Missed It: Massive Layoffs At Viz

PW reported Tuesday that Viz Media has laid off an unknown number of employees, perhaps up to 55 in its San Francisco office and all five believed to be working in a now-shuttered New York office. At the very least the editorial, design and public relations department felt the impact of this move, which may involve up to 40 percent of what was the company's overall workforce just this Monday.

The news has been spun by Viz as necessary adjustments in order to meet present financial realities and to most efficiently provide the infrastructure necessary to carry on with future plans. Here's their initial statement I believe in full, just to give you an idea of how they going forward with this.

Viz Media is in the process of refining its focus and is restructuring to adjust to changing industry and financial market realities.

As part of the restructuring the company had to refine its workforce by eliminating certain positions and making cuts in other areas.

We are of course saddened by these departures, and sincerely appreciate the hard work, passion and dedication of those that have moved on, but we feel confident that with these changes Viz Media will be more streamlined and able to withstand the climate of the economy at this time.

This restructuring was not insignificant; however, this was primarily an internal re-prioritization to build toward our future. We wish to apologize to our wonderful fans if this news has caused you concern. Be assured Viz Media remains committed in its obligations to you. We have no plans at this time for drastic measures such as product cancellations or business line closures. Your favorite series are not going away.

The only thing that comes to mind when I read this is Viz is aware just how invested their fans are, and just how much the worries and fears of the average fan can drive their behavior in the marketplace. The other is a kind of eye-rolling effect that just about any group of firings ever was an adjustment to "changing industry and financial market realities."

Without having any grasp of Viz's inner workings it's difficult to comment on if they were legitimately due this kind of restructuring; the wider perception of the number one publisher in terms of volume and arguably in terms of the number of excellent product lines has to be a troubling one. Viz fired about a third this many people in 2009. Yen Press' print magazine effort has recently scuttled back on-line. A couple of the other publishers have looked -- or look right now -- as either essentially MIA or kind of wobbly. Given that one of the appeals for a certain kind of manga fan was the huge success of it in the previous decade, and the perceived unstoppable future success that kind of comic would likely enjoy, I have to imagine a move like this is even more troubling in that realm than, say, the mid-1990s purges at Marvel were for that circle of folks. Maybe not, I don't know.

I agree with this person that no matter what they say right now it would be deeply shocking if there wasn't some effect on the product lines starting in 2011 or 2012. I think I agree with this person that this is a shrewd move that has at least a little bit to do with various big properties coming to an end or at least into their last act without obvious successors. I'm not sure things are settled enough in terms of how that market will develop here to suggest digital comics as a savior. They'll definitely play a role, though: if nothing else, a strong digital policy allows company to stabilize their print efforts.

Most of all, my initial thoughts are with all the employees left jobless in these tough times. If I or this site can help you in any small way, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
 
posted 9:00 am PST | Permalink
 

---

 
Daily Blog Archives
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
 
Full Archives