Pay, and the Apple Watch. IDG
   should be ashamed.

   IDG has made no official statement, either about the layoffs or the
   closing of the print edition of Macworld, and the company's
   business-as-usual home page still displays the wonderfully awkward
   Twitter feed box showing tweets from the laid-off editors.

   [4][tn_IDG-home-page.jpg]

   We at TidBITS are tremendously sorry to hear about the layoffs. These
   people have been friends and colleagues for years, and although
   occasional turnover in the industry is inevitable, mass layoffs like
   this are deeply unsettling. Some of them have written for TidBITS and
   worked on Take Control in the past, and all have been mentioned in our
   pages. We hope to have the opportunity to work with them in the future.

   Also troubling is the demise of the print edition of Macworld. Since
   the launch of the Macintosh in 1984, Macworld has been a stalwart of
   the Mac community, a role that has continued through the 1997 merger
   with MacUser (see '[5]MacUser and Macworld Merge,' 11 August 1997) and
   the disappearance of MacWEEK ('[6]MacWEEK to Roll into MacCentral,' 5
   March 2001). The print magazine world is tough, but it's still
   surprising that Macworld would fold now, with Apple so dominant and
   Apple products used by so many millions around the world.

References

   1. http://snellworld.com/
   2. http://tidbits.com/resources/2014-09/Macworld-tweets.png
   3. http://tidbits.com/resources/2014-09/Macworld-print-closing.png
   4. http://tidbits.com/resources/2014-09/IDG-home-page.png
   5. http://tidbits.com/article/4091
   6. http://tidbits.com/article/6325

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