VNU reorgs after axing a huge chunk of it's work force

The now private VNU has undergone and is still going through some serious restructuring to look leaner and meaner. Their focus seems to be shifting more towards the research end too. So is there a major sale of the print products on the horizon? VNU, THE WORLD'S LARGEST MARKETING and media research company, Monday confirmed details of a massive reorganization reducing 10% of its global workforce, the sale of its trade publications in Europe and a management restructuring that effectively makes Nielsen Media Research CEO Susan Whiting the No. 2 person in the company. The moves, which come months after VNU was taken private by a group of private equity firms, and former GE honcho David Calhoun was named CEO, are part of a radical repositioning of VNU that puts the expansion of Nielsen's media research services at the heart of the organization. Maybe they will change the name to Neilsen at some point!

Hollywood Reporter 2.0: bodies dropping like flies

IT probably won't be a merry Christmas for 10 staffers at VNU's Hollywood Reporter. The 10 unlucky individuals were pink slipped under the watchful but far enough eyes of current publisher John Kilcullen who is about the 100th publisher in just 12 months. To not make the low level staffers who got cut feel bad, the mag also let go three senior editors as well, you know, to have some sense of balance. Kilcullen attempts to explain it all in a sentence: The restructuring was part of a wider mandate at the paper's immediate corporate parent, VNU Business Media. Hollywood Reporter lays off 10 staffers [Reuters]